Instances of the eight types of verbs we have discussed, their traditional names, their typical

complements, and an example are given:

Name example verb complement example sentence

intransitive swim, arrive - She arrived (early).
(mono)transitive see, eat, read Direct Object She saw me.
ditransitive give, tell Direct and Indirect Object I gave him flowers.
complex transitive consider, know Direct Object and Object Complement I consider her nice.
copula be, become Subject Complement He is nice.
prepositional refer, glance Prepositional Object He glanced at the paper.
phrasal switch on/give in Direct Object/-- She turned off the light/ He gave in.
phrasal prepositional get down to Prepositional Object He got down to business.

Typically, the direct and indirect objects are realized as NPs and the subject and object
complements/predicates as AdjPs, but as was indicated above, there are other possibilities. The
prepositional object is always a PP.
Adverbials are not relevant for the classification of verbs since they can always be added or deleted.
As mentioned above, they are typically realized as PPs and AdvPs even though NPs and clauses are
also possible.

Exercise

A. Identify the functions in the following sentences. Name the type of sentence. Draw trees for
them:

1. She found it very easily.

2. I separated it carefully.
3. Both of them found the answers easy.
4. Her grandma baked her bread last night.
5. The ferry left relatively early.
6. The hard-working students seemed exhausted after three weeks of classes.