Object or Complement or Both?

[Abuk]

Can a sentence element be an object and a complement at the same time

• She gave me a false name as well.
• She sent him the fax.

Thank you in advance.

[corum]

Can a sentence element be an object and a complement at the same time

• She gave me a false name as well.
• She sent him the fax.

Thank you in advance.

The parts in bold are direct objects, but not complements, at least they are not according to the Quirkian taxonomy.

[Abuk]

The parts in bold are direct objects, but not complements, at least they are not according to the Quirkian taxonomy.

My college teacher gave the first example as a complement. The second one is from this site as an object complement:

http://www.usingenglish.com/glossary/complement.html

[corum]

http://www.usingenglish.com/glossary/complement.html

In 'She sent him the fax.', 'the fax' is clearly not an object complement. If it were, there would have to be an object other than 'the fax'. Sent what? The fax. Object. There is no other object than 'the fax'; consequently, 'the fax' can't be an object complement.
To whom? 'She sent the fax to him' or 'She sent him the fax'. '(H)im' is the indirect object, 'to him' is a prepositional object. It is as obvious as the nose on your face.

My college teacher gave the first example as a complement.

Complement to the verb in the sense it completes the meaning of the the verb, but no object complement.

Can a sentence element be an object and a complement at the same time

Yes.

[TheParser]

Can a sentence element be an object and a complement at the same time

• She gave me a false name as well.
• She sent him the fax.

Thank you in advance.

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


(1) You asked an excellent question.

(2) It is often difficult to know the difference.

(3) I think that a complement usually refers to the subject:

She is intelligent. ("Intelligent" refers to "she.")

It is hot. ("Hot" refers to "it.")

The cake tastes sweet. ("Sweet" refers to "the cake.")

(4) An object does not refer to the subject.

She gave a false name to me. ("A false name" is what

she gave to me. We call "a false name" the object of

"gave.")

She sent the fax to him. What did she send? The fax (the object).

*****


Please identify the words in bold (black) type as an complement or

object:

(1) I love English.

(2) English is difficult.

(3) Mrs. X is the president of my country.

(4) Last night I ate fish.

(5) I saw a good movie.

***** Answers:

(1) object (2) complement (3) complement (4) object (5) object.

***** NOT A TEACHER *****

[Abuk]

***** Answers:

(1) object (2) complement (3) complement (4) object (5) object.

Thank you, same as my answers, but this example really confused me:

• "She sent him the fax." (here)
  

I assume it's an object and an object complement at the same or there is a mistake there.

[corum]

I assume it's an object and an object complement at the same or there is a mistake there.

Mistake.

[TheParser]

Thank you, same as my answers, but this example really confused me:

• "She sent him the fax." (here)
  

I assume it's an object and an object complement at the same or there is a mistake there.

***** NOT A TEACHER *****

(1) Thank you for the link.

(2) I can understand your confusion.

(3) It all depends on the word "complement" (which comes from the word

"complete").

(4) I would not say that the link was a "mistake." It just decided to

use the term "object complement" instead of only "object." I

respectfully suggest that you just use the term "object."

(5) She sent him a fax is the shorter way of saying:

She / sent / a fax / to him.

Most books would call "a fax" the direct object. They would call


"him" the object of the preposition "to."

But in She sent him a fax, most books call "him" an

indirect object. (Of course, she did not send him. She sent a fax.)

This can sometimes be humorous:

She cooked him dinner. Some learners ask:

Did she cook him?

Of course, it means She cooked dinner for him.

The matter of complements is very difficult, and even the experts

who write books do not always agree. Whenever you have a

question, just post it here.

At this site there are many people, such as Corum, who understand

grammar very well. They will be very happy to help you.

***** NOT A TEACHER *****