CHAPTER XIII.

SENTENCE-BUILDING.

A. INCOMPLETE VERBS AND THEIR COMPLEMENTS.

EXERCISE 175.

1. (a) What must the subject of a sentence contain? (b) What must the predicate contain? (c) Define a verb. (d) A verb-phrase. (e) How may verbs be modified?

2. In six of these sentences the meaning is complete. Which are they? Read the remaining six, supplying with each verb what is needed to complete the meaning.

1. The wind changed |5. We must hurry
2. The air is

3. My friend called
4. The skating will be

6. The ice was

7. The snow melted
8. Our fun stopped

9. We were

10. The night has been 11. The gale increased 12. Such storms are

3. Which of the verbs would you call incomplete? Give your reason.

200. An Incomplete Verb is one that requires the addition of another word, called the complement, to give the sentence meaning.

EXERCISE 176.

Point out the verb, and show what completes the meaning.

1. Game was scarce.
2. Our powder was wet.
3. We were hungry.
4. The pond was frozen.

5. Our hotel was distant.
6. Our lunch-boxes were empty.
7. Matters might have been worse.
8. We were not disheartened.

I. COPULATIVe Verbs.

201. In each of these sentences,

I am cold.

He was asleep.

They were ill.

She is happy.

You are generous.
He slept.

They suffered.

He smiles.

what is the complete predicate? In those of three words, does the verb or the adjective tell us more about the person mentioned? In those of two words, what describes the person mentioned?

Each of the verbs slept, suffered, smiles, is enough to give us some information; but the verbs

am, was, were, is, are,

only begin to tell us something that is expressed mostly by the adjectives. Of course there is no assertion without the verb; but in He was asleep, the adjective, being the word that describes what the subject names, is so important, that the verb seems incomplete without it. The two words together - was asleep are very much like the single verb in He slept, for that means about the same thing.

EXERCISE 177.

1. (a) Select the verbs, and tell which of them are modified by adverbs or prepositional phrases. (b) Which are incomplete, and what complements are added to them to describe what the subject names?

1. Some grapes are sweet.
2. They grow in the south.
3. The wind will be cold.
4. Celluloid is inflammable.
5. His remarks were instructive.
6. Not all birds are migratory.

8. Delays are often dangerous.
9. The crocus blooms in the
spring.

10. The early laws were severe.
11. My requests for dismissal have
been useless.

7. The wind sighs plaintively 12. The polar regions are unin

around her grave.

habitable.

a wavy line. Thus :

Some grapes are sweet.

sentences,

eems doubtful.

The clouds look stormy.

lete verbs that by themselves have a little han the ones we have been studying, such e, was, were, will be, have been, etc. ese verbs serve principally to connect or ject with something that describes what o they are all called Copulative verbs.

many of them, but they are very frequently used.

entences,

were soldiers.

is the capital.

Boys may be heroes.

Our guide will be an Indian.

rd is added to the verb to describe what the subject wo words in each sentence name the same person or

at a noun, as well as an adjective, may be verb as a sort of second name, to describe ect stands for, or to explain what is meant.

un used as complement with a copulative a predicate noun. [See § 159.]

EXERCISE 178.

and comple

In the second sentence "was" is the copulative verb, having the noun "trouble" for its subject, and the noun "poverty" for its complement.

2. Copy those of the preceding sentences that have nouns as complements. Underline subject and verb as heretofore, and under the noun complement place a wavy line over a straight line. Thus :

Yonder vessel is a schooner.

205. A Copulative verb is one that has a complement that describes what the subject names.

The word "copulative" means coupling or connecting.

EXERCISE 179.

Write sentences having the following words as complements of copulative verbs. Use the marking as in preceding exercises.

1. Try to complete the sentences that seem unfinished, and ex

1. It is raining 2. Who opened

3. We can look for eggs

4. Come to the barn

5. I will bring

6. We shall easily find

7. The nests are in the hay

8. Yesterday I had a fall
9. Somebody fired

10. I was frightened

11. Of course I broke

12. The fall almost killed

2. Do any of them lack the verb? What kind of word is needed?

EXERCISE 181.

1. Give the complete predicate of each of these sentences :

1. The bright sun rises.

2. The March winds blow.

3. A robin sings on the bough.

4. The lilacs blossom.

5. The weather was mild.

6. The skies are clear.

7. The trees shed their leaves.

8. Farmers sell butter.

9. Hail destroys the crops.

10. The archer bends the bow. 11. The ground looks white. 12. Our summer is over.

2. (a) Which of these verbs assert that what the subject names does something, or performs some action? (b) Which represents the actor as doing something to a person or to anything else? (c) What action is asserted of the winds? (d) What word in the ninth sentence tells what the hail does? (e) What does the hail act upon? (ƒ) Who performs the action of bending? (h) What object receives the action? (i) What is the object of "shed"? (j) Of "sell"?

EXERCISE 182.

Give the object of these verbs; that is, tell the word that shows what receives the action:

1. I have sold my yacht.

2. He has bought a farm.

3. Who wrote the prescription?

4. The Pilgrims left their native land.

5. They founded a new nation.
6. The engine has broken a rail.
7. Who will take the tickets?
8. We cannot speak French.
9. Ask the meaning of the word.

206. In nearly all the sentences in Ex. 181, the verb