Subject, Verb, Complement & Modifier

SUBJECT, VERB, COMPLEMENT AND MODIFIER

Subject

Definition: The subject of a sentence is the noun, pronoun or noun phrase that precedes and governs the main verb. The subject is the part of the sentence that performs an action or which is associated with the action.

Note: Every sentence in English must have a Subject

Example          :

1.    Coffee is delicious.

2.    Milk contains calcium.

The subject may be a noun phrase. A noun phrase is  a group of words ending with a noun. (it CANNOT begin with a preposition). In some sentences there is not a true subject. However it  and there can often act as pseudo-subjects and should be considered as subjects. To determine the subject of a sentence, first isolate the verb, and then make a question by placing “who?” or “what?” before it. Having identified the Subject, we can see that the remainder of the sentence tells us what the Subject does or did. We refer to this string as the “predicate” of the sentence.

For example:

1.    Who plays the piano?

“David” ( = Subject)

“plays the piano” ( = predicate) tells us what David does.

2.    Who interviewed all the witnesses?

“The police” (= Subject)

“interviewed all the witnesses” ( = predicate) tell us what the police did.

Subjects can either be “simple”, “compound” or “complex”

1.    Simple Subject

Composed of a single pronoun, noun or noun phrase. Complex Subject: A complex subject consists of a noun phrase and any words, phrases, or clauses that modify it.

For example:

·         The man who had followed us inside walked over to the telephone.

central noun: man

complex subject: the man who had followed us inside

·         The superior performance of La Traviata pleased the wealthy audience.

central noun: performance

 subject: the superior performance of La Traviata

2.      Compound Subject

A compound subject consists of two or more noun phrases (and their modifiers if any) joined together with a coordinating conjunction.

For example:

·         The man and the woman walked over to the telephone.

The compound subject here is the whole phrase, “the man and the woman.”

·         Neither the superior performance of La Traviata nor the excellent wine at intermission pleased the wealthy audience.

Again, the whole phrase, “neither the superior performance of La Traviata nor the excellent wine at intermission,” is the subject. The phrase answers the question, “What pleased the wealthy audience?”

VERBS

Definition: Verbs are a class of words used to show the performance of an action (do, throw, run), existence (be), possession (have), or state (know, love) of a subject. To put it simply a verb shows what something or someone does.

For example:

1.    Paul rides a bicycle.

2.    Here, the verb rides certainly denotes an action which Paul performs – the action of riding a bicycle.

3.    We buy some books to learn English verbs.

4.    In this example, the action word is “to buy”. It tells us that the subject “we”, that is the person who performs the action of the verb is “buying some books”.

The verb tense shows the time of the action or state. Aspect shows whether the action or state is completed or not. Voice is used to show relationships between the action and the people affected by it. Mood shows the attitude of the speaker about the verb, whether it is a declaration or an order. Verbs can be affected by person and number to show agreement with the subject.

Most statements in speech and writing have a main verb. These verbs are expressed in “tenses” which place everything in a point in time. Verbs are conjugated (inflected) to reflect how they are used. There are two general areas in which conjugation occurs; for person and for tense.

Conjugation for tense:

Conjugation for tense is carried out on all verbs. All conjugations start with the infinitive form of the verb. The infinitive is simply the to form of the verb For example, to begin.
The present participle form (the -ing form), is formed by adding ing to the bare infinitive. For example, to begin – beginning. There are two other forms that the verb can take, depending on the tense type and time, the simple past form and the past participle. The form of the verb or its tense can tell when events take place. For example, the verb kiss:

1.    Present Simple: kiss/kisses

2.    Past Simple: kissed

3.    Future Simple: will kiss

4.    Present Perfect: has/have kissed

5.    Past Perfect: had kissed

6.    Future Perfect: will have kissed

7.    Present Continuous (Progressive): is/am/are kissing

8.    Past Continuous (Progressive): was kissing

9.    Future Continuous (Progressive): will be kissing

10.Present Perfect Continuous (Progressive): has/have been kissing

11.Past Perfect Continuous (Progressive): had been kissing

12.Future Perfect Continuous (Progressive): will have been kissing

Conjugation for person :

Conjugation for person occurs when the verb changes form, depending on whether it is governed by a first, second, or third person subject. This gives three conjugations for any verb depending on who is acting as the subject of the verb. For example: we have I begin, you begin , and he begins. Note that only the third conjunction really shows a difference.

In English, we distinguish between regular and irregular verbs. Regular verbs are those ones which form their past simple and past participle just by adding “-ed” to the base of the verb. The rest are irregular.

For example:

1.    Dracula bites his victims on the neck.

2.    In early October, Giselle will plant twenty tulip bulbs.

3.    She travels to work by train.

4.    We walked five miles to a garage.

COMPLEMENT

Complement can often be confused with the Object. While the Subject and Object of a clause, in the vast majority of cases, refer to different entities, the Complement gives more information about either the Subject or the Object. As with the Subject and Object elements, there is only one grouping or phrase which is considered to be the Complement of a clause.

The Subject Complement

Let’s begin by looking at some pairs of sentences where this information centres on the Subject.

1.    Bill hit Harry.

2.    Bill is a policeman.

3.    The camel carried the load.

4.    The camel smells awful.

5.    A car hit the lamp post.

6.    A car was what she wanted for her birthday.

So, in the preceding examples the first sentence of each pair contains an Object – Harry, the load, the lamp post. These are clearly not the same entities as the Subjects of the sentences. However, the same cannot be said for the second sentence of each pair where there is a strong connection between the Subjects and the phrases a policeman, awful and what she wanted for her birthday. These phrases act to identify the Subject more precisely. These are known as Complements; more specifically they are subject complements because they define the Subjects of the clauses, in this case Bill, the camel and a car.

