direct-objects

Does a transitive verb always require a direct object?

by

If a verb is only listed in the dictionary as a transitive verb, can it be correctly used without a direct object, i.e. as an intransitive verb? We can use the verb “force” as an example, which is only listed as a transitive verb. He always forces. Can it be correct? Although the meaning is … Read more

Help regarding the subject in a sentence

by

Could anyone please tell me what would be the subject in the following sentence which I have taken from the National Geographic website: Providing pools of water for frogs when other water is scarce is just one of the ways elephants engineer ecosystems. Also, I am confused about what would be the direct object as … Read more

How to use “neither” in second-person plural?

by

I am trying to say “Neither of you was my student”, but placing myself as the subject, i.e. “I was neither of _____ teacher. I can’t figure out what goes in the blank. “I was neither of your teacher” is my best guess, but it sounds weird. Is there something that fits in the blank … Read more

Complex object grammar and other things

by

I’ve seen a number of different phrases in different books describing the action of closing a door, and I’m not quite sure that I fully understand the grammar behind them. For example: (1) [He] clicked the door shut. / [You] push the door open. (2) The door clicked shut. / The door clicked open. The … Read more

How is transitivity defined in CGEL?

by

This ques­tion is specif­i­cally for those who are fa­mil­iar with the 2002 edi­tion of The Cam­bridge Gram­mar of the English Lan­guage by Hud­dle­ston and Pul­lum. The book has this pas­sage at page 272: Strictly speak­ing, an in­tran­si­tive prepo­si­tion may have a com­ple­ment other than an ob­ject NP – e.g. ow­ing in ow­ing to the rain … Read more

What is this grammatical form called and how should punctuation be used

by

I am trying to find the correct punctuation for the following sentence: It allows connection to, and customisation of, functions available in the program. Does such construction, with two direct objects, one sort of clarifying the other one, have a name? I was trying to use Google to answer my second question, but failed to … Read more

Object in a sentence

by

As for my knowledge, the object in a sentence is used to talk about the thing or person that the verb is done to or who receives the verb. For example : I put the orange cat into the garden. With this sentence, it’s easy to identify the object which is the orange cat where … Read more

Is the signature of a letter a subject or an object?

by

I want to sign a letter jokingly not by name, but by a personal pronoun. Is the signature a subject or an object? I feel like using object pronoun (me) sounds better, but why? The signature looks more like a subject to me. Example: Best regards, I or Best regards, me And for more people … Read more

What is the structure in the sentence: “The reason scientists believe that…”

by

I have this sentence from one of my IELTS books: One of the reasons scientists think that there is a link between stress and cancer is the idea that there may be a cancer-prone personality At first, I think that the main subject of this sentence is “one of the reasons”, the verb is “is”, … Read more

How to tell if something is a core complement or a non-core complement?

by

CaGEL on page 216 cite the following: “Kim gave the key to Pat” An NP indirectly related to the verb through the preposition is referred as an oblique. The phrase “to Pat” is a non-core compliment of the verb give, but the NP Pat is an oblique. In a double object construction where both the … Read more