The clause element that follows linking verbs and provides further information about the subject.

The clause element that follows linking verbs and provides further information about the subject.

• A. Complement
• B. Object
• C. Adverbial
• D. Predicate

Answer: (A)

Subject complements follow linking verbs and tell us more about the subject, often renaming it or describing its state. This is why the word that comes after a linking verb is called a complement—the sentence is completed by linking the subject to this descriptive information. For example, in The soup tastes delicious, delicious describes the soup and is connected by tastes; in She became a doctor, a doctor renames the subject after became. Linking verbs don’t express action on an object, so there isn’t an object here. An adverbial would modify how, when, or where something happens, not provide information about the subject. The entire verb phrase plus its modifiers is the predicate, but the specific element that completes the subject’s meaning after a linking verb is the companion called a subject complement (predicative complement).

Subject complements follow linking verbs and tell us more about the subject, often renaming it or describing its state. This is why the word that comes after a linking verb is called a complement—the sentence is completed by linking the subject to this descriptive information. For example, in The soup tastes delicious, delicious describes the soup and is connected by tastes; in She became a doctor, a doctor renames the subject after became. Linking verbs don’t express action on an object, so there isn’t an object here. An adverbial would modify how, when, or where something happens, not provide information about the subject. The entire verb phrase plus its modifiers is the predicate, but the specific element that completes the subject’s meaning after a linking verb is the companion called a subject complement (predicative complement).