Brighter Grammar 1 - Margaret Macaulay 1987
Lesson Eleven. The subject of a sentence
Here are seven sentences:
You will notice that each sentence is divided into two parts by a line and the parts are marked A and B.
The subject
Part A (The Duke of Wellington, I, The poor woodcutter, This book, The boy, A little boy in a blue shirt and shorts, The workman) contains the person or thing we are talking about in the sentence. We call this the subject of the sentence.
The word or group of words that we speak about in a sentence is called the subject. The subject is the ’doer’ of the action.
You want to practise finding the subject of the sentence. Why? Because the subject is the word or group of words that:
1 changes place when we make a question:
The girl is clever. Is the girl clever?
subject subject
2 decides the form of the verb in some cases:
Is the girl clever? Are the girls clever?
subject subject
The predicate
Part В (wanted to buy the farm, can do these exercises, lost his axe, belongs to me, laughed, ran down the street, is unhappy) is what we say about the subject. We call that part of the sentence the predicate. The predicate can be one word, or it can be several words.
The predicate of a sentence is the word or group of words that tells us something about the subject.
There is generally a noun or a pronoun (Lesson 13) in the subject (Duke of Wellington, I, woodcutter, book, boy, workman).
There is always a verb in the predicate (wanted, can do, lost, belongs, laughed, ran, is).
There is an easy way to find out the subject of a sentence.
First pick out the verb and ask, ’Who?’ or ’What?’
Who? / What? → verb = subject
Look at these examples:
This book belongs to me.
What —> belongs? = This book (subject)
A little boy ran down the street.
Who —> ran? = A little boy (subject)
Exercises
A Pick out the subject of each of the following sentences:
1 Birds fly. (Ask: What?)
2 Fish swim. (Ask: What?)
3 The pupil reads a book. (Ask: Who?)
4 The cat caught a mouse. (Ask: What?)
5 Henry opened the door. (Ask: Who?)
6 Margaret Lee goes to school.
7 A man went into the chemist’s shop.
8 The chemist opened the bottle.
9 The medicine has cured your headache.
10 A poor woodcutter was cutting wood.
11 His axe fell into the water.
12 The fairy showed him a silver axe.
13 I can give you the gold axe and the silver axe.
14 An old gentleman was walking along the street.
15 The naughty boy ran round the corner.
16 The man was very angry.
17 The real value of Farmer Jackson’s land is £40,000.
18 The girl is going to the shops.
19 The moon gives less light than the sun.
20 The Duke’s agent took £10,000 and gave it to Farmer Jackson.
В Add predicates to these subjects.
1 The fairy ...
2 The woodcutter ...
3 He ...
4 My friend in London ...
5 The horses ...
6 The driver of the train ...
7 The chemist ...
8 Flowers ...
9 A big red-faced man ...
10 The blackboard ...
C Give subjects to these predicates.
1 ... is in the garden.
2 ... has lost his knife.
3 ... sing.
4 ... opened the door.
5 ... wanted to buy a farm.
6 ... went into the shop.
7 ... sat at the back of the class.
8 ... is making the flowers grow.
9 ... will feed the hens.
10 ... went slowly out of the station.
11 ... answered all the questions.
12 ... sells butter, sugar and tea.
13 ... visits Trinidad three times a year.
14 ... laid an egg
15 ... have lost all their leaves.