Understanding clauses

You might be more familiar with the term 'object' (as in Subject-Verb-Object sentence structure) for noun group complements like the ones in the last snippet.

The terms 'object' and 'complement' are largely interchangeable, so if you already understand a bit about objects, you can apply that to this lesson.

We use the term 'complement' because it is more readily applied to elements that aren't noun groups (including prepositional phrases, adverb groups, and adjective groups).

Verbs such as 'to unwrap', 'to find', or 'to cover' that require an object are called 'transitive verbs' because the action transitions to the thing it is being done to:

• "Corinne unwrapped her father's bandage."
• "Corinne found a soft red scab."
• "A soft red scab covered the wound."

Verbs like 'to scowl' or 'to sigh' that don't have an object are called 'intransitive verbs'. They aren't 'done to' anything. They're just done:

• "Mr Cartright sighed."
• "Sajid scowled."

We usually see adverb groups and prepositional phrases playing the role of modifiers, so it can be tricky to recognise when they are complements.

This is why it's useful to analyse clause components in terms of the real world categories ('thing', 'place', etc.) they represent rather than grammatical categories.

When we know a verb like 'to put' requires a 'place', we can look for the word group that is playing that role, whether that's an adverb group, a prepositional phrase, or something else.

In the Verb Groups lesson we talked about the passive voice. We can use the concept of subjects, complements, and modifiers to help understand what is happening in passive voice.

For example, compare the subjects and complements in these two almost-identical snippets:

The original (active voice)

Corinne unwrapped her father's bandage.

The rewrite (passive voice)

Her father's bandage was unwrapped by Corinne.

Using the passive voice does two things:

• The complement moves into the subject slot—meaning the person or thing the action was happening to now becomes the focus of the sentence.
• The original subject becomes a modifier—meaning we could remove it from the sentence and thus hide the person doing the action if we want to.

The passive voice only works when a verb has a complement. Try turning "He ran" into a passive sentence. "Was run"? It doesn't make sense on its own.

There are a few tricks to passive voice when it comes to complements that aren't noun groups, but the ins and outs of it will not be gone into here. *wink*