Sentence Pattern (intransitive verbs, subject compliment)

Michael was an Olympic Gold medalist. "Michael" is the subject, "was" is a linking verb and "Olympic gold medalist" is a subject complement that describes the subject "Michael."

• true

• false

“Mrs. Balensiefen is my teacher,” the noun phrase "my teacher" tells us what Mrs. Balensiefen is, just as in the reverse, “My teacher is Mrs. Balensiefen,” the noun (a name) tells us who is the teacher of the subject position.

• true

• false

A linking verb is typically a verb “of the _____,” according to Kolln: taste, smell, feel, sound, and look. Other common linking verbs include become, remain, seem, appear, and prove. Kolln prefers to distinguish these “other” linking verbs from be verbs, since be verbs do not have the restriction of connecting the subject to a subject complement (remember, be verbs can be followed by an adverbial instead of a subject complement). The linking verbs discussed here always tie the subject to its adjective or noun phrase complement.

• sciences

• senses

• subject

• support

Remember that a subject complement is the noun phrase or adjective that follows a linking verb, renaming or describing the subject. "The lake appears calm." The adjective "calm" describes a quality the lake “appears” to have. "Calm" is therefore the _______ in the sentence.

• linking verb

• subject

• subject complement

The camera battery died.

Audiences laugh.

"Died" and "laugh" are called intransitive verb. An intransitive verb is an action verb that requires no complement. Note that the action verbs in the examples, died and laugh can stand alone. They could certainly be accompanied by modifiers, too. For instance, the battery could have died suddenly or audiences could laugh at the joke. The adverb suddenly and the prepositional phrase at the joke both function as adverbials modifying the verbs they follow. Choose the sentence that follows the same pattern as subject - intransive verb (S-IV).

• She dances gracefully

• He bakes cookies.

• My mother gave Kara the money.