The two fundamental parts of every English sentence are the subject and the predicate. A subject can be described as the component that performs the action described by the predicate.
It tells who or what does or did the action.
It may also name the topic.
The predicate tells about the subject.
It tells what the subject does or is.
Examples:
Subject Predicate
(Who or what) (What is said about the subject)
The antelope jumped over the high fence.
Pigs eat anything is sight when hungry.
In a sentence, a few key words are more important than the rest.
These key words make the basic framework of the sentence.
The verb and its subject are the key words that form the basic framework of every sentence.
The rest of the sentence is built around them.
Examples:
Sentence Key words
The young kids jumped playfully.
kids, jumped
Their faces shone brightly.
faces, shone
To find out the subject, ask who or what before the verb.
Examples:
Who jumped playfully? – kids
What shone brightly? – faces
To find out the verb, ask what after the subject.
Examples:
The young kids did what? – jumped
Their faces did what? – shone
The key word in the subject of a sentence is called the simple subject.
For example, kids, faces.
The complete subject is the simple subject plus any words that modify or describe it.
For example: The young kids. Their faces.
The key word in the predicate is called the simple predicate.
For example, jumped, shone.
The complete predicate is the verb plus any words that modify or complete the verb’s meaning.
For example, jumped playfully, shone brightly.
The simple subjects and predicates may sometimes be more than one word.
For simple subjects, it may be the name of a person or a place.
Examples:
Ballack Obama won the US presidential race.
South Africa is the home of many bats.
The simple predicate may also be more than one word.
There may be a main verb and a helping verb.
Tanya has acted in many TV shows.
She will be performing again tonight.
See also: