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WHIZZO Posted 17 years ago
Linguistics Studies

Complain

I don't want to be a pain in the neck but I am doing English Grammar II at the teacher training school and we are analyzing sentences. Since I am practising on my own I have come across many doubts.

My doubt has to do with the verb complain. In the following sentence : "Students complain the teacher does not give enough homework."

"...the teacher does not give...." is it a DIRECT OBJECT (THAT-NOUN CLAUSE)? Is this a case in which the verb complain is a transitive verb?

Thanks.

Whizzo.
  

Top answer

In the sentence "complain" has no object and is therefore intransitive, as indeed it always is. The main clause is "Students complain" and the subordinate clause "the teacher does not give enough homework" in which the subject is "teacher" and the object "enough homework".

— Forbes

  • In the sentence "complain" has no object and is therefore intransitive, as indeed it always is.
  • The main clause is "Students complain" and the subordinate clause "the teacher does not give enough homework" in which the subject is "teacher" and the object "enough homework".
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3 Answers
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In the sentence "complain" has no object and is therefore intransitive, as indeed it always is.

The main clause is "Students complain" and the subordinate clause "the teacher does not give enough homework" in which the subject is "teacher" and the object "enough homework".
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WHIZZOIs this a case in which the verb complain is a transitive verb?
It's matter of terminology and depends on what one wants to call an object. In Scandinavian grammatical terminology a clause can be the object of a verb:

Students
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Some people parse your sentence this way: The students complained (about the fact) that the teacher doesn't give enough homework. That is, the noun clause is in apposition with the object "fact."
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