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In this sentence:

He is going to school.

is the word "school" an object or complement?

My confusion arises from the dual observations that: (a) it apparently can not be object, because the verb "go" is intransitive, and (b) it is not an complement either because it doesn't modify anything.

So what role does the word "school" play in this sentence?

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    I see that you have an issue with the shift key. And intermittently, with the space bar. Can you clean up the post?
    – Kris
    Apr 7, 2015 at 10:54
  • @Kris I did it for OP.
    – Dan Bron
    Apr 7, 2015 at 17:15

2 Answers 2

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"to school" is a prepositional phrase which acts as a complement. Within the phrase, "school" is the object of the preposition "to".

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In this sentence:

He is going to school. is the word "school" an object or complement?

My confusion arises from the dual observations that: (a) it apparently can not be object, because the verb "go" is intransitive, and (b) it is not an complement either because it doesn't modify anything.

So what role does the word "school" play in this sentence?

Answer: It depends on whether you treat “He is going.” as a complete sentence or not. If yes, “to school” would be a prepositional phrase functioning as an adverbial phrase. If not, “to school” would have to be a complement as well by definition. “School” is the object of the preposition “to” in the prepositional phrase.

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