In most sentences where the Complement defines the Subject, you will find a particular type of verb being used. The most usual is the verb be and its forms (e.g. am, are, was, have been) followed by a noun phrase or an adjective phrase, often as a single word. In the instances above, a policeman is a noun phrase and awful is an adjective phrase. Other examples are:

Noun phrase as Subject Complement:

1.    He is the father of three.

2.    Time is the great healer.

3.    Those animals were very rare Siberian tigers.

4.    Adjective phrase as Subject Complement:

5.    The weather is hot.

6.    All the passengers were Russian.

7.    The little cottage was nice and cosy.

In all of these cases, the phrases after is, was and were define the Subject. You should notice that, although two of the Complements in the first set of examples contain adjectives (great, very rare Siberian), these are still treated as noun phrases because the main words in the groups are themselves nouns (healer, tigers).

Earlier I commented that a particular type of verb is often used in clauses with a subject Complement and that verb is usually be. However, there is a small number of other verbs either closely connected with be or to do with sensing that frequently occur in this type of clause. A short list with examples might include:

Be type: seem, appear, become, turn out, grow, remain

1.    The sky seems clearer today.

2.    He turned out to be a bad influence.

3.    His client became more and more angry.

4.    Sense type: look, sound, feel, taste, smell (all followed by like with a noun)

5.    Her voice sounds lovely.

6.    That sounds like heaven.

7.    The tea tastes foul.

There is still one type of subject Complement that we haven’t looked at yet – this is the subordinate clause. The example from the original sentences is:

·         A car was what she wanted for her birthday.

Here a car is the Subject, the Verb is was and the Complement defining the Subject is what she wanted for her birthday, which is a clause since it has its own Subject (she) and Verb (wanted). Other examples of clauses used as subject Complements are:

Justice is what we’re looking for.

1.    The first thing I did was open all the windows.

2.    The remaining problem is where to find the money.

§  The Object Complement

In all the instances in the previous section the Complement gave additional information about the Subject of the clause. Additional information can similarly be given about the Object. Look at the examples below:

1.    The accusation made me livid.

2.    The whole town wanted the outlaw dead.

3.    The board has made him manager.

Here, the phrases in bold are giving extra information about the Objects of the clauses which are him, me, the outlaw, him, it. The object Complement usually follows the Object of the clause as in all the examples above and the choice of verb is not so restricted as it is with the subject Complement clauses.

MODIFIER

Tells the time, place or manner of the action. Very often it’s a prepositional phrase. Prepotional phrase is a group of words that begins with a preposition and ends with a noun.
Note : A modifier of time usually comes last if more than one modifier is present.

Example of prepositional phrases :

In the morning, at university, on the table

A modifier can also be an adverb or an adverbial phrase :

Last night, hurriedly, next year, outdoors, yesterday

Example :

1.    John bought a book at the bookstore

(modifier place)

2.    Jill was swimming in the pool yesterday

(modifier of place)(modifier of time)

Note:
The modifier normally follows the complement, but not always. However, the modifier, especially when it’s a prepositional phrase, usually can’t separate the verb and the complement.

Exercises

1.      We both hate waiting.

A. subject complement

B. verb complement

C. object complement

2.      This is mine; That is yours.

A. subject complement

B. verb complement

C. object complement

3.      My friend lent me two hundred dollars.

A. subject complement

B. verb complement

C. object complement

4.      I call him daddy.

A. subject complement

B. verb complement

C. object complement

5.      The forcaster weather predicted that it would be windy this morning.

A. subject complement

B. verb complement

C. object complement

6.      He seems frustrated after the examination.

A. subject complement

B. verb complement

C. object complement

7.      Will you help me to get my card back?

A. subject complement

B. verb complement

C. object complement

8.      What I’m going to do is to apply for the position.

A. subject complement

B. verb complement

C. object complement

9.      My brother has decided to stop smoking and to start jogging.

A. subject complement

B. verb complement

C. object complement

10.   What can I do to make you Angry?

A. subject complement

B. verb complement

C. object complement

Answers

1. verb complement | Direct object berupa gerund.
2. subject complement | Yours (predicative noun) menerangkan this (subject) dengan dihubungkan oleh is (linking verb “be”).
3. verb complement | Two hundred dollars (indirect object) dan me (direct object) sama-sama merupakan verb complement.
4. object complement | Object complement berupa noun.
5. verb complement | Direct object berupa noun clause.
6. subject complement | Frustrated (predicative adjective) menerangkan he (subject) dengan dihubungkan oleh seem (linking verb “verb of sense”).
7. verb complement | Direct object berupa noun (phrase).
8. subject complement | Subject complement berupa infinitive phrase.
9. verb complement
10. object complement | Object complement menerangkan “you”.

Sumber:

https://www.wordsmile.com/soal-subject-verb-object-complement-pilihan-ganda-jawabannya Diakses pada 3 April 2019

http://www.englishlanguageguide.com/grammar/subject.asp Diakses pada 3 April 2019

http://www.englishlanguageguide.com/grammar/verbs.asp Diakses pada 3 April 2019

https://www.tesol-direct.com/tesol-resources/english-grammar-guide/complements/ Diakses pada 3 April 2019