Subjects in Different Sentence Structures

The typical sentence structures are:

The subject performs an action:

· My dog bit the postman.

The subject is described:

· My dog is boisterous.

(When the subject is being described, the verb (in this case, is) will be a linking verb.)

The subject is identified:

· My dog is the one in the middle.

(When the subject is being identified (which is just another way of being described), the verb will be a linking verb.)

The subject has an action done to it:

· My dog was taken to the vet.

(When the subject has an action done to it, the sentence is called a passive sentence.)

The subject in a simple English sentence such as John runs, John is a teacher, or John was hit by a car is the person or thing about whom the statement is made, in this case 'John'. Traditionally the subject is the word or phrasewhich controls the verb in the clause, that is to say with which the verb agrees (John is but John and Mary are). If there is no verb, as in John - what an idiot!, or if the verb has a different subject, as in John - I can't stand him!, then 'John' is not considered to be the grammatical subject, but can be described as the 'topic' of the sentence.

These definitions seem clear enough for simple sentences such as the above, but as will be shown in the article below, problems in defining the subject arise when an attempt is made to extend the definitions to more complex sentences and to languages other than English. For example, in the sentence It is difficult to learn French, the grammatical subject seems to be the word 'it', and yet arguably the 'real' subject (the thing that is difficult) is 'to learn French'. (A sentence such as It was John who broke the window is more complex still.) Sentences beginning with a locative phrase, such as There is a problem, isn't there?, in which the tag question 'isn't there?' seems to imply that the subject is the adverb 'there', also create difficulties for the definition of subject.[2]

In languages such as Latin or German the subject of a verb has a form which is known as the nominative case: for example, the form 'he' (not 'him' or 'his') is used in sentences such as he ran, he broke the window, he is a teacher, he was hit by a car. But there are some languages such as Basque or Greenlandic, in which the form of a noun or pronounwhen the verb is intransitive (he ran) is different from when the verb is transitive (he broke the window). In these languages, which are known as ergative languages, the concept of 'subject' may not apply at all.

The predicate

What Is the Predicate of a Sentence? (with Examples)

The predicate is the part of a sentence(or clause) that tells us what the subjectdoes or is. To put it another way, the predicate is everything that is not the subject.

At the heart of the predicate is a verb. In addition to the verb, a predicate can contain direct objects, indirect objects, and various kinds of phrases.

A sentence has two parts: the subject and the predicate. The subject is what the sentence is about, and the predicate is a comment about the subject

Examples of Predicates of Sentences

Here are some examples of predicates. In each example, the predicate of the sentence is shaded and the verb in the predicate is in bold.

· Elvis lives.

· Adam lives in Bangor.

· The telegram contained exciting news.

· The girls in our office areexperienced instructors.

· They are experienced instructors, who acquired their experience in France.

Predicates in Clauses

A clause contains a subject and predicate too. The examples below are all clauses not sentences. The predicate is shaded and the verb of the clause is in bold.

· who lives with her mother

(The subject is the relative pronoun who.)

· which was somewhat unexpected

(The subject is the relative pronoun which.)

· that points to the North Pole

(The subject is the relative pronoun that.)

Predicates within Predicates

It is common for a clause to feature within a sentence predicate. For example:

· who lives with our mother

(This is a clause. It is has its own subject and predicate.)

· Jane is my youngest sister, who lives with our mother.

(Notice how the clause who lives with our mother (which has its own subject and predicate) is part of the longer sentence predicate.)

Predicate in a Sentence Starting There