The predicative

The predicative is the significant part of the compound nominal predicate. It can be expressed in different ways:

1. By a noun in the common case or a noun in the possessive case.

e.g. She is pretty child. The book is my sister’s.

2. By an adjective.

e.g. This orange tastes bitter.

3. By a pronoun – personal, possessive, negative, interrogative, reflexive, indefinite, defining.

e.g. You are nobody. What is he? It was he.

In Modern English there is the tendency to use personal pronouns in the objective case (instead of the nominative case): e.g. It’s me. That’s him.

4. By a word of the category of state.

e.g. I’m afraid I can’t keep the man.

5. By a numeral, cardinal or ordinal.

e.g. I’m only 35. He was the first to join the club.

6. By a prepositional phrase.

e.g. The things were outside her experience.

7. By an infinitive, infinitive phrase, an infinitive construction.

e.g. Her first thought was to go away.

8. By a gerund, gerundial phrase, gerundial construction

e.g. My favourite sport is swimming.

9. By Participle II , Participle I.

e.g. He was surprised at the sound of his voice.

10. By an adverb.

e.g. It was enough the way she said it.

The objective predicative

There is another type of predicative referring to the object, called the objective predicative. The Objective Predicative does not form part of the predicate, in this case the predicate is simple. It expresses the state or quality of the person or thing denoted by the object and is generally expressed by a noun, an adjective, a word denoting state, a prepositional phrase.

e.g. He painted the door green.

e.g. He carried me safe to my nurse.

e.g. He appointed him secretary.

The compound verbal predicate

It can be divided into two types according to the meaning of the finite verb:

1. The compound verbal modal predicate;

2. The compound verbal aspect predicate. The compound verbal modal predicate

It shows whether the action expressed by a non-finite form of the verb is considered as possible, impossible, obligatory, necessary, desirable, etc. The shades of meaning are expressed by the first component of the predicate.

The compound verbal modal predicate may consist of the following components:

1. A modal verb and an infinitive.

Here belong the combinations of such verbs as can, may, must, should, would, ought, need with an infinitive.

e.g. You can prove everything.

2. Modal expressions: to be + Infinitive, to have + Infinitive.

e.g. I have to work for my living.

3.A verb with a modal meaning and an infinitive or a gerund. Here belong such verbs as to hope, to expect, to intend, to attempt, to try, to long, to wish, to want, to desire.

e.g. She longs to have a ball in her honour. We intended going to Spain.

4.Modal expressions and an infinitive: to be able, to be obliged, to be bound, to be willing, to be anxious, to be capable, to be going to with the infinitive.

e.g. I am anxious to cooperate.