Object Complements

Sometimes a direct object by itself is not enough. The sentence The committee elected him feels incomplete — elected him to what? The missing piece is an object complement, an element that follows the direct object and renames, describes, or completes its meaning. When you add it, the sentence becomes whole: The committee elected him treasurer.

Object complements appear with a special class of verbs called factitive verbs — verbs that express making, naming, calling, choosing, or considering something to be something else. The most common are make, elect, call, name, consider, appoint, declare, find, and think. These verbs set up the expectation that the direct object will be transformed, identified, or categorized in some way.

The complement itself can take several forms. A noun or noun phrase renames the object: They named the baby Elena, We consider him a friend. An adjective or adjective phrase describes the object's resulting state: The news made her happy, The excitement got the kids way too hyper. An infinitive expresses an intended action: She asked me to leave, They ordered him to stop. Object complements are especially common in reported speech, where infinitives carry the content of what was asked, told, or commanded: He told me to wait, I advised her to apply.

A gerund or gerund phrase can also serve as an object complement, describing an ongoing action of the object: I saw him running, We caught them sneaking out. And in some cases, a relative clause functions to describe the object: I found the book that you wanted.

Distinguishing object complements from indirect objects takes practice. An indirect object names the recipient (She gave me a gift) while an object complement renames or describes the direct object (She made me proud — here proud is the complement describing me). The test is simple: can you put to be between the direct object and the element in question? If so, it is an object complement. They elected him to be treasurer works; She gave me to be a gift does not.