Search results for 'tag:Verbs tag:Predicates' matching tags 'Verbs' and 'Predicates'

Re: Appositive, direct object, indirect, predicate nominative, object of prepos

Anonymous — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:45:52 GMT

"Scurvy, a vitamin C deficiency, makes people weak and sore."

Scurvy is the subject, because it is the thing which "makes people weak and sore."
People is the direct object, because it is what scurvy is affecting, direct objects usually follow verbs.
Weak and sore are objective complements, because they modify the direct object, people.

"Scurvy was the leading cause of death among sailors in the early eighteen century."

Cause is the predicate nominative, because it stands for the subject, scurvy.
Sailors is the object of a preposition, because it follows the preposition among, and acts as the subject of the prepositional phrase.

"In 1753, James Lind, a Scottish naval surgeon, showed that citrus could cure scurvy."

Surgeon is an appositive for James Lind, because it describes him further, but is not essential to the sentence.

"When the British navy gave sailors fresh citrus juice, scurvy disappeared from their ships."

Navy is the subject, because it is the thing which gave.
Sailors is an indirect object, because they are the people to whom the juice was given.
Juice is the direct object, because it is the thing which was given.

"Today, scurvy is rare; it is usually seen only in very old or very young patients whose diets are deficient in vitamin C."

Vitamin C is an object of a preposition because it is the subject of the prepositional phrase, "in vitamin C."

When trying to diagram a sentence I think it becomes easier when you take out the unnecessary words. For example change "scurvy was the leading cause of death among sailors in the early eighteen century," to "scurvy was the cause of death among sailors in century." The latter is less senseful, but makes it easier to diagram the sentence's nouns. Of course that method wouldn't work as well when you're asked to diagram words other than nouns.
I hope this made some sense, and helped!
-Nathan

Re: Appositive, direct object, indirect, predicate nominative, object of prepos

Anonymous — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:09:28 GMT

modifying an adjective

Anonymous — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 04:19:56 GMT

Hi,

It is known to me that only adverb can modify an adjective but I have been modifying weather words/terms/adjectives?? like "sunny" with words like "sizzling" and "boiling". Do you call them an adverb like "very"?? I have used the word/adjective "bright" to modify "sunny". Is that wrong? I think we can use it in a pre-adjective position like this, "the bright, sunny weather" but it seems wrong to write "The weather is bright sunny" in a predicate position. Only an adverb can modify an adjective? I htink an article can modify it too.

copulae and personal pronouns

spotty — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 00:43:12 GMT

I've been searching around for a definitive answer to this problem, and I haven't found one yet.
I'm wondering what case is used for the subject and the predicate when pronouns are used.

for example, which is correct?

It is he / It is him
I am she / I am her
It's I / It's me

I was taught that in Latin, the "to be" verb is used as an "equal sign"- meaning that the nouns on both sides of the verb must match in case. So in English, would both pronouns take the nominative case? It seems to me that the first choice in each pair is correct, but definitely not used in everyday speech...

Re: Direct object and clauses

Avangi — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 03:31:48 GMT

Cute572
We both thought that this novel was one of the finest books we have ever read.
I read that direct object recives the action. Here book get the action "read" which make its a direct object. But preposition Of make me confuse. Whether its a object of preposition or not. Secondly is ONE is direct object here ?

I think of direct and indirect objects in connection with transitive verbs (action verbs - doing something to somebody). Your example uses a "verb of being," "to be" (something is something). The "that" clause has no direct or indirect object.
Novel was one. The subject of the clause is "Novel," and the verb is "was." There's no action, so there's no object. In the 40's we used to call "one" the "predicate nominative," but now I guess they call it the "verb compliment."

"Books" is object of the preposition, as you suspect, not object of the verb (where we would use direct/indirect). The prepositional phrase modifies "one."

"We have ever read" is a clause, modifying "books." I can understand why you think "books" might be object of the verb "read," and I'm not sure how to explain why it's not.

To back way up, if you're looking for a true action verb that functions as a true action verb, you'll find it in the main clause, We thought. It's intransitive, so it has a direct object but no indirect object. The direct object is the "that" clause. (What did we both think??)

Huevos
It gives me pleasure to introduce you to Paul. It = subject; "to introduce you to Paul" = direct object; (to) me = indirect object.

Cute572
Could you please explain why "to introduce you to Paul" is direct object and not object of preposition ? As its starts with preposition

"To" is not a preposition here. It's part of the infinitive form of the verb, "to introduce." "To introduce you to Paul" is an infinitive phrase acting as a noun, not a prepositional phrase.

Best wishes, - A.

Re: calories are/is

Grammar Geek — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:33:42 GMT

Maria is my friend.

Maria is the subject.

my friend is the predicate nominative.

My faith and my morning coffee are my salvation.

My faith and my morning coffee is the subject.

my salvation is the predicate nominative.

The verb agrees with the subject.

Five dollars is not a lot to pay for such a great show.

Five dollars - a quantity considered as a single entity - is the subject and takes the single verb.

(See the difference between that and "I had ten one-dollar bills on the table and now five dollars are missing!" That is referring to five one-dollar bills, as individual dollars, not the amount of $5.)

For more on the predicate nominative, see here: http://grammar.uoregon.edu/nouns/predicateN.html or here: http://www.dailygrammar.com/101to105.shtml

Re: what are the difference??

Ruslana — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 13:02:13 GMT

poci_wasiats
1) the new approach is providing information
2) the new approach is to provide information

They may mean the same thing. The difference would just be in the predicate.

1) The new approach is providing [the predicate is composed of the linking verb "to be" and the gerund "providing"] information.

2) The new approach is to provide [the predicate is composed of the linking verb "to be" and the infinitive "to provide"] information.

Here is another example of the same construction:

1) Her greatest pleasure is travelling. (It doesn't mean that we have a travelling pleasure but that travelling is her pleasure.)

2) Her greatest pleasure is to travel. (To travel is her pleasure.)

Re: comma necessary?

Avangi — Fri, 30 May 2008 00:31:02 GMT

To my ear, it reads better with the pause. "That and thus" sounds like a phrase, if you're not already familiar with the sentence.

The subject is "use," and there's a compound predicate with the two verbs "[does] rule" and "conflicts." They're widely separated, and the comma helps to show where the first action ends and the second action begins.

If a sentence seems awkward without a comma, I'd say try it a few times with pauses at different points, and see if it then makes better sense. If so, put the comma.

- A.

Re: help Misus

Grammar Geek — Wed, 28 May 2008 19:01:06 GMT

Misus,

As verbs, "to decide" and "to determine" are similar, but decided is used when you have a choice between alternatives, and deterimined sounds like a decision that is made after you have studied something.

As adjectives, "determined" and "resolute" are similar, and mean that the person had made up his mind to do something. You would usually say that the person was determined to so something, but use "resolute" as a simple predicate adjective (after you talk about whatever it was the person wanted to do).

He would lose ten pounds. He was resolute. She was determined to lose ten pounds.

English Grammer

Anonymous — Mon, 05 May 2008 21:38:08 GMT

I want brief explanations about following topics:

1- Narrations( Active Passive and Direct Indirect)

2- Clauses(Adjective,Noun,Adverb & Preposition clauses)

3- Predicate nominative.