93. A verb is an asserting word.
A transitive verb is one that asserts action performed upon some person or thing.
A transitive verb is completed by a direct object.
The direct object of a transitive verb is a word or a group of words that completes the meaning of the verb and names the receiver of the action.
The base word of a direct object is usually a noun.
An intransitive verb is one that asserts, (1) being, or (2) action not performed upon any person or thing.
An intransitive verb of action needs no complement.
An intransitive verb of being is usually completed by a subjective complement.
A subjective complement is a word or a group of words that completes a verb and refers to the same person or thing as the subject.
A subjective complement denotes identity with the subject, or tells the class to which the subject belongs, or some quality of the subject.
The base word of a subjective complement may be a noun or an adjective.
Exercise.—Select and classify all the verbs in the following sentences. Tell the subject of each verb, and tell how each verb is completed or modified.
1. As soon as he saw the cat in the soap barrel, he set the lamp down on the cellar bottom, and laughed so that he could hardly move.
2. When night came, I felt still more lonesome.
3. Little Toomai shall become a great tracker.
4. The wind whistled around the low, unplastered chamber, but the beds were soft and warm, and the guests were ready for sleep.
5. The youngest daughter was the gentlest and most beautiful creature ever seen, and the pride of all the people in the land.
6. I am too stiff and sore from a terrible fall I have had, to write more than one line.
7. Next month, when the city had returned to its sunbaked quiet, the Hindu did a thing that no Englishman would have dreamed of doing; for, so far as the world’s affairs went, he died.
8. The knoll in the tamarack swamp was a haven of peace amid the fierce but furtive warfare of the wilderness.
9. Beauty rose by four o’clock every morning, lighted the fires, cleaned the house, and prepared the breakfast for the whole family.
10. More years sped swiftly and tranquilly away.
11. What a place the old market must have been in the days of Herod the Builder!
12. The lizard belonging to my mistress was a very beautiful creature.
13. The rocky walls are red with the scarlet of the geranium, aglow with the orange of the lantana, or they are hidden by the purple veil of the wild convolvulus. The dainty sweet alyssum clings to the rock in great patches, and the little rice plant lays its pink cheek against it lovingly.
14. The spring had been a trying season for the lank she-bear.
15. Right proud the baron was of his gallant steed.
16. There is the house with the gate red-barred.
17. The big male cuffed the cubs aside without ceremony, mounted the carcass with an air of lordship, glared about him, and suddenly with a snarl of wrath, fixed his eyes upon the green branches wherein the boy was concealed.
18. Rip Van Winkle was a kind neighbor and an obedient, hen-pecked husband.
19. The great error in Rip’s composition was an insuperable aversion to all kinds of profitable labor.
20. The same sweet clover smell is in the breeze.
21. David stooped down and piled the fagots in the hollow of his arm.
22. Gentle are the days when the year is young.
23. The winter sunshine on the fields seems full of rest.
24. I feel out of place under this roof.
25. Strips of snow still whitened the fields, but on the stumps were bluebirds, and they warbled of spring.
26. The great limb of the cedar snapped off, rolled over in the air, and lay on the ground like a huge animal.