In revising my own list of basic sentence patterns, I am ready to join Martha Kolln and others in seeing subject+BE+adverb of time* or place as a pattern: John is here. John is in the kitchen. Would I be drummed out of the profession if I called that adverb a complement because it completes its verb as much as subject complements or direct objects complete their verbs? MIchael Kischner *Actually, I can't think of an adverb of time that goes comfortably in that slot. "Choir practice is on Thursdays" doesn't seem to cut it; in that sentence, BE seems to be just a shortcut for HAPPEN or OCCUR. I know that something similar is said of BE with an adverb of place -- that BE then means EXIST. But this isn't my main question.