Grammar in Practice

COMPLEX OBJECT

(This material is meant for Form 7 pupils)

I. Read the text and say if you agree with the teacher.

Teacher (addressing the pupils): All parents believe their children to be talented.

They consider them to be intelligent and to be capable of achieving success in their lives. They want their children to be industrious. They want them to get a good education.

They expect them to make a brilliant career. That is why they hate their children to waste time and spend too much time playing computer games or watching TV. They understand their children to be different from them because they live in a society that is making rapid progress in all spheres of life. Generally speaking, they wish their children not only to work hard, but also to enjoy modern life.

A. Grammar Explanation

After the verbs of mental activity and the verbs expressing likes and dislikes, an object (дополнение) can be used which is expressed by a noun or a pronoun in the Objective Case followed by a verb, the infinitive (or the first form of the verb) with the particle ‘to’. The object and the verb relate to each other as a subject and a predicate (подлежащее и сказуемое).

This grammar construction is called the Complex Object and is often translated into Russian with the help of an objective clause. E.g. All parents believe their children to be talented. – Все родители верят, что их дети талантливы.

NOTE: It might be useful to translate the above-given text for the sake of practice.

Verbs of Mental Ability:

to understand, to believe, to know, to think, to consider, to expect

Verbs expressing likes, dislikes, wishes:

to like, to love, to want, to hate, to wish

B. Pattern 1

Jane is good at history. Her teacher thinks she will make a good report. (to expect)

Jane’s teacher expects her to make a good report in history.

1. Helen doesn’t know the grammar rule. The teacher believes that she will learn it. (The teacher – to expect).

2. Max is late for the concert. But he promised to come. (I – to believe).

3. Some people say that John is not very clever. But he has a fine brain. He has won many prizes in different contests. (His friends – to consider)

4. Alice looks sad and unfriendly. She is a newcomer in the class and keeps apart from us. (I – to think – to be a shy person)

5. Don’t tell me he is idle! He goes to school and works in a nearby shop in the evening and at weekends to earn pocket money. (We – to know)

6. Nick never plays with his little sister. She hates it. (Nick’s sister – to want)

C. Talk

1. What do you expect your parents to give you on your birthday?

2. What do you expect your friend to tell the teacher when he (she) hasn’t done his homework?

3. What can you say of a pupil who often doesn’t do his homework? (to consider)

4. What can you say of a person who never stops boasting? (to believe)

5. What do teachers hate their pupils to do when they explain something in class?

6. What do you want your friend to do for you when you are unhappy?

II. The Complex Object is used after the verbs of physical perception. In this case the verb which makes the second element of this construction is used without particle ‘to’, that is, we have the so-called bare infinitive. As a rule the action expressed by the construction with the ‘bare’ infinitive is heard or seen from the start to the end, or it is the action which is typical, repeated or characteristic of a certain person.

e.g.

1. I saw them fight. – It means: I saw how they started fighting and watched it to the end.

2. They disliked each other when they were boys. We often saw them fight.

Verbs of Physical Perception:

to see, to watch, to observe, to notice to hear, to feel, to listen to, to smell

Task 1. Read the text and underline the complex object.

Every day the same scene can be seen at every school. Pupils hear the bell ring and they rush into their classrooms. Teachers watch them take their seats and get ready for the lessons. Teachers want their pupils to show them their written homework or they want their pupils to give oral answers. Some pupils are not ready for the lesson and when they are asked to talk, teachers can hear their classmates whisper the answers to their lazy classmates. When tests are given, teachers can notice some pupils copy either from the papers of their classmates or from textbooks. Fortunately, it happens with very few pupils and only sometimes.

Task 2. Join the sentences using the complex object.

e.g. Every morning the janitor starts clearing away the snow under my window. I can hear it and wake up. = Every morning I hear the janitor clear away the snow under my window and wake up.

1. Spring has come. The snow melts. We can see it.

2. The air becomes warmer.. We can feel it.

3. The birds sing in parks and gardens. We can hear it.

4. The trees and bushes smell sweet. We can feel it.

5. Narrow streams of water run along the roads. We can watch it.

6. People wear light clothes. We can see it.

7. Children spend more time outdoors. We can watch them.

8. People in the streets smile more often. We see it.

9. Small green grass appears. We notice it.

III. Another Piece of Theory

Sometimes we see an action in progress and it is important that it should be expressed grammatically. In this case, we use the form of the verb with the -ING ending, that is, we use the Present Participle (the fourth form of the verb). As a rule, we use the Present Participle when we watch an action at a particular moment (at present or in the past) but we don’t see (or hear) it from the beginning to the end. We watch only part of an action which is already in process.

e.g.

1. Wow! What a scene! I see you washing up! I will call mum to come and see!

2. I heard a noise. I looked through the window. The janitor was clearing away the snow.

= When I looked through the window, I saw the janitor clearing away the snow.

Read a short story to illustrate this grammar.

It was dark. Suddenly we heard somebody walking in the garden. We got frightened and ran up to the window. We noticed some dark figure moving along the path. We noticed the person holding something in his hands. It looked like a gun. We were more dead than alive. I felt my sister trembling with fear. Then we heard the stranger call: “Puss-puss!” We burst out laughing – our neighbour was looking for his cat. He was holding the torch in his hands. But the batteries were dead in it and he couldn’t use it. We joined him in his search and in some twenty minutes or so, we found the pretty kitten sleeping in our old dog-house.

NOTE: The theoretical material presented in this part is considered to be new for pupils of the 7th form, especially the case with the ‘bare’ infinitive, while the Complex Object with such verbs as want, hate, like and so on, is familiar to them.

