THE SENTENCE SUBJECT AND PREDICATE

Definition :

A sentence is a grammatically independent unit of expression, made up of two essential parts called the Subject and the Predicate.

Every complete sentence has a subject and a predicate.

THE TWO MAIN PARTS OF A SENTENCE

e.g.

The Subject

The Predicate

e.g.

The girl dances well

The girl is a subject and dances well is the predicate. If I come up to you and say "The girl", you know that is the subject about which I wish to talk. But I have said nothing about the subject. To make a sentence I must say something about the girl.

If I say "The girl dances well", I have expressed a complete thought and I have made a sentence.

In grammar the person or thing we speak about is called the subject. What we say about the subject is called the predicate.

THE SUBJECT

Definition :

Subjects tell the listener and the reader whom or what the sentence is about. The subject is that part of a sentence which names a person, thing, or idea

e.g.

The master	The teacher	Stars
The dog	Flowers	The sun
Clock	The girl	The horse
David	The Child	The newspaper

Every complete subject contains a simple subject. The simple subject, which is a noun or pronoun, is the most important word in the complete subject.

e.g.

A loud argument

The newspaper article

We listened to the radio at the beach

Sausage and mushrooms are Leo’s favorite pizza toppings

THE PREDICATE

Definition :

The predicate is that part of a sentence which tells something about the subject.

e.g.

teaches well	eats grass	twinkle at night
the phonograph	shines during the day	bite the boy
crows in the morning	dances well	is clever

A simple predicate (or verb) describes the action or condition of the subject or subjects in a sentence.

e.g.

Danielle sketched

always support each other

rarely complains about snow

SUBJECT AND PREDICATE EXAMPLES

Notice how the following sentence are divided into subject and predicate:

e.g.

Subject	Predicate
The teacher	teaches well
Stars	twinkle at night
Flowers	bloom in the garden
Dogs	like to bark and sniff
Active boys	never stop playing
The birds	always sing early in the morning
The horse	is white
The young, worried pilot	read the storm warning
Taylor and Charlie	played with their toys
The waiter	tripped and fell over the diner’s legs

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