English [1.2] Subject vs. Predicate Mitsa Tutoring Organization || 2021.

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sUBJECT VS. PREDICATE

MEASURE Test your knowledge!

INSTRUCTIONS: Construct a sentence about the following photos, then

identify the subject and the predicate.

Sentence:

Subject:

Predicate:

Sentence:

Subject:

Predicate:

INSPIRE Set your goals!

Construct a sentence

Distinguish between the subject and predicate

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TEACH Learn with us!

All sentences are made up of at least one subject and at least one predicate. Think
of it as a bridge that needs at least two legs to stand, or a picture with a focus.

The subject is what the sentence is about.

It is often a noun or a pronoun.

The predicate often describes the subject. It

can be what the noun is doing, or what it’s
about. It can be a verb and/or a modifier.

Let’s go back to the picture above, and make a sentence.

The bridge is sturdy.

When we look at the picture, we notice that it focuses on the bridge. We can say
many things about this bridge - it’s over a river, surrounded by trees, under a blue
sky. The bridge is our subject, and everything that describes it or what it does is our
predicate.
Notice how the subject is connected to the predicate using the linking verb is.

NOTE:
What is the sentence about? The subject!
What can you say about the subject? The predicate!
There's a subject and a predicate in every sentence, and they're always
connected! This is because we're always talking about things and describing
them.

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What if it’s not? Let’s take a look at the following example.

The water reflects the bridge clearly.

What are we talking about? The water.

What about the water? It reflects the bridge clearly.

It’s also worth noting that the predicate is everything that is NOT the subject.

Because of this, we can have a thing called the compound predicate. Seeing the
trees’ reflections and describing the reflections to be in the water are two separate
things, but they’re BOTH predicates. A compound predicate is when we have two
or more things describing our subject.

Let's look at the following example.

The water reflects the bridge clearly and flows under it.

Trees aren't bridges,

but they can BOTH
still be predicates.

NOTE:
Sometimes, we talk about multiple things.

And, sometimes, we have a lot to say about one thing.

That's why we have compound subjects and compound predicates.

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So what if there’s a compound predicate? Is there also a compound subject? Let’s
use our last example for this one.

The water and the sky are located under and above the bridge.

A compound subject is when the sentence talks about two or more nouns or
pronouns. In this case, we’re talking about BOTH the bridge and the trees’
reflections. And remember:

COMPLETE
SUBJECT PREDICATE
SENTENCE

Having ONLY a subject or ONLY a predicate will mean that your sentence is
incomplete - in other words, it would only be a fragment, as you learned in the
previous lesson.

Think of the fragment as a puzzle piece.

You need multiple pieces to complete a
puzzle! You'll never see the full picture with
just one piece.

NOTE:
"On top of the fridge." What's on top of the fridge?

We don't know - not unless you add a subject, of course, then "on top of the
fridge" would become a complete sentence. "The puzzle piece is on top of the
fridge." Now, it's complete!

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The last thing we'll talk about is the clause. Think of it as the building blocks of a
sentence. A clause can be a sentence, or part of a sentence. Now, what do I mean
by this? Remember the following:

An independent clause is a complete thought - in other words, it can be a

sentence! All of the sentences we made above are independent clauses. A
dependent clause, on the other hand, is not. A dependent clause NEEDS an
independent clause.

There can be a lot of clauses in one sentence (though, please don’t try to put
so much!), but there has to be at least one independent clause for it to
work.

When we look for subjects and predicates, we tend to look within a clause.
This means that if we have a sentence that has two or more clauses, we have
to separate the clauses first before looking for the subjects and predicates.

An independent clause looks like your normal sentence. That is, if you remove
everything else, it can still have meaning.

A dependent clause usually starts with conjunctions. You’ll learn more about this
later. Some examples include but, while, and if. The main difference between the
two is that a dependent clause doesn't show a complete thought. If you see these
two in a sentence, they’re often separated by a comma ( , ).

NOTE:
This is a lot to take in! But the gist is:

independent clause = a complete thought! a whole sentence!

dependent clause = needs an independent clause!
The more clauses there are, the longer the sentence. Try to keep it short!

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SUMMARIZE Wrap it up!

Subject
Noun or pronoun
What the sentence is about
Compound subject: two or more subjects

Predicate
Verb and/or modifier
Describes the subject
Compound predicate: two or more predicates, everything that isn’t the subject

Clause
Can be independent or dependent
Buildings block of a sentence
Independent clause: can be a complete sentence
Dependent clause: needs the independent clause, starts with conjunctions

APPLY Check your learning!

INSTRUCTIONS: Take this excerpt from The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-
Exupéry. List the subject and the predicate in the space provided below. I’ve
set this format for the numbers with dependent clauses for reference.

(1) My drawing was not a picture of a hat. (2) It was a picture of a boa
constrictor digesting an elephant. (3) But since the grown-ups were not able to
understand it, (4) I made another drawing: (5) I drew the inside of the boa
constrictor, (6) so that the grown-ups could see it clearly. (7) They always need
to have things explained. (8) My drawing Number Two looked like this.

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1. Subject:
Predicate:

2. Subject:
Predicate:

3. Subject:
Predicate:

4. Subject:
Predicate:

5. Subject:
Predicate:

6̀. Subject:
Predicate:

7. Subject:
Predicate:

8. Subject:
Predicate:

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ANSWER KEY

Apply:
1. Subject: My drawing
Predicate: was not a picture of a hat

2. Subject: It
Predicate: was a picture of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant

3. Subject: The grown-ups

Predicate: were not able to understand it

4. Subject: I
Predicate: made another drawing

5. Subject: I
Predicate: drew the inside of a boa constrictor

6̀. Subject: it
Predicate: The grown-ups could see, clearly

7. Subject: They
Predicate: always need to have things explained

8. Subject: My drawing Number Two

Predicate: looked like this

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