IV. Practice

Task 1. Read the text and underline all the cases with complex object. (The text is a reproduction of an extract from Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain)

Aunt Polly didn’t let Tom take jam from the cupboard without her permission. But Tom had a sweet tooth and never obeyed her. Once Tom’s cousin Sid caught him red-handed. He noticed Tom steal the jam and reported on Tom to Aunt Polly. The punishment was cruel – Tom had to whitewash the fence. Tom couldn’t disobey because he knew her to be very strict when he was mischievous. Besides, she threatened not to give him any pocket money.

And there he was, whitewashing the fence on a fine day like that. While he was busy whitewashing the fence, he saw Ben coming out of the corner. Not only did Tom see Ben eating a big apple, but he could hear Ben chewing it and his mouth watered for the apple. Ben stood for a while watching Tom working and then he asked Tom if it was a suitable job for him. Tom, being a very shrewd boy, pretended enjoying his work. He remarked that not every day and not every boy was allowed to whitewash a fence. Tom wanted Ben to believe that it was a real pleasure but not work. He exclaimed that it was a good boyish occupation. Ben began to beg Tom to let him whitewash a little. The other boys stood watching and listening to Tom boast about the fun he was having. Soon Tom stood, leaning against the tree and chewing Ben’s apple, while Ben was moving the brush up and down the fence. The other boys were waiting for their turn.

Tom expected them to finish the whitewashing very fast. And he expected Aunt Polly to be generous and to give him his pocket money.

Pair work. After the first task has been done, pupils work in pairs: one pupil translates all sentences with the Complex Object from the text into Russian, the other says them in English and then they exchange roles.

Task 2. Read three short stories, retell them and add one of the sentences which makes the story complete.

1. Everybody understood him to be a very clumsy man (неуклюжий).

2. Both his teachers and his classmates considered him to be a very weird (strange, not ordinary) boy.

3. I believe him to be a very thoughtful and good bro-ther.

Story 1

I have never thought my friend Mike to be skilled in making things with his own hands. Once he heard his sister complain that she had no place to keep her dolls. Just fancy it! He made a shelf for her and even fixed it to the wall. Then he surprised everybody by making a doll house and even furniture for it. Mike treats his sister very nicely.

Story 2

Once Mrs. Podger bought a picture and Uncle Podger offered to put it up. It would be fun to watch him do that household chore, if one could find oneself in the house of Uncle Podger at the moment. He sent the whole family running about the house and made them bring different things to him. The neighbours heard him shouting at the top of his voice when he was displeased with his family. Mrs. Podger said that she hated him to use bad language and she said that she wanted him to warn her next time when he was going to do some work about the house.

Story 3

The newcomer, whose name was Julian, looked terrible. His untidy appearance shocked everybody. His classmates heard him make different strange noises. He could imitate different animals and birds. The teachers thought him to be clever and expected him to be top of the class. But he considered many subjects useless and he didn’t care for marks. Still, he made even the teachers admire him. Once Julian made a model plane and he thought it was more fun to observe the plane float in the air than to learn history dates.

Task 3. Imaginary situations. You are to make stories using the support. You speak from the first person. Remember to use the Complex Object.

a. You are a pupil. One of your classmates, Peter, was ill for a long time. At the end of the term you were to write many tests. Peter came to school at the end of the term and he had to do the tests, too.

USE: to be seriously ill, not to attend school, to miss many lessons, to expect – to fail to do the tests, to surprise everybody, to get good marks, to understand – to be very hard-working.

b. You are a curious man (woman) who likes to look through the window and watch what happens outdoors. Once you observed a very funny scene in the yard.

USE: to hear somebody shout loudly, to look through the window, a group of boys, to play football, to see a small boy, to watch the game, to come up to the bigger boys, to understand – to beg them to let them play, to kick the ball, to hit the ball in the middle of the gate, to be pleased with himself, to surprise the older boys, to look down at the older boys.

c. You are Mr. Green (Mrs. Green). Once you found yourself in the school. You spent there a quarter of an hour waiting for your son. You left the place full of impressions.

You saw, observed, noticed and heard the children do or doing different things there.

USE: the bell ring, to rush out of the classrooms into the corridor, to drink cola, to eat sandwiches, to kick cola cans/ tins along the corridor, to copy from each other’s exercise-books, to revise the material quietly, to push each other, to climb on each other’s backs, to play tag, to walk quietly.

Task 4. Listen to the story and write its reproduction.

(Based on A Little Accident While Cycling after Jerome K. Jerome)

Once my friend Harris and his wife were riding on a bicycle through Holland. His wife was sitting behind him. The roads were stony and the machine jumped a good deal. “Sit tight!” said Harris to his wife. But she thought he said “Jump off!” Mrs. Harris did jump off, while Harris went on. At first she thought it to be a joke on his part. She expected him to reach the top of the hill and then stop and wait for her there. But she saw him pass the summit (top). Mrs. Harris sat down and cried. She had no money and she didn’t know Dutch. People passed and watched a woman sitting at the side of the road and crying. They believed her to have some problem and tried to help her. They took her to the police. The policemen understood from her pantomime that somebody had stolen her bicycle. After a while they noticed some boy driving a lady’s bicycle and brought him to her. But Ms. Harris didn’t want either him or his bicycle.

On the blackboard:

1. Where were Harris and his wife riding on a bicycle?

2. What did Harris ask his wife to do?

3. Why wasn’t she surprised at first?

4. What did she expect her husband to do?

5. Who took Mrs. Harris to the police?

6. What did they understand from her pantomime?

7. Why did the police bring a boy with a lady’s bicycle to her?