link verbs
Some verbs are followed by an adjective phrase. The adjective phrase is called the complement:
| Noun phrase (Subject) | Verb phrase | Adjective phrase (complement) |
| I Everyone This soup The milk |
am feeling looked tastes has gone |
hungry very happy awful sour |
This pattern is N + V + Adj (noun + verb + adjective phrase).
These verbs are called link verbs.
Some link verbs (for example be; become; seem) can have a noun phrase as a complement:
| Noun phrase (Subject) | Verb phrase | Noun phrase (complement) |
| Our neighbour He She |
was became seems |
a strange man a geologist a nice girl |
This pattern is N + V + N (noun + verb + noun).
English Grammar
- Pronouns
- Determiners and quantifiers
- Possessives
- Adjectives
- Adverbials
- Nouns
- Verbs
- Clause, phrase and sentence
- clause structure
- verb patterns
- intransitive verbs
- transitive verbs
- link verbs
- double object verbs
- verbs with -ing forms
- verbs with to + infinitive
- reporting verbs with that, wh- and if clauses
- two- and three-part verbs
- verb patterns - adverbials
- clauses: short forms
- relative clauses
- reporting: reports and summaries
- verbs - questions and negatives
- wh- clauses
- noun phrase
- verb phrase
- adverbial phrases
- prepositional phrases
- sentence structure
- adjective phrases
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83.33 % :(( but I think its very easy .
I am very happy for this site.
My English is not is not so much correct that,s why I want to improve it and specially Grammar and vocabulary.I hope these excersices will be helpful for me.
Hai, Where are the test ? I can only see the the word exercise below the coloum . I cannot enter the exercise too ? What happen ? Please help me ! Thank you .
team
Hi Rainbow Ho,
That's strange - I can see the exercise. Have you tried reloading the page (hold down Ctrl and F5) or even using a different web browser?
Best wishes,
Adam
The LearnEnglish Team
i passed the test.
It always confuses me to decide whether the verb ing form is an adjective or not in the N + V + Adj or N + V structure? You know some adjectives from the counterpart verbs, such as, worrying, confusing and moving etc. This makes it difficult to decide which the structure of a clause is. For example, I may consider in the sentence, the sun was shining. , the shining as an adjective, then the clause structure is N + V + Adj, rather than N + V. As we use the verb be and the present participle (-ing form) of a verb for simple continuous, this kind of clauses is very common in English. How to deal with this problem? Please help me.
team
Hi Zhao Wei,
That's an interesting question!
One way to work out whether an -ing word is an adjective or a present participle is to try putting 'very' in front of it. In your example, we can see that 'the sun was very shining' isn't good English, so 'shining' in this sentence is a present participle rather than an adjective.
Best wishes,
Adam
The LearnEnglish Team
I don't understand that well.So, I'd like to ask a question.
'The book is interesting.'
In the sentence above, explain to me whether interesting is an adjective or a present participle.Moreover, what is the difference between the two sentences below,
The book is interesting, and
The book is interested.
I beg your pardon.
Chan Lin
team
Hi Chan Lin,
Think about whether it is possible to say 'The book is very interesting.' Is that good English?
As for your second question, you can find a section of the grammar on that subject here.
I hope that helps.
Adam
The LearnEnglish Team