The Subject Complement

D.O. I.O.

S.C.

SUBJ PRED

action

linking

The subject complement is the noun, pronoun, or adjective that is linked into an

equation with the subject by a linking verb.

Gauguin was Van Gogh’s friend.

Notice that the subject complement does what its name implies; it complements (completes) the subject because it makes our knowledge of the subject more complete than it would otherwise.

Remember that the main linking verb is “to be,” but there are other tricky linking verbs that look like action verbs at first:

You smell good. The food tastes salty. She seems distracted.

If you can substitute a “to be” verb for one of these verbs, it’s a linking verb.

When the subject complement is a noun or pronoun, we call it a predicate nominative; when the subject complement is an adjective, we call it a predicate adjective. For the purpose of correct pronoun usage, we will just call it a subject complement for now to reinforce the use of subject pronouns.

Subject complement noun: Without a doubt, the aardvark is a mammal.

Subject complement pronoun: The winners of the game were you and I.

Subject complement pronoun: It is not everybody on the list.

Subject complement adjective: I am always nervous about calories.

An Equation

• The subject complement equals the subject.• Linking verbs link, so the left term is the same

as the right term.

A = Bsubject Linking verb Subject complement

Lincoln was the leader.I am he.

Life is precious.Everyone felt encouraged.Something smelled good.

Which sentence does not contain a subject complement?

• The campsite smelled smoky.• The painter is my old friend.• We gradually became aware of the problem.• Frederick has a baby rabbit.• Eleanor looks more enthusiastic now.

It was Greek to me.

Pron. v. n. Prep. Pron.

subj. LVP S.C.