Nessie School of Languages

Verb Phrases

Certain
verbs, like give, show, tell, bring take
a direct object (DO) and an indirect object (IO). The indirect object, which is
semantically a ?recipient?, can occur with a preposition after the DO, or it
can occur before the DO without a preposition:

John gave the book to Mary
	DO		IO
John gave Mary the book
	IO	DO

 

When the DO is pronoun, USEng requires the order DO +
preposition IO. As does southern EngEng:

USEng and Southern EngEng

John gave it to Mary

¯     John gave Mary
it

 

When both the
DO and IO are pronouns, EngEng allows both ordering. It also permits deletion
of the preposition in the first pattern, although this construction is somewhat
old-fashioned except in northern EngEng:

USEng	Southern EngEng	Northern EngEng
John gave it to me	John gave it to me John gave me it	John gave it to me John gave me it John gave it me

 

 

When
comparing passive and active versions of a sentences, it can be seen that the
DO of the active sentence corresponds to the subject (S) of the passive, and
the S of the active corresponds to the object of a by preposition phrase (OP) of the passive (or is deleted):

Active:	John hit Mary
	S		DO
Passive:	Mary was hit (by John)
	S			OP

 

In passive
versions of double-object verbs like those above, there are usually two
possible nouns which can be subjects ?the DO or the IO of the active version:

The
book was given to Mary by John

Mary
was given the book by John

 

In USEng, when
the active DO is used as the passive subject, the IO must occur with a
preposition:

The
book was given to Mary by John

¯     The book was given Mary by John

 

 

The
verb like may take an infinitive (or
infinitive clause) or an ?ing
partiple (or clause) as its object:

Infinitive	I like to skate	I like to photograph animals in the wild
-ing Participle	I like skating	I like photograph animals in the wild

In EngEng the ?ing participle construction is
preferred.

 

 

In
EngEng the verbs seem, act, look and sound can be followed directly by an
indefinite noun phrase. In USEng, these verbs must be followed first by the
preposition like, seem can also be
followed by the infinitive to be:

EngEng	USEng/EngEng
It seemed a long time	It seemed like a long time
He seems an intelligent man	He seems to be an intelligent man
John acted a real fool	John acted like a real fool
That house looks a nice one	That house looks like a nice one
That sounds a bad idea	That sounds like a bad idea

 

 

Come and go may be followed by another verb
either in a to + infinitive
construction or conjoined by and:

We
are coming to see you soon

He went	and fixed	it yesterday
	to fix

 

When come and go are uninflected (both for tense and person), the to or and are often dropped in USEng, but not usually in EngEng:

EngEng/NamEng	USEng
We?ll come to see you soon	We?ll come see you soon
Go and fix it now	Go fix it now
Can I come and have a cup of coffee with you?	Can I come have a cup of coffee with you?

 

NAmEng is also
much more likely than EngEng to delete to
after help when followed by another
verb, even when help is inflected:

EngEng and NAmEng	NAmEng
I?ll help to mow the lawn	I?ll help mow the lawn
John helped us to mow the lawn	John helped us mow the lawn

 

 

When
the verb order is followed by a
passive verb, to be is often deleted
in USEng, leaving the passive participle:

EngEng/USEng	USEng
He ordered the men to be evacuated	He ordered the men evacuated
We ordered that to be done immediately	We ordered that done immediately

 

 

The
verb want can be followed directly by
the adverbs in and out in USEng. In EngEng want must be followed first by an
infinitive:

EngEng		USEng
I wanted	to come in	I wanted in
	to be let in
The dog wants to go out		The dog wants out

 

Also, want can be used in the sense of ?need?
in EngEng with an inanimate subject:

The
house wants painting

This is not
possible in NAmEng

 

 

The
verb wonder can be followed by a
finite clause introduced by if, whether,
or a wh-relative pronoun in both
varieties:

I
wonder if/whether he is coming

I
wonder where he went

 

In EngEng, wonder can also be followed by a clause
introduced by that (that is actually optional). In USEng, a
periphrastic construction, or a different verb, is used instead:

EngEng:	I wonder (that) he did any work at all!
USEng:	It?s a wonder that he did any work at all!
EngEng:	I wonder (that) he is not here
USEng:	I?m surprised that he is not here

 

The
verb decide cannot be used as a
causative verb in EngEng:

Non-causative:	He decided to go because of that
Causative:	That decided him to go (i.e., ?caused him to decide??)

 

In USEng,
decide cannot be used as a causative, instead, a periphrastic phrase must be
used, such as:

Periphrastic
causative: That made him decide to go

 

 

There
are a few verbs in EngEng and USEng which differ in the prepositions or
prepositional adverbs they collocate with:

EngEng	USEng
to battle with/against (the enemy)	to battle
to check up on	to check out
to fill in (a form)	to fill out
to meet (an official=have a meeting)	to meet with
to prevent (something becoming?)	to prevent from
to protest at/ against/ over (a decision)	to stop
to stop (someone doing?)	to stop from
to talk to	to talk with/to
to visit	to visit with

 

 

In
EngEng, the negative form of the first person plural imperative, let?s, can be either let?s not or, more informally, don?t let?s. Only let?s not used in standard USEng.

 

 

In
formal styles, the subjunctive is used more often in USEng than in EngEng in that– clauses after verbs of ordering,
asking, etc. and in conditional

 

clauses. Both
varieties can replace the subjunctive in such sentences with that? should + infinitive or with to
+ infitive especially in more informal styles:

USEng ? formal	EngEng & USEng ? less formal
We recommended that he be released	We recommended that he should be released
It is necessary that you do it	It is necessary		that you should do it for you to do it
We ask that you inform us as soon as possible	We ask you to inform us as soon as possible
If this be the case,?	If this	should be the case,? is the case,?

 

 

Clauses
representing hypothetical situation are often introduced by if, as in:

If
I had been there, I could have fixed it

If
you (should) need help, please call me

If
this situation were to continue, the authorities would have to take action

 

In EngEng, hypothetical
clauses can also be formed without using if
by inverting the subject and verb or first auxiliary:

Had
I been there, I could have fixed it

Should
you need help, please call me

Were
this situation to continue, the authorities would have to take action

 

Such
constructions are considered very formal in USEng.

 

There
is a strong tendency in NAmEng to use simple past tense forms for recently
completed events where EngEng would use the present perfect, e.g.:

NAmEng:	So you finally arrived!
EngEng:	So you?ve finally arrived!

 

 

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