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Collins Cobuild English Grammar (83 page)

BOOK: Collins Cobuild English Grammar

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Your efforts won’t
go unnoticed
.
The guilty
went unpunished
.
Somehow, his reputation
emerged unblemished
.
Fortunately we all
escaped unscathed
.
Mostly, they
go unarmed
.
The children always
went barefoot
.

3.158
Verbs such as
blush
,
flame
,
gleam
,
glow
, and
run
can be used with colour adjectives after them to say what colour something is or what colour it becomes.

They blew into the charcoal until it
glowed red
.
The trees
flamed scarlet
against the grass.

3.159

Die
,
return
, and the passive verb
be born
can be followed by either adjectives or noun phrases.

She
died young
.
He
died a disappointed man
.
At the end of the war, he
returned a slightly different man
.
He
was born a slave
.

fixed phrases

3.160
Some combinations of verb and adjective are fixed phrases. You cannot use the verb in front of any other adjective.

I wanted to
travel light
.
The children
ran wild
.
The joke
was wearing thin
with use.

Describing the object of a verb

3.161
You can put an adjective after the object of some transitive verbs. This adjective describes the object, and is often called an
object complement
.

Willie’s remarks made her
uneasy
.
I find the British legal system
extremely complicated
.

Some of these verbs are used to say that someone or something is changed or that someone is given a new job. Others are used to describe a person’s opinion of someone or something.

For information on how to use these verbs in the passive, see paragraph
9.21
.

verbs that relate to causing something to happen:
Their comments made me angry

3.162
If you want to say that someone or something causes a person or thing to have a particular quality, you can use one of a group of transitive verbs, followed by an adjective.

He said waltzes
made him dizzy
.
They’
re driving me crazy
.
Then his captor
had knocked him unconscious
.
She
painted her eyelids deep blue
.
He
wiped the bottle dry
.

Here is a list of verbs that can be used in this way:

cut

drive

get

knock

make

paint

pat

pick

plane

render

rub

send

shoot

sweep

turn

wipe

Most of these verbs can be followed by only one adjective or a very small range of adjectives. However
make
and
render
can be used with a wide range of adjectives.

keep
,
hold
,
leave

3.163
You can also use
keep
,
hold
, and
leave
with an object followed by an adjective, to say that someone or something is caused to remain in a particular state.

The light through the thin curtains
had kept her awake
.
Leave the door open
.
Hold it straight
.

verbs that relate to giving someone a job or role

3.164
If you want to say that someone is given an important job, you can use
make
,
appoint
,
crown
, or
elect
with an object followed by a noun phrase referring to the job.

In 1910 Asquith
made him a junior minister
.

The noun used in this way does not usually have a determiner when it refers to a unique job.

Ramsay MacDonald appointed him
Secretary of State for India
.

verbs of opinion

3.165
Some transitive verbs with the general meaning
consider
can be used with an adjective or noun phrase to say what someone’s opinion of a person or thing is.

They
consider him an embarrassment
.
Do you
find his view of America interesting
?

Here is a list of these verbs:

account

believe

consider

deem

find

hold

judge

presume

reckon

think

Prove
can also be followed by an object complement, although it means
show
, not
consider
.

He had
proved them wrong
.

3.166
These verbs are often used in the passive.
Believe
,
presume
,
reckon
, and
think
are nearly always used in the passive in these structures.

Her body was never found and she
was presumed dead
.
30 bombers
were believed shot down
.

3.167
All the verbs listed in paragraph
3.165
except
account
can also be used with a
to
-infinitive clause after their object showing what someone thinks a person or thing is like or does.

We believed him
to be innocent
.

See paragraph
3.206
for information about using a
to
-infinitive clause after the object of these verbs.

3.168
You can use the verbs listed in
3.165
with
it
as their object followed by an object complement and a
to
-infinitive clause to show someone’s opinion of an action. For example, instead of saying
She found breathing difficult
, you can say
She found it difficult to breathe
.

Gretchen found
it
difficult
to speak
.
He thought
it
right
to resign
.
He considered
it
his duty
to go
.

These are examples of
it
being used in an impersonal way. For more information about the impersonal use of
it
, see paragraphs
9.31
to
9.45
.

describing and naming

3.169
If you want to say that people use a particular word, word group, or name to describe or refer to someone or something, you can use the word, word group, or name after one of a group of transitive verbs.

People who did not like him
called him dull
.
They
called him an idiot
.
Everyone
called her Molly
.
He
was declared innocent
.
They
named the place
Tumbo Kutu.

Here is a list of verbs that can be used in this way. The first group is followed by an adjective; the second group is followed by a noun phrase; and the third group is followed by a name.

call

certify

declare

label

pronounce

term

~

brand

call

declare

designate

label

proclaim

term

~

call

christen

dub

name

nickname

titles

3.170
The passive verbs
be entitled
,
be headed
, and
be inscribed
are followed by a title or inscription.

The draft document
was entitled ‘A way forward
’.

describing states

3.171
A few transitive verbs can be followed by an adjective to say that someone or something is in a particular state when something happens to them, or is preferred to be in that state.