Object Complements (S+V+O+C)
subject + verb + object1 + complement
FUN FACT: "Japanese students learn about 950 English words and 44 grammar points by the time they graduate junior high school. China and S. Korea JHS students average 1,350 words and 49 grammar points." (source)
DEFINITION: A complement (not to be confused with 'compliment') is the part of the sentence that comes after the verb and is used to make the sentence complete. There are a total of three main types of complements, but the JHS textbooks only focus on two of them: verb complements and object complements. An object complement is the focus of this page and it has a sentence pattern as follows: (subject + verb + object1 + complement). While it may seem stupid to point out, 'object' doesn't mean item but rather direct/indirect object (see below paragraph for a definition). In object complement sentences, object1 links back to the verb, while the complement links back to object1, hence the game of the grammar point...object complement.
Let's take for example the following sentence, "They call him Jim." Him is an indirect object and is linked back to call because him is identifying the individual who 'they' call Jim. Jim is a complement and is linked back to the indirect object, him, and not back to the verb because Jim is describing the word him and not call.
As for a refresher course, a direct object is basically a receiver of the action in a sentence: "He hit the ball." An indirect object identifies to or for whom or what the action of the verb is performed: "Mike sold me his boat."
EXAMPLES:
- NEW HORIZON: The letters make us happy.
- NEW CROWN: That makes me sad.
- ONE WORLD: The discovery made people happy.
- SUNSHINE: Let's ask John to join us.
- TOTAL ENGLISH: My friends call me Taku.
