Grammar: Some Verb Classes

A sentence consists of a noun phrase and a verb phrase. The verb phrase is built around a verb. There are different kinds of verbs. Some take only a subject. They are intransitive verbs.

Look at these examples from the text in this unit

(1a) The grass withers.

(1b) The chameleon creeps from a brown rock on to a green leaf.

Notice that an intransitive verb can be followed by prepositional phrases that have an adverbial function, as in (1b). Such phrases that follow an intransitive verb are called its complements.

A kind of intransitive verb that links its subject to a complement is called a ‘linking verb’ or a copula. The most common copulas in English are, become and seem.

The copula be occurred very often in the text in this unit. Its complement may be a noun phrase or an adjective phrase.

Here are a few examples

• My hand is alive. (be+adjective)

• The novel is supremely important. (be+adjective phrase)

• You’re a novelist. (be+noun phrase)

• The novel is the book of life. (be+noun phrase)

Other examples of copulas from the text are given below

• It seems important.

• The Word becomes more and more boring.

Can you say what the category of the complement is, in the examples above?