English Grammar Drills

Simple Verb Complements 153
it
I needed to hear what they had to say.
it
I like to get home early on Fridays.
Gerunds
it
I love going for long walks in the fall.
it
I liked hearing what they had to say.
it
I like getting home early on Fridays.
The nice thing about using a third-person pronoun to identify objects is that you don’t even
need to know the technical name for a complex object structure. All you need to know is that it
can be replaced by a third-person pronoun.
Exercise 10.2
Underline the objects that follow the italicized transitive verbs. Confirm your answer by showing
that a third-person pronoun can substitute for the object.
it
I noticed that you got a new computer.
1. They heard what you said.
2. The lawyers confirmed that we needed to consult a patent attorney.
3. They emphasized always being on time to meetings.
4. I anticipated having to get a taxi to get to work on time.
5. We finally chose to look for a new apartment closer to our jobs.
6. The contract specified that all the work had to be finished by June 30.
7. We resumed what we had been doing before we had to stop.
8. The audience appreciated how well they had performed.
9. We looked into taking a vacation in Mexico this summer.
10. You need to be more careful in the future.