Complement (grammar)

This article is part of the grammar course. You may choose to follow it in a structured way, or read each item separately. Word classes noun verb adjective adverb article preposition conjunction pronoun interjection Units of language syllable word phrase clause sentence Structure of a clause Subject Verb Complement Adverbial view template

(For the commonly confused homophones, see compliment - complement)

In grammar, a complement is that which completes a sentence. For some sentences, Subject + Verb is enough ("John runs"), for others, we instinctively feel that something more is required ("John built" -- we want to ask "what?"). There may be more than one Object, or Complement, in a Clause.

Traditionally, the only functions called Complements were the copular or adjectival Complement:

• The copular Complement follows the verb 'to be' (this verb is called the copula) or similar verbs like 'to become'. For example, in the sentence “She is Scottish”, ‘Scottish’ is the Complement of ‘is’; in the sentence “This is Hull”, ‘Hull’ is the complement of ‘is’; and ‘Thursday’ is the complement of ‘is’ in “Today is Thursday” .
• The adjectival Complement (.... WRITE ME)

Other functions may or may not be called Complements, depending on which grammarian you ask:

• The prepositional complement is the name given to the noun or noun phrase that follows a preposition, such as "in town", "at work", or "the pen of my aunt".

• The Direct Object (in traditional Grammar called just the Object) completes verbs by identifying what or whom they are 'done to' or performed on. Examples: "they built a house"; "Parliament passes laws"; "she made a mistake"; "I like him"; "she drives a Mercedes"; "we thought brown, but we chose blue"; etc. Verbs that require this are called transitive.

• The Indirect Object is the second object for the clauses that have two, such as "she gave him (1) a book (2)"; "the mother sang her baby (1) a lullaby (2)"; "tell me (1) a story (2)". These are different to Direct Objects: we don't 'sing a baby' in the same way that we 'sing a song'. All the Objects marked (1) in these examples can be replaced by a Preposition Phrase with to or for ("she gave a book to him"; "the mother sang a lullaby to her baby"; "tell a story to me").

Some verbs - Intransitive verbs - do not have Objects. These are verbs such as 'to go', 'to come' and most verbs of motion, as well as other verbs. They are verbs which talk of actions that the Subject does, but does not do to anyone or anything. Examples: "I'm going"; "she was talking"; "the dog barked"; etc.