• 2. Jim presented his girl friend a bunch of flowers. (Jim presented a bunch of flowers to his girl friend.)
Adverbials indicates time, place, manner, and reasons. They answer questions such as when, where, how and why. Adverbials can be adverbs, prepositional phrases, or adverbial clauses.
I felt especially pleased with my wonderful bargain.
2. People find this sort of joke. These people are foreign. This sort of joke are distasteful.
Foreign people find this sort of joke distasteful.
At last the firemen have put out a big forest fire in California.
Structure 1: S-P • The S-P sentence structure is made up of a noun, pronoun,
or other nominal as the subject of the sentence and an intransitive verb or verb phrase as the predicate. • Dead dog don’t bite. • Money talks.
• The villagers found their bedrooms ankle-deep in water.
• The friendly mood makes us comfortable.
Exercises 2: Combine the sentences
1. I felt pleased with my bargain My pleasure was especial. My bargain was wonderful.
We have moved into a new single-storied house recently.
4. It occurred a short while ago. My brother helped me. We carried a bookcase up the stairs. The bookcase was very heavy.
A short while ago, my brother helped me carry a very heavy bookcase up the stairs.
5. The firemen have put out a forest fire. The firemen did that at last. The fire was big. The fire broke out in California.
Object and complement
Generally, verbs can be put into two: linking verbs and action verbs. Both of them require a word to complete their meaning. We can call such a word complement. The complement of a linking verb is called a predicative or a subject complement, which describes or renames the subject. For example:
• You never miss the water till the well runs dry.
• No man can make a good coat with bad cloth.
Structure 5: S-P-O -OC
Different from an indirect object which is the receiver of the direct object, an object complement is to complete the meaning of the direct object. The words acting as an object complement can be nouns, adjectives or prepositional phrases.
• The old man caught a big fish. • Her husband frequently beat her. • My uncle eventually gave up smoking.
Sometimes action verbs have two different objects: direct object and indirect object. Direct object is the receiver of the action while an indirect object is the receiver of the direct object. For instance：
that many combinations are possible, and there's no single correct one.
1. The man handed a photo of a girl. The photo was to me. He did that silently. The man was old. The girl was pretty.
Structure 3: S-P-O
The verb acting as a predicate in the S-P-O sentence structure is a transitive verb, which may take a direct object or both a direct object and an indirect object.
He proudly became a boss of a book-store for the first time in his life.
3. We have moved into a house. We did that recently The house was new. It had single-storied.
• Poverty tries friends.
• The Liberian handed e a Spanish dictionary.
Structure 4: S-P-O-A
The words acting as an adverbial can be adverbs, prepositional phrases, or adverbial clauses, providing information about time, place, manner, and reasons.
3. Advertising exerts an influence. The influence is subtle. The influence is on children.
Advertising exerts a subtle influence on children.
4. I was being tested. The test was for a driving license. It was the third time.
• Harry bought his son a new school-bag.
Usually, a preposition “to” or “for” can be put in front of the indirect object. For example,
• 1. The old man left his daughter a large house. (The old man left a large house for his daughter.)
As a rule, a long adverbial are placed at the end of a sentence, while short adverbials are flexible to locate: at the beginning, in the middle or at the end may be all right. For instance
1. The train will arrive next morning. 2. He carefully drove his car to the station. 3. Very soon, she knew the full story.
Exercises 1: Combine the sentences in each set into a single clear sentence. Omit words that are needlessly repeated, but don't leave out any important details. Keep in mind
• My favorite playwright is William Shakespeare. • Mark Twain became a pilot on a steamboat. • She felt uneasy in the crowd.