ANOTHER ELEMENT
407. You will note that all of these verbs which we have used in these sentences have been complete verbs as hang, grow, runs, fade, etc. A complete verb, you will remember, is a verb that does not need an object or a complement. It is complete within itself. It may be modified by an adverb or an adverb phrase, but when you leave off these modifiers you still have complete sense.
In any of the sentences above you may cross out the adverb or the adverb phrase which modifies the verb and you will still have complete sentences. For example:
- Great clouds of smoke float in the air.
Here, the adverb phrase, in the air, may be omitted and still we have complete sense, thus:
- Great clouds of smoke float.
408. The incomplete verbs, however, require either an object or complement to complete their meaning.
Incomplete verbs are of two kinds; those that express action and those that express state or condition.
An incomplete verb that expresses action requires an object which is the receiver of the action expressed in the verb, so we have another element which enters into the simple sentence, when we use an incomplete verb. For example:
- The busy man makes shoes.