1. Subjects and Predicates

2. Subjects and Predicates • A sentence consists of a subject and a predicate that together express a complete thought. • Both a subject and a predicate may consist of more than one word. • Example: • Charles Dickens's novelsare still popular today.

3. Complete Subject and Complete Predicate • Complete subject includes all the words in the subject of a sentence. • Complete predicate includes all the words in the predicate of a sentence. • Not all the words in the subject or the predicate are equally important. • Simple subject: the main word or word group in the complete subject. • Simple predicate: the main word or word group in the complete predicate.

4. Simple Subject and Simple Predicate • The simple predicate is always a verb. • A verb is a word that express action or a state of being. • Sometimes the simple subject is the same as the complete subject. • Sometimes the simple predicate is the same as the complete predicate.

5. Subject • All nouns and pronouns in a sentence perform a noun function. • There are seven noun functions in English. • Subject/Direct Object/Indirect Object/Object of Preposition/Predicate Nominative/Appositive/Noun of Direct Address • The subject of a sentence is never found in the prepositional phrase.

6. Practice • Mother rides a bus to the office. • We had a flat tire on the busy highway. • Is he in the office today, Ms. Nabinsky. • Mr. Goldberg took the baseball team to Yankee Stadium for the game with the Detroit Tigers. • The door won’t open; I can’t get outside. • The big, shaggy collie produced ten pups.

7. Practice • George Washington Carver found many uses for peanut shells. • Grandmother volunteers at the new community hospital. • Riverboat rides don’t make me ill. • After the boat trip, we will walk to the center of town. • Dr. Wu is an excellent dentist. • She and I won’t arrive until Sunday.

8. How to find Subjects: • First, find the verb • Then, ask “Who?” or “What?” and say the verb. • The answer is the subject