What is a compound nominal predicate?
Hello!
When I read English grammar books I come across strange words that I don't understand. There's a creature called a compound nominal predicate. Could you explain what it is?

"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)"

Question

What is a compound  nominal  predicate?
Hello!
When I read English grammar books I come across strange words that I don't understand. There's a creature called a compound  nominal  predicate. Could you explain what it is?

"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)"

Answer

"Compound nominal predicate" seems to me to be a term invented by Russian English teachers, but it is really quite easy to understand. If we think of the structure of a sentence in English as consisting of a subject, a verb, and (sometimes) an object (in that order), then the compound nominal predicate is really the verb and the object together.

The text above also refers to the "predicative", which is really the object. As it points out, objects in English can be either nouns or adjectives. (Apparently, objects in Russian cannot be adjectives.)

Answer

Саша, все просто: a compound nominal predicate-это составное именное сказуемое, которое состоит из глагола связки (be/seem/look/smell etc) и именного компонента (nominal part: a noun or an adj/an adj phrase, but not an adv in English).

Скажу сразу, что термин «составное» обычно используется при противопоставлении «простому» именному сказуемому в тех языках, в которых именное сказуемое может образовываться без глагола-связки (например в русском языке). В английском же, именное сказуемое всегда составное.

Ex: He is a teacher(составное)- Он учитель (простое)
       They are happy (составное)-Они счастливы (простое)
       The soup smelled good (составное)- Суп пах хорошо (составное)

Джон прав-это всё вариации классификаций русскоязычных лингвистов.

Answer

Hmm - English grammar books in Russian by any chance? There's an interesting discussion here: https://www.englishforums.com/English/CompoundNominalPredicate/bvbgvb/post.htm
Personally, I've never heard of it, and only partly understand the definition on that page...