Verbs have the capacity of determining the constituents with which they can, or should, be combined in a sentence. This property is called valency.
The verb "schenken", for example, takes three complements.
| Example | ||
| Ich schenke meiner Frau einen Ring. | ||
|
|
sentence constituent
|
|
|
obligatory complement 1
|
ich
|
subject
|
|
obligatory complement 2
|
einen Ring
|
accusative object
|
|
obligatory complement 3
|
meiner Frau
|
dative object
|
The verb "essen" takes one obligatory complement, but it can have optional arguments as well.
| Example | ||
| Ich esse gerade eine Pizza. | ||
|
|
sentence constituent
|
|
|
obligatory complement 1
|
ich
|
subject
|
|
optional argument 1
|
eine Pizza
|
accusative object
|
|
optional argument 2
|
gerade
|
adverbial |
Verbs are divided into the following categories, according to their complements:
| "subject" | personal verbs |
| impersonal verbs | |
| "object" | transitive verbs |
| intransitive verbs | |
| "subject-object" | reflexive verbs |
| reciprocal verbs |