Question
Actualizado en
13 jun 2021
- Chino simplificado
-
Inglés (UK)
-
Inglés (US)
-
Japonés
Pregunta de Inglés (UK)
¿Cómo dices esto en Inglés (UK)? What's your definition of "object complement"?
¿Cómo dices esto en Inglés (UK)? What's your definition of "object complement"?
I wonder how native English speaker define it😌
Respuestas
14 jun 2021
Respuesta destacada
- Inglés (UK)
I think of it as the thing that comes after an object in a ditransitive sentence
OBJECT COMPLEMENT:
I gave him THE APPLE
She threw me A PEN
He poured her SOME WATER
or the thing that happens to the object as a result of the verb
I coloured in the dinosaur PINK
He made me BLUSH
Though intuitively I struggle with object complements, because my brain always thinks of them as part of the verb, not something that belongs to the object.
I sort of rationalised it this way:
Complements are always something that the sentence needs to be complete.
Ditransitive verbs take two objects.
SUBJECT + DITRANSITIVE VERB + OBJECT ONE + OBJECT TWO
I gave him the apple.
or
SUBJECT + DITRANSITIVE VERB + OBJECT TWO + PREPOSITION + OBJECT ONE
I gave the apple to him
You can't just say 'I gave him'. You gave him WHAT??? Unless he really is the thing you are giving (I gave him to my neighbour) (also why???)
But you can kind of say 'I gave the apple'
So it is the meaning of the object as well as the verb that tells you you need a second object.
So the object complement kind of belongs to the object it complements because the sentence wouldn't make sense without it.
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- Inglés (UK)
I think of it as the thing that comes after an object in a ditransitive sentence
OBJECT COMPLEMENT:
I gave him THE APPLE
She threw me A PEN
He poured her SOME WATER
or the thing that happens to the object as a result of the verb
I coloured in the dinosaur PINK
He made me BLUSH
Though intuitively I struggle with object complements, because my brain always thinks of them as part of the verb, not something that belongs to the object.
I sort of rationalised it this way:
Complements are always something that the sentence needs to be complete.
Ditransitive verbs take two objects.
SUBJECT + DITRANSITIVE VERB + OBJECT ONE + OBJECT TWO
I gave him the apple.
or
SUBJECT + DITRANSITIVE VERB + OBJECT TWO + PREPOSITION + OBJECT ONE
I gave the apple to him
You can't just say 'I gave him'. You gave him WHAT??? Unless he really is the thing you are giving (I gave him to my neighbour) (also why???)
But you can kind of say 'I gave the apple'
So it is the meaning of the object as well as the verb that tells you you need a second object.
So the object complement kind of belongs to the object it complements because the sentence wouldn't make sense without it.
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- Chino simplificado
@lucyhollings It is very easy to understand!!!Thank you so much!!🥰🥰🥰
- Inglés (UK)
Thanks, I'm so glad, they don't make much sense to me either!
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