Youth Wave

Sadruddin Ahmed
Lesson 9
Linking Verbs and Adjective-Complements

In the previous lessons we have explained and illustrated the use of intransitive verbs and the adverbials that go with them. In this lesson and the following ones we take up another kind of verbs and the adjectives that follow them. The verbs are called linking verbs because their function is to link together the subject and the adjective-complement which describes the subject. Take, for instance, the following sentence:
Kamal is intelligent.

In this sentence the verb is links together the subject Kamal and the adjective-complement intelligent. The adjective modifies the subject, i.e. it describes the kind of man Kamal is. All forms of be verb can function as linking verbs:
Mina is pretty.
You are handsome.
They are strong and healthy.
He has been sick for a week.
She is being foolish.
He may be late for the meeting.
I am sorry for being late.
Notice that in each of the above sentences a form of be has been used and the adjectives following the verbs are descriptive of the subjects. The adjectives say something about the subject by way of describing its quality. Apart from be, there are some other linking verbs. They are as follows:
Appear        seem    come    get    become      run      go      grow
keep      look      prove      remain  smell      sound      taste      turn
Examples:
appear: She appears (to be) pale.
seems: He seems unhappy.
come: She came third in the essay competition.
get: He is getting bald.
become: In his youth he was slim, but he became fat in his old age.
run: The river runs dry in summer.
go: He went mad when he lost his job.
grow: He is growing rich.
look: He looks cheerful.
prove: He proved wrong in his calculations.
remain: He remained unshaken in his faith.
smell. Roses smell sweet.
sound: He sounded unhappy.
taste: Honey tastes sweet.
turn: He is turning grey.
The adjectives which come after the linking verbs may be classified as follows:
Colour adjectives: Here is a list of main colour adjectives:
black  cream  orange  red  white
blue green  pink  scarlet  yellow
brown  grey  purple  violet

Question                                             Response
What colour is your hair?                   It is black.
What colour is the shirt?                     It is cream.
What colour is the dress?                    It is orange.
What colour is blood?                         It is red.
What colour is milk?                           It is white.

Use the other colour adjectives in the forms of questions and responses.
If you want to specify a colour more precisely, you can use a sub-modifier such as ‘light’ ‘pale’ ‘dark’ ‘deep’ or ‘bright’ in front of a colour adjective:
light brown hair
a pale green shirt
a dark blue dress
bright blue eyes
If you want to talk about a colour which does not have a definite name, you can use a color adjective with ‘ish’ added to the end:
a greenish curtain
a yellowish flower
Adjectives of shape: Here is a list of common adjectives of shape:
square   rectangular  round  oval  semi-circular

Questions                                           Responses
What shape is your room?                It is square.
What shape is your dinning table?   It is rectangular.
What shape is a ball?                        It is round
What shape is your office?               It is oval.
What shape is your office-table?      It is semi-circular.

Adjectives of size: Here is a list of adjectives of size:
big  fairly big  small  rather small  tall  fairly tall  short  rather short
Questions                                    Responses
How big is your bedroom?           It is rather small.
How big is your living room?      It is fairly big.
How tall is your brother?             He is fairly tall.
How tall is your sister?                 She is rather short.
Note that we use ‘fairly’ with a desirable quality and ‘rather’ with an undesirable quality.

Adjectives of physical condition: Here is a list of adjectives of physical condition:
strong  healthy  robust  spruce  stout  heavy
weak  sick  tired  delicate  fragile  slim  thin
My friend Kamal takes regular exercise and he is very strong.
All members of my family are fairly healthy.
My classmate Rahim is a sportsman. He is robust.
My uncle who is in his fifties is getting stout.
My aunt is rather delicate.
Don’t touch the vase. It is rather fragile.
I couldn’t sleep well last night. I feel tired.

Adjectives of mental condition: Here is a list of adjectives of mental condition:
happy  unhappy  depressed  worried
nervous  disappointed  frustrated  sad
My colleague Hamid is happy with his position in life.
My classmate Zakir is unhappy because he has got poor grades in the exam.
My sister gets nervous before the exam.
I am worried about my father because he has broken his leg.
Don’t feel sad about your grades. You will do better next time.

Exercise
1.    Fill in the blanks with adjectives:
a.    She is a blonde. Her hair is —-
b.    He has been without food for the whole day. He must be—–
c.    He is a rich man. The house he has built is very—–
d.    He has got poor grades in the exam, so he looks—-
e.    Porcelain goods must be handled carefully because they are——-
f.    He takes little exercise, so he is getting heavy.
g.    I get —–when I go for a check-up.
h.    Keep ——whatever may be the problem.
2..    Make your own sentences with these adjectives:
sleepy  weak  disappointed  delighted   uneasy
spruce  tired  hungry  thin  greenish  youngish