Verbs of incomplete predication

Look at the following sentences:

He writes.
He looks upset.

The sentence He writes makes complete sense. But if you say, He looks the sense is incomplete. You have to supply a word like upset (or tired, sad, happy, cheerful etc.) to make the sense complete. Looks is therefore a verb of incomplete predication. The word upset which completes the meaning of the sentence is called the complement of the verb.

Other examples of verbs of incomplete predication are: is, am, are, was, were, turn, grow, appear, look, taste etc.

The sky grew dark.
The milk turned sour.
The fished tasted awful.
She is intelligent.
He seems upset.

Verbs of incomplete predication

See also