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For many people in the United States, undergoing a medical procedure can be a stressful, confusing, and sometimes overwhelming ordeal.

Is the following the correct way to describe the parts of this sentence:

The dependent clause:

For many people in the United States

The independent clause:

undergoing a medical procedure can be a stressful, confusing, and sometimes overwhelming ordeal.

Verb in independent clause:

Can be

Subject:

Undergoing a medical procedure

Object:

stressful, confusing, and sometimes overwhelming ordeal.

Im not sure what is the verb, subject, and object in the independent clause. To be honest I think the object is adjective but if so, is the sentence structure subject, verb, adjective?

Thanks!

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  • For many people in the United States is not a dependent clause. Right? I think it is the object in the sentence. And, stressful, confusing, and sometimes overwhelming ordeal is a subject complement.
    – Marah
    Jan 18, 2017 at 14:33
  • I see, that makes sense cause it doesn't have a verb in it
    – dngr193
    Jan 18, 2017 at 23:58
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    It is a phrase :)
    – Marah
    Jan 19, 2017 at 0:33

1 Answer 1

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Be does not take an object but a predicate complement (PC), which may be either nominal or adjectival.

He is a man. The PC is the noun phrase a man.
He is good. The PC is the adjective good.

In your sentence the PC is a noun phrase a stressful, confusing and sometimes overwhelming ordeal; its head is the noun ordeal, which is determined by a and modified by the conjunct phrase composed of and conjoining the adjectives stressful and confusing and the adjective phrase sometimes overwhelming.

enter image description here

(That's not quite how I'd represent the conjunct phrase, but it's what the software I could find would allow, and it's close enough.)

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8
  • I see, so is the predicate complement the same as object?
    – dngr193
    Jan 18, 2017 at 5:52
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    @dngr193 No -- an Object is acted on by the Subject, a Predicate Complement describes or identifies the Subject.
    – StoneyB on hiatus
    Jan 18, 2017 at 8:25
  • +1 'Predicate complement' <-- is that the same as a predicative complement?
    – Araucaria - Not here any more.
    Jan 18, 2017 at 14:00
  • @Araucaria Ayup. I can never decide which term I like less.
    – StoneyB on hiatus
    Jan 18, 2017 at 14:04
  • @StoneyB Yep, they're both pants, in the BE sense of the term ...
    – Araucaria - Not here any more.
    Jan 18, 2017 at 14:05

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