Predicative

Predicative (nominal part of the predicate) can be expressed by:

1. a noun (in common or rarely possessive case), e.g. He is my neighbour. This dress is not mine, it’s Mary’s.

2. an adjective, e.g. The noise was tiring.

Special attention should be drawn to the verbs ‘to look’, ‘to feel’, ‘to sound’, ‘to smell’, ‘to taste’, which require adjectives and not adverbs after them. e.g. The garden looked large. The dish smells delicious.

3. a pronoun:

- personal, e.g. That was he.

- possessive, e.g. The pencil is mine.

- negative, e.g. That was nothing.

- interrogative, e.g. What is he?

- reflexive, e.g. I became myself again.

- indefinite, e.g. That was something new.

- defining, e.g. That is all I can say about it.

4. a word of a category of state, e.g. I became aware of somebody’s presence behind the curtains.

5. a numeral (cardinal or ordinal), e.g. I was the second to come. The girl is only two.

6. a prepositional phrase, e.g. I am at a loss.

7.an infinitive, an infinitive phrase or construction, e.g. His task was to guard the stores.

8. a gerund, a gerundial phrase or construction, e.g. To go there now means spoiling everything.

9. an adverb, e.g. He was far away. The lesson is over.

10. participle II or participle I, e.g. It’s very amusing. He looked confused at hearing the news.

Compound verbal predicate

The compound verbal predicate is divided into:

1. compound verbal modal predicate

2. compound verbal aspect predicate

Compound verbal modal predicate

The CVMP shows whether the action is possible, impossible, obligatory, necessary, desirable, etc. It may consist of:

1. modal verb + infinitive (can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will, would, ought to, dare, need),

e.g. The only two people who could help us were dead.

2. modal expressions ‘be to’ or ‘have to’ + infinitive, e.g. I was to come there by 5 o’clock.

3. a verb with a modal meaning + infinitive or gerund (to hope, to expect, to attend, to attempt, to try, to endeavour, to long, to wish, to want, to desire), e.g. He often tried to do it and he would try again.

4. modal expressions + infinitive (to be able, to be obliged, to be bound, to be willing, to be anxious, to be capable, to be going), e.g. He wasn’t able to move his hands.

5. Subjective Infinitive Construction, e.g. He was believed to vanish many years ago.