8.10 Predicate complements

Common verbs used with a direction complement are:

fahren go (by transport) kriechen fallen fall fliegen fly fließen flow

reisen rennen sinken

gehen go kommen come

springen steigen

creep, crawl travel run sink jump climb

NB The above verbs are all INTRANSITIVE verbs of motion, which can also be used with sentence pattern A. They form their perfect tenses with sein (see 6.7), and all these common verbs are strong or irregular (see 6.11).

Some other verbs have a direction complement and additionally an accusative object (sentence pattern L). These are typically verbs which express the idea of putting or taking something somewhere:

Common verbs used in this way are:

Er legte das Buch auf den Tisch. He put the book on the table. Sie hat den Stein in den Bach geworfen. She threw the stone into the stream. Sie brachte ihn nach Hause. She took him home.

befördern convey bringen take, bring hängen hang heben lift legen lay schicken send

schieben setzen stellen tragen werfen ziehen

push set, place stand, place carry throw pull

NB Some verbs correspond to others that are used with a place complement, e.g. compare legen with liegen and stellen with stehen. Hängen can be used with a place complement or a direction complement, e.g. Ich hänge das Bild an die Wand (acc.), Das Bild hängt an der Wand (dat.).

A few verbs have a predicate complement which describes the subject (sentence pattern M). This may consist either of a NOUNPHRASE in the nominative case, or of an ADJECTIVE.

Such verbs are called COPULARVERBS because they typically link two nouns which are both in the NOMINATIVE case (see section 1.6). The most important ones are sein and werden. Other verbs used in this way are bleiben, heißen and scheinen:

sein Der Song ist der Hit des Jahres. The song is the hit of the year. Das Buch ist langweilig. The book is boring. werden Er wird Automechaniker. He is going to be a car mechanic. bleiben Er bleibt mein Freund. He remains my friend. heißen Der Roman heißt „Der Prozess“. The novel is called ‘The Trial’. scheinen Der Bericht schien unglaubwürdig. The report seemed implausible.

NB werden is here used not as an auxiliary verb but as a main verb meaning ‘become’. It can also be used with the prepositional object zu (see 8.7). NB scheinen tends to be used with an infinitive clause, e.g. Es scheint heute kalt zu sein. It can also be used intransitively or with a direction complement, with the meaning ‘shine’.