English Grammar Drills

Simple Verb Complements 163
14. Our simple plan has turned into a huge project.
15. All the indicators appeared positive.
Many hundreds of true adjectives are derived from the present participle form of verbs.
For example, here is the true adjective amusing used both as a noun modifier and as a predicate
adjective:
Noun modifier:
Predicate adjective:
He told an amusing story.
His story was amusing.
It is sometimes very difficult to tell predicate adjectives apart from the same word used as
part of the progressive tense. Here is an example:
Predicate adjective:
Progressive verb:
The story was amusing.
His story was amusing the guests.
As you can see, amusing is a predicate adjective in the first example, but a main verb in the progressive
form in the second example. In both cases, amusing follows the verb be. The two sentences
look alike, but are actually built in different ways:
Predicate adjective:
Progressive:
main predicate
verb adjective
The story was amusing.
helping main
verb verb
His story was amusing the guests.
Fortunately, there are several reliable tests to help us decide when a present participle word
form is being used as predicate adjective following a linking verb and when it is being used as a
main verb in a progressive verb construction.
If the present participle is being used as a predicate adjective, it can almost always be modified
by the word very. For example:
His story was very amusing.
When we try to use very with a present participle used as a main verb, the result will always be
ungrammatical:
X His story was very amusing the guests.