Happy New Year! And welcome back to our Let’s Right English series. I hope you have been practicing over the vacation. So far, we have been focusing on verb tenses: how to change verb tenses to give the verbs the correct meaning of time.
Now, we are going to focus on complements, or chunks, or patterns.
In what follows, it’s important to always focus on what you see in front of you and try to find patterns in what you can see. All verb complements can be divided into two groups: verbs with prepositions, which are called phrasal verbs, and verbs without prepositions, which we can simply call verb chunks. (Chunk = pattern)
Task 1: Look carefully at these following chunks. Sort them into the table below.
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arrange n.p.
ask s/o to V
begin to V
believe that v.p.
continue to V
continue Ving
decide that v.p
|
discuss s/th with s/o
do away with n.p.
do s/th for s/o
enjoy Ving
feel that v.p.
find n.p.
get s/th from s/o
go into s/th
go to n.p.
|
help s/o to V
inform s/o about s/th
involve Ving
keep after s/o
keep on at s/o
look at s/th
look into n.p.
offer s/o s/th
prepare to V
|
recommend that v.p.
remember n.p.
require s/o to V
try Ving
understand n.p.
use s/th to V
want to V
send s/o s/th
tell s/o s/th
|
|
Verbs without prepositions
(verb chunks)
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Verbs with prepositions
(phrasal verbs)
|
|
|
|
It’s very important to learn the correct pattern of the verb. This will help to make your writing more accurate and clear.
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Verb complements
|
→
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non-prepositional verb chunks
|
|
→
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prepositional phrasal verbs
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Over the next few weeks, we are not going to look at phrasal verbs, as they are used more in speaking than in writing.
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*2015/03/06更新
Here are the answers from last week.
|
Verbs without prepositions
(verb chunks)
|
Verbs with prepositions
(phrasal verbs)
|
|
|
arrange n.p.
ask s/o to V
begin to V
believe that v.p.
continue to V
continue Ving
decide that v.p.
enjoy Ving
feel that v.p.
find n.p.
help s/o to V
involve Ving
|
offer s/o s/th
prepare to V
recommend that v.p.
remember n.p.
require s/o to V
send s/o s/th
tell s/o s/th
try Ving
understand n.p.
use s/th to V
want to V
|
discuss s/th with s/o
do away with n.p.
do s/th for s/o
get s/th from s/o
go into s/th
go to n.p.
inform s/o about s/th
keep after s/o
keep on at n.p.
look at s/th
look into n.p.
|
*This should be quite easy as long as you’re clear about what a preposition is!
*Remember that there are two kinds of ‘to’. One is a preposition (followed by Ving or a noun phrase); the other kind of ‘to’ is not a preposition (followed by V).
*‘That’ and ‘how’ are not prepositions.
