adverbial or complement

Status
Not open for further replies.

chance22

Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2010
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Chinese
Home Country
China
Current Location
China
In the following sentences
1.He arrived in the country. a penniless 20-year-old.2. He died young.
are the words in bold called adverbials or complements? I sometimes find it difficult to tell the difference between adverbial and complement in sentences like this. Would you kindly help clarify it?
 
In the following sentences, are the words in bold called adverbials or complements? Try not to split a sentence/question over different lines with other information between the parts.

1. space here He arrived in the country no full stop here a penniless 20-year-old.
2. He died young.

I sometimes find it difficult to tell the difference between adverbials and complements in sentences like [STRIKE]this[/STRIKE] these. Would you [STRIKE]kindly[/STRIKE] please [STRIKE]help[/STRIKE] clarify it?

I'm going to leave it to a grammarian to answer your question but please note my corrections and comments above.
 
I sometimes find it difficult to tell the difference between adverbial and complement in sentences like this.


Are you studying this area of grammar as part of a grammar/linguistics course? If so, then an informed response will be useful to you. Someone more knowledgeable in this area than I will be along soon to respond, I hope.

If, however, your main aim is simply to learn to communicate in English, even up to a very high level, then I suggest you don't worry about it. It's something extremely few native speakers of English and very few teachers of English know much about.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Yes, it is taken from a grammar test.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
If I had those on an exam I would say they are complements.

Let me know how that works out for you.
;-)
 
I chose "complements" on the exam, but when I think twice, I'm a little confused. These two sentences are very much like another one:
He came back home, disappointed.
But doen't the word "disappointed" here serve as an adverbial?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Yes, probably. But I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.
 
I chose "complements" on the exam, but when I think twice, I'm a little confused. These two sentences are very much like another one:
He came back home, disappointed.
But doen't the word "disappointed" here serve as an adverbial?

I wonder if the comma was required.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top