Basic English Grammar

Verbs of incomplete predication

Look at the following sentences:

• He writes.
• He looks upset.

The sentence He writes makes complete sense. But if you say, He looks the sense is incomplete. You have to supply a word like upset (or tired, sad, happy, cheerful etc.) to make the sense complete. Looks is therefore a verb of incomplete predication. The word upset which completes the meaning of the sentence is called the complement of the verb.

Other examples of verbs of incomplete predication are: is, am, are, was, were, turn, grow, appear, look, taste etc.

• The sky grew dark.
• The milk turned sour.
• The fished tasted awful.
• She is intelligent.
• He seems upset.

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