160 Verb Phrases
This identity of subject and predicate nominative is the key to recognizing a linking verb when
the complement is a noun phrase. Here are some more examples:
Sally became a professional tennis player.
Sally ϭ a professional tennis player.
Cinderella’s coach turned into a pumpkin.
Cinderella’s coach ϭ a pumpkin
I felt like a complete idiot.
I ϭ complete idiot.
In an action verb sentence, of course, the subject and the object do not refer to the same per-
son or thing. For example:
Sally met a professional tennis player.
Sally  a professional tennis player
Cinderella's coach impressed her sisters.
Cinderella’s coach  her sisters.
I talked to a complete idiot.
I  a complete idiot.
Exercise 10.5
Label the italicized verbs as Act for action verb or Link for linking verbs. Confi rm your answer by
using equal (ϭ) and unequal signs () to indicate whether the subject and the complement refer
to each other.
Link
The keys looked like the ones I lost yesterday.
The keys ϭ the ones I lost yesterday.
1. The keys unlock the storage cabinet.

2. The plan seemed a good idea at the time.

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Simple Verb Complements 161
3. The board approved the plan.

The soup is cold.
John got very angry.
The weather turned dark and stormy.
Terry’s chili is too spicy for me.
Stay warm!
Let’s get ready.
Exercise 10.6
Label the italicized verbs as Act for action verb or Link for linking verbs. Underline the comple-
ments of the linking verbs and label them Pred Adj (for predicate adjective) or Pred Nom (for
predicate nominative) as appropriate.
Pred
Link Adj
Our cat goes crazy during thunderstorms.
1. On hearing the bad news, Agnes turned deathly pale.
2. The note sounded fl at to me.
3. George seemed terribly upset about something.
4. The situation could easily turn ugly.
5. You look ready to go.
6. Everyone noticed his strange behavior at the party last night.
7. After his long illness, Jason looked like a ghost of his former self.
8. Over the years they have grown closer to each other.
9. The day was getting terribly warm.
10. Please remain calm.
11. The wine has gone bad.
12. I felt much better after seeing the doctor.
13. They looked ready to go.
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Simple Verb Complements 163
14. Our simple plan has turned into a huge project.
15. All the indicators appeared positive.

usually paraphrase the sentence by changing the progressive construction to a simple present
tense or past tense, for example:
His story was amusing the guests. ⇒ His story amused the guests.
When we try to turn a predicate adjective into a main verb, the result will always produce an
ungrammatical sentence. For example:
His story was amusing. ⇒ X His story amused. (who?)
Amused is a transitive verb that must have an object.
Here is another pair of examples:
(1) The report was discouraging.
(2) The report was discouraging everyone.
In (1), we can tell that discouraging is a predicate adjective because we can modify it with very:
The report was very discouraging.
When we try the very test with (2), the result is ungrammatical:
X The report was very discouraging everyone.
In (2), we can tell that discouraging is part of a progressive verb construction because we can
paraphrase the verb construction with a past tense:
The report was discouraging everyone. ⇒ The report discouraged everyone.
Exercise 10.7
Apply the very and paraphrase tests to each sentence in the following pairs of sentences.
The repeated failures were upsetting.
The repeated failures were upsetting everyone.
Very test: The repeated failures were very upsetting.
Paraphrase: X The repeated failures upset. (who?)
Very test: X The repeated failures were very upsetting everyone.
Paraphrase: The repeated failures upset everyone.
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Simple Verb Complements 165
1. The movie was frightening.
The movie was frightening the children.
Very test:

are some examples of both kinds of adverbs:
Adverb of place complement
The picnic is at the beach.
Our apartment was on 53rd Street.
We were there.
Adverb of time complement
The meeting is at ten.
The game is Saturday afternoon.
That was then; this is now.
One of the differences between adverbs of place and time as complements of linking verbs
and ordinary optional adverbs is that we can never delete complements. Complements, by defi -
nition, are grammatical structures required by a verb to make a complete sentence. If we delete
adverbs that are complements, the resulting sentence will be an ungrammatical fragment.
Optional adverb modifi ers, on the other hand, can always be deleted without affecting the gram-
maticality of the sentence. Compare the result when we delete the adverbs from the following
sentences:
Complement: The meeting is on the third fl oor.
Optional adverb modifi er: I attended the meeting on the third fl oor.
When we try to delete the adverbs from the two different sentences, the deletion of the comple-
ment results in an ungrammatical sentence, while the deletion of the optional adverb from the
action verb sentence has no effect on the grammaticality of the sentence:
Complement: X The meeting is on the third fl oor
.
Optional: I attended the meeting on the third fl oor
.
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