BASIC SENTENCE PATTERN (part 4) Subject-Verb-Complement (SVC)

d)      Subject-Verb-Complement (SVC)

The verb to be/do/have (am, is, are, was, were, has, have, had, do, does, did) does not require an object but it needs other words to complete the sentence. These other words are called COMPLEMENTS. Study the examples below. Notice that the action verbs are not used in these examples.

SUBJECT	VERB	COMPLEMENT
Ali and Ahmad	are	clever boys.
The books	were	on the desk.
Emily	has	a guitar.
They	did	their work.
I	am	a teacher.

 

EXERCISE G

Underline the complements in these sentences.

1. Mrs. Jones was angry.
2. That man is my dentist.
3. She has a car.
4. The bracelets are beautiful and expensive.
5. They had three houses.
6. Rita’s mother does her work well.
7. That salesgirl is my cousin.
8. My cat is very cute.

EXERCISE H

Make these sentences complete by adding suitable complements.

1. The maid is ________________________________________.
2. We were __________________________________________.
3. The officer was _____________________________________.
4. I am _____________________________________________.
5. My grandfather has __________________________________.
6. Mr. and Mrs. Tan had _________________________________.
7. Our parents have ____________________________________.
8. Those hawkers are ___________________________________.
9. It was ____________________________________________.
10. My two brothers do ___________________________________.