Basic Grammar Skills

Lesson 4: Sentence Structure

Subjects and Predicates

In this lesson, we will discuss subjects and predicates. A sentence is made up of a subject and a predicate.

Subjects

A subject is a noun or pronoun that is doing the action in a sentence. The subject can be either simple, complete, or compound.

Simple Subjects

A simple subject is the main noun. It identifies who or what in the sentence and what the subject is doing.

Let's look at this example.

The tall girl with long wavy brown hair stood on the porch steps.

The simple subject is girl.

Exercises

Look at the following sentences and see if you can locate the simple subject.

1. The dog chased the squirrel.

2. Sadey barked at the people walking in the street.

3. The basketball player tossed the ball in the basket with three seconds left.

4. The dark clouds formed above.

5. The deer dashed into the woods.

Now, let's look at the complete subjects.

Complete Subjects

The complete subject is the main noun plus everything else that goes with the subject.

For example: The girl with the long brown wavy hair jogged down the street.

The complete subject is: Girl with the long brown wavy hair.

Exercises

See if you can locate the complete subjects in each sentence.

1. The slender looking girl with short hair and glasses was the life of the party.

2. The tall basketball player with the bandage around the right knee tossed the ball into the basket with three seconds left.

3. The yard with the chain linked fence around it needed to be mowed soon because it was getting too tall.

Predicates

Once you have located the subject, the predicates are easy to find. A predicate shows action. The subject is the one who is doing the action.

There are different kinds of predicates just like there were for subjects.

Simple Predicate

The simple predicate, which can be from one to four words long, is the verb in the complete predicate.

Here are some examples:

1. The squirrel ran across the yard and over the fence.

2. The girl jogged for one mile to the park and one mile back home.

The Complete Predicate

The complete predicate is easy to locate once you know what the complete subject is. It's everything in the sentence that the complete subject isn't.

Here's an example: The girl with the short brown hair came to my house.

Came to my house is the complete predicate.

Exercises

Look at the following sentences and pick out the complete predicate.

1. The girl ran around the yard.

2. The basketball player scored thirty points in the game.

3. The television show was really scary for the children.

4. He decided to come to my party.

5. Tom and Mary went to the movies.

Compound Predicate

The compound predicate is two or more verbs joined by a conjunction such as and, or, or but.

Here is an example.

The goat ran around the yard and broke through the gate.

Exercises

1. The woman ran out of the house and ran away.

2. Sadey sat on the sofa and then started barking at the people outside.

3. The blue bird flew on the fence and then flew away.

4. The suspect dashed down the street and then hid in an abandoned building.

5. The police turned on their lights and chased the speeding car.

These exercises are for your own benefit.

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