10 Plurals in -s (and other foreign

pronoun verb pronoun

Er

frisst sie.

He eats her.

Verb

The VERB is the main word in a sentence telling you what is happening or being done, e.g. spielen (play) or kaufen (buy) or fressen (eat – by animals). It may have more than one part, as in this sentence: Ich habe gespielt (I have played).

Complements

The COMPLEMENTS of the VERB tell you who is doing what to whom. They usually consist of a NOUNPHRASE, which might be a single noun or a longer phrase ending in a noun: Computer (NOUN), der Computer (DETERMINER NOUN), der neue Computer (DETERMINER ADJECTIVE NOUN). It may also consist simply of a PRONOUN, which is a word that ‘stands for’ the noun, like er or ich. The most important complements are as follows: The SUBJECT does the action. The DIRECTOBJECT is typically the person or thing to which the action is done.

subject verb direct object

Der Wolf frisst die Großmutter. Rotkäppchen hat eine Großmutter. Ich kaufe einen Computer.

The INDIRECTOBJECT is typically the person who ‘benefits’ from the action in a sentence such as

‘Little Red Riding Hood takes a cake to the grandmother’.

subject verb indirect object direct object

Rotkäppchen bringt der Großmutter einen Kuchen.

There are also a few other types of complement, notably: The PREPOSITIONALOBJECT, which consists of a preposition such as in, an, auf and a noun phrase, e.g. Der Wolf wartet auf Rotkäppchen, ‘ The wolf waits for Little Red Riding

Hood’ .

The PREDICATECOMPLEMENT, which is used after certain verbs like sein (be), Rotkäppchen ist ein

Mädchen or Der Wolf ist böse.