The predicative.

The predicative is the significant part of the compound nominal predicate. It can be expressed in different ways:

1. By a noun in the common case, occasionally by a noun in the possessive case.

She is a pretty child. (Galsworthy)

The book is my sister's.

In Russian the predicative is expressed either by a noun in the nominative case or by a noun in the instrumental case.

Он учитель.

Он был учителем.

2.By an adjective.

He's awfully dear and unselfish. (Galsworthy)

Very often the predicative expressed by an adjective in English does not correspond to an adjective in Russian. It often corresponds to an adverb, serving as an adverbial modifier.

In this connection particular attention should be paid to the fob lowing verbs as they are very often used in everyday English: to look, to feel, to sound, to smell, to taste.

The dinner smells delicious. — Обед пахнет восхитительно

When she got angry, her voice sounded shrill. — Когда она сердилась, ее голос звучал пронзительно.

She looks bad. — Она выглядит плохо.

Не feels bad. — Он чувствует себя плохо.

This orange tastes bitter. — Этот апельсин горький.

As is seen from the examples given above all these predicative ad­jectives (with the exception of the one that follows the verb to taste) are rendered by adverbs in Russian.

3.By a pronoun — personal, possessive, negative, interrogative, reflexive, indefinite, defining.

It was he.

The guns were his. (London)

You are nobody. (London)

Why? What is he? (Galsworthy)

But she was herself again, brushing her tears away. (Lindsay)

As a rule the pronoun in the function of a predicative is in the nominative case, but in Modern English there is a marked tendency to use personal pronouns in the objective case, especially the personal pronoun.

It's me, Matt. (Lindsay)

Someone said, "That's him!";

4. By a word of the category of state.

He was aware all the time of the stringy tie beneath the mackin­tosh, and the frayed sleeves... (Greene)

But I'm afraid I can't keep the man. (Galsworthy)

5.By a numeral, cardinal or ordinal.

I'm only 46. (Shaw)

Mr. Snodgrass was the first to break the astonished silence. (Dickens)

6.By a prepositional phrase.

The things were outside her experience. (Wells)

After all, the little chap was on the side of the Capital. (Galswor­thy)

7.By an infinitive, infinitive phrase, or an infinitive construction.

June's first thought was to go away. (Galsworthy)

His first act was to bolt the door on the inside. (Dickens)

The best thing is for you to move in with me. (Abrahams)

8.By a gerund, gerundial phrase, or gerundial construction.

My favourite sport is swimming.

The great secret, Eliza, is not having bad manners or good manners or any other particular sort of manners, but having the same manners for all human souls. (Shaw)

The point of their disagreement was Jane's going on holiday in July.

9.By Participle II or very seldom Participle I; the latter is generally adjectivized.

He was surprised at the sound of his own voice. (London)

Here was change, indeed! I fell back astounded in my chair. (Buck)

It is very distressing to me, sir, to give this information. (Dick­ens)

The moment was soothing to his sore spirit. (Sanborn)

(A detailed treatment of the difference between a compound nomi­nal predicate with a predicative expressed by Participle II and a simple predicate expressed by a verb in the Passive Voice is given in Chapter VII, Passive Voice, § 6.)

10.By an adverb.

That was all. It was enough the way she said it. (Sanborn)