Objective Complement Teaching Notes and Lesson
Objective Complement Teaching Notes and Lesson
renames it or tells what the direct object has become. It is most often used with verbs of
creating or nominating such as make, name, elect, paint, call, etc.
We know there is a difference between calling Mayor Williams and calling Williams mayor or
painting a red door and painting a door red. When the word follows the direct object and it tells
what the direct object has become, it is the object complement. Sometimes people call it an
objective complement. The italicized words on this page are object complements.
Terms used to identify various parts of each sentence pattern include the following:
NP = noun phrase
This abbreviation refers to a headword noun and its modifiers ("noun phrase") functioning as a
subject, direct object, indirect object, subjective complement, or objective complement.
NP1, NP2, NP3, etc. = designations for different noun phrase functions
Numbers in sequential order are used with each NP to designate its difference from or
similarity to other NPs before and after it.
Test for OC: insert "to be" between the DO and the OC
Note: The second NP, the direct object, receives a different numerical designation (NP2) because
it is not the same as the subject (NP1).
The action verb is followed by a direct object. The direct object is followed by a noun functioning as
an objective complement.
1. For years, the White House styled itself the top of the social
ladder in Washington.
2. With Jackson's entry, important families like the Bancrofts
called the White House a place of frontiersmen and
uncivilized men.
3. Jackson named these workers and simple farmers the
backbone of America.
4. The people of America counted Jackson the spirit of the
democratic fervor spreading across the country.
5. Harry Ward found Ohioans supporters of Jackson even though
he did not win the election.
6. He called Jackson voters "strange and infatuated."
7. History books have wisely painted Andrew Jackson a man of
the people.
8. Political pundits called John Quincy Adams talented and
intelligent, but cold and hard.
9. They found Henry Clay charming and shrewd.
10. Recently the media called Al Gore a modern-day Andrew
Jackson because both men won the popular vote to be
president, but lost in the electoral college.