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93. You remember when we studied sentences we found that we could not have a sentence without a verb or a word that asserts. The life of a sentence is the verb, for without the verb we cannot assert, question or command. It was on account of this importance that the Romans called the verb, verbum, which meant the word. Verbs, like nouns, are divided into classes.

94. In some of our sentences the verb alone is enough to make a complete assertion, but in other sentences we use verbs that need to be followed by one or more words to complete the assertion. Notice the following sentences:

The boy ran.

The boy found the ball.

The earth revolves.

The earth is round.

Do you notice any difference in the verbs used in these sentences? Notice that the verbs ran and revolves make the complete assertion about their subjects. Notice the verbs found and is. These are not complete without the addition of the words ball and round. If we say The boy found, The earth is, you at once ask, The boy found WHAT? The earth is WHAT? The sense is incomplete without the addition of these words ball and round. A part of the thought is unexpressed; but when we say The boy found the ball, The earth is round, the sense is complete.

So we have two classes of verbs, COMPLETE AND INCOMPLETE VERBS.

95. An incomplete verb is one that requires the addition of one or more words to complete its meaning.

The word or words added to an incomplete verb to complete its meaning are called the complement.

A complete verb is one that requires no complement to complete its meaning.

96. You can readily tell when a verb is complete and when it is incomplete by asking the question What? If you put the question what after the verb, and it makes a sensible question the verb is incomplete. For example:

Farmers raise—what?

The employer discharged—what?

We were—what?

The earth is—what?

If the question what? does not make sense after the verb, then the verb is complete. For example:

The sun shines.

Water flows.

Men work.

The question what after these verbs would not make sense, as:

The sun shines—what?

Men work—what?

Water flows—what?

So these verbs are complete verbs.

97. The same verb, however, may be complete or incomplete, according to the way in which it is used. For example:

The corn grows.

The farmer grows corn.

In the sentence, Corn grows, grows is a complete verb. You could not say The corn grows—what? for it does not grow anything. It merely grows, and the verb grows in this sense is a complete verb. But in the sentence, The farmer grows corn, you are using the verb grows in a slightly different sense. It is an incomplete verb, for you do not mean, The farmer grows, but you mean that the farmer grows CORN.

Exercise 1

In the following sentences, underscore the complete verbs with one line, the incomplete with two lines. Ask the question what? after each verb to determine whether it is complete or incomplete.

He returned today.

He returned the book.

The rose smells sweet.

He smelled the rose.

The trees shake in the wind.

The wind shakes the trees.

The ship plows through the waves.

The farmer plows the field.

The birds sing sweetly.

They sang the Marseillaise.

He worries over the matter.

The matters worry him.

The table feels rough.

He feels the rough surface.

It tastes bitter.

He tasted the bitter dregs.

Exercise 2

Use the following verbs in sentences as both complete and incomplete verbs, as for example, The snow melts. The sun melts the snow.

melts

write

stopped

answer

rings

fall

see

strike