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Object Complement
Posted: 19 April 2009 06:26 AM   [ Ignore ]
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“I want you to go”

I believe that “you to go” is the object. “you” is actor of the infintive “to go”, and “to go” is the direct object.

“I made him happy”

Here I thought that “(to be) or (to feel) happy” was again the direct object, and him is the actor. Apparently, Im mistakened as “happy” is the object complement, and him is the direct object. But how can “him” be the direct object.. you can’t make a “him”

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Posted: 19 April 2009 04:27 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 1 ]
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I want you to go:

I think that “you” in the indirect object, and that “to go” in the infinitive direct object the verb “want.”

Other examples would be:

We advised him to take a break.
They enabled us to succeed.
They permit us to stay.
We allowed her to go out.

See http://www.grammar-quizzes.com/infinitive2b.html for more.


I made him happy:

This is S V O OC. Sounds a little strange, since you really didn’t “make” him in the sense of creating something. But “make” in your sentence is a causative verb, which still can take a direct object. Compare this to “I make the spaghetti spicy,” which is the same grammatical construction.

Admittedly, some verbs don’t exactly fit the typical SVO pattern because of nuances in meaning.

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