Dave Murad
Grammar
Subjects, Verbs, and Predicates
A sentence is typically comprised of a Subject (a noun in some form) and Verb, and in many cases, the Verb represents the action and the Subject the thing doing the action.
Aralai cried. I consoled. We laughed.
In many sentences, the Verb is part of a Predicate, the part of the sentence (or clause) containing the verb and any additional information about what the subject is or is doing.
Aralai cried into my shoulder. I consoled her. We laughed together.
Note that not every word after a verb is considered within the predicate. In the following example, the clause after the comma expresses more information about “shoulder” (not what the subject Aralai is doing):
Aralai cried into my shoulder, which became wet with tears.
In fact, that latter clause has its own subject (which, a relative pronoun) and verb/predicate, the combination of which can be identified by creating its own simple sentence:
Aralai cried into my shoulder, which became wet with tears.
Aralai cried into my shoulder. My shoulder became wet with tears.
Simple and Complete Subjects
Simple subjects (like most examples above) are usually a single noun or pronoun. Complete subjects include the simple subject and any modifiers (any words further detailing the subject). Below, the complete subject is highlighted with the simple subject bolded:
An upset Aralai cried into her father’s shoulder. His shoulder became wet with tears. Professor Murad then consoled her. Both of them laughed.
In the second-to-last sentence, “Professor Murad” is a simple subject because it is a proper noun. “David Murad” or “Yellowstone National Park” are other proper nouns and possible multiple-word simple subjects.
Types of Verbs
Main Verbs typically express the action of the sentence, but depending on tense or form (such as when or how the action occurred) can arrive with fellow helping verbs. In the following set, all verbs are highlighted, but the *main verb also has an asterisk.
Aralia was *playing with her toys. I had been *watching her. Eventually, we will be *eating dinner.
Phrasal Verbs contain more than one word, in any tense.
Aralai’s puzzle fell apart. David cheered her up. They got over it together.
Subject-Verb Placement
In a sentence, a Subject typically precedes its Verb, but there are exceptions, such as Expletives or the following:
Verb-Subject sentence alignment: Among the crowd was my daughter, waving to everyone.
Subject-verb realignment: My daughter was among the crowd, waving to everyone.
Sentence realignment (with new verb and predicate importing slightly different meaning): My daughter was *waving to everyone among the crowd.
For the first two sentences: While the changed wording can impress slightly different emphases (on the “crowd” or “my daughter,” respectively), they both suggest relatively the same thing: that my daughter is waving to everyone, among the crowd or not. However, the last sentence rather suggests that my daughter was only waving to those who were among the crowd. In that case, was becomes a helping verb, whereas in the first two sentences was is a past-tense linking verb (of the verb to be).
Subject, Verb, and Predicate Exercises
In the following sentences, identify the subject and its main verb.
The storm interrupted our afternoon plans.
1
Subject: storm
Main Verb: interrupted
After the storm, we decided to get ice cream.
2
Subject: we
Main Verb: decided
The nearest ice cream shop sits right by my house.
3
Subject: shop
Main verb: sits
There was only one problem, though.
4
Subject: problem
Main Verb: was
Unfortunately, the shop had run out of my favorite flavor.
5
Subject: shop
Main Verb: run out of [had is a linking verb]