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Subject
and predicate explained
Dahlia
Bartley, Contributor
Another
week has gone by and it is time for
another lesson. I hope you are coping
very well with your schoolwork and
you are not allowing distractions
to sidetrack you. I want you to maintain
your focus and study hard.
A
good student does his or her homework.
I know you did yours, so let us check
it.
Sentences
1 and 6 - interrogative
Sentences
2 and 5 - declarative
Sentences
3 and 8 - perative
Sentences
4 and 7 - exclamatory
I
trust that you did well and will make
attempts to learn from your mistakes.
We
will continue by examining the terms,
subject and predicate. Let us remind
ourselves of the common way to find
the subject. We find the finite verb
first, then look for the noun/pronoun
being spoken about by asking who or
what before the finite verb. But first,
what is this finite verb? It is the
verb that can take a subject, one
that can be conjugated. A verb we
use frequently is, to be. Let me conjugate
it, in the present tense, with you.
| Singular
|
Plural
|
| I
am |
We
are |
| You
are |
You
are |
| He,
she, it is |
They
are |
Remember,
too, that verbs also have other tenses
- for example, past, present, future
and perfect tenses.
You
will recall that the most familiar
subject form is a noun or a pronoun;
that which the sentence speaks about.
Look at these two sentences:
1.
Gary plays football.
2.
I went to see the play, Old
Story Time.
Gary
(sentence 1) and I (sentence
2) are subjects in the sentences.
You can see clearly that each sentence
speaks about 'someone'. In the same
way, a sentence can speak about something,
for example:
3.
My bag is on the second shelf.
4.
Cheating will not be tolerated.
In
each sentence, I have underlined the
subject. It is important for you to
know that the subject is not always
found at the beginning of a sentence.
Let's look at the following to illustrate
this:
For
some strange reason, only the stack
of newspapers was stolen.
Now,
was stolen is the finite
verb. Who/what was stolen? Yes, you
are correct - only the stack
of newspapers.
Now,
let's move on to the predicate - that
part of the sentence which tells us
what is happening to the subject.
The predicate in sentence 1 above
is plays football and
in sentence 2, it is, went to
see the play Old Story Time.
The finite verb (the action word)
is the most important part of the
predicate.
When
the sentence is a command, and no
one is specifically addressed, the
subject is [you]. You must have heard
this referred to as you understood.
An example of this is the command:
Please find your seats. Can you find
the subject in the following sentence:
Listen! I am not misleading you. I
have deliberately chosen to test you
here. Since the sentence is a command,
the subject is [you].
Now,
some of us find it difficult to identify
the subject in a question.
Consider
this: Are you working tonight?
Change
the sentence to the statement - You
are working tonight. Now follow
the rule given above. The subject
is you. We will look at another example.
What I saw was unbelievable.
What was unbelievable? The answer
is What I saw, so this is the subject
of the sentence. You see, then, the
subject may be one word or a group
of words.
Your
teachers, I know, have been doing
numerous exercises in this area. Do
pay attention. Work with them to find
the subject in: There goes the
captain of the team.
I
will leave you with a short exercise.
Please find the subject in each of
the following sentences:
- Colleen's
students did well in the external
examination.
- For
most of his life, Jim has lived
in Kingston.
-
Listen to that song!
- May
I help you with your bags?
- John
took the car and Mary went to the
store.
- In
the centre strode two policemen.
- What
she said to me is encouraging.
- There
will be plenty of time for playing
when we visit London.
Work
through these carefully. See you next
week.
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Salute
of the Swans: St Hugh's High
School cheerleaders perform
a routine in celebration of
students who excel.
- Norman Grindley /Deputy Chief
Photographer
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Violinist
Nadje Lewis plays for Lorna
Golding during the launch of
the Evening of the Classics
at Vale Royal on Thursday, April
17.
- CONTRIBUTED
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Dahlia
Bartley teaches at Glenmuir High School.
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