Parts of a Sentence

The Sentence is: a two-part thought contains a subject and a predicate an idea John watched. If John watched...

Parts of a Sentence Sentence: A group of words that contains a subject and its predicate, and makes a complete thought. To say something clearly we have to say what we are talking about (subject) and what we are saying about it (predicate).

Parts of a Sentence Simple Subject: The noun or subject pronoun that the sentence is about. She went home. (simple subject)

Parts of a Sentence Complete Subject: Includes the simple subject and all of its modifiers. She went home. The beautiful baby girl went home. (complete subject)

Parts of a Sentence Compound Subject: More than one noun or pronoun is used as a double subject of the same clause. She went home. The beautiful baby girl went home. The beautiful baby girl and her mother went home. (compound subject)

Parts of a Sentence Compound subjects joined by and are considered plural, and must take a plural verb. Jim and John are here. Compound subjects joined by or are singular. Jim or John is here.

Parts of a Sentence Predicate: the side of the sentence that says something about the subject. The verb and other words that are about the subject.

Parts of a Sentence Simple Predicate: Is the verb She went home. (simple predicate)

Parts of a Sentence  Complete Predicate: › Everything that is said about the subject. › She went home from the hospital a day early. (complete predicate) › The beautiful baby girl and her mother went home from the hospital a day early.

Parts of a Sentence Compound verbs: She went home and stayed there.

Parts of a Sentence Subject /predicate set: the simple combination of simple subject and simple predicate that is always present as a nucleus in every idea, in every sentence and in every clause. The sentence may have more than the subject/predicate set, but it will always have the set.

Parts of a Sentence Practice: You must have a strange opinion of me. The tall singer stepped cautiously on the stage. Hey, Sam isn’t supposed to be here.

Parts of a Sentence Direct Object: A noun or pronoun that receives the action of the action verb. He hugged his shuddering body in both his arms. The boy caught the ball. You must have a strange opinion of me.

Parts of a Sentence When there is a direct object, the action verb is called transitive. When the action verb does not act on a direct object the verb is called intransitive. Linking verbs (am, is, are, was, were, being, been) are neither.

Parts of a Sentence Indirect object: A noun or object pronoun located between the action verb and the direct object. The structure is S—AV—IO—DO. It is used instead of using a prepositional phrase. The forest brigade gave an ultimatum to the rebels. The forest brigade gave the rebels an ultimatum.

Indirect object: The direct object is the what, and the indirect object is the who. I’ll give this ugly plant a bit of fertilizer. Ender fought them for control. The new millionaire could not buy himself acceptance with his money.

Parts of a Sentence Linking Verbs: Connects the subject of the sentence to information about that subject. Linking verbs do not describe action. With linking verbs, the sentence structure is always: Subject—linking verb—information about the subject

Parts of a Sentence These verbs are ALWAYS linking verbs: To be—is, am, are, was, were, has been, have been, had been, is being, are being, was being, will have been, etc. To become—become, becomes, became, has become, have become, had become, will become, will have become, etc. To seem—seemed, seeming, seems, has seemed, have seemed, had seemed, is seeming, are seeming, was seeming, were seeming, will seem.

Parts of a Sentence Other verbs can function as linking verbs. Some examples: look, smell, appear, prove, sound, etc. If you can substitute the word ‘is’ for the verb and the sentence still makes sense, the verb is a linking verb.

Parts of a Sentence Jane appeared uninjured after the accident. Jane was uninjured after the accident. Before I could leave, Jane appeared. The cake smells good. The cake is good. Ellen smells the cake. The woman grew silent. The woman is silent. The gardener grew some flowers.

Parts of a Sentence Subject compliment: A noun, subject pronoun, or adjective that is linked to the subject by a linking verb and tells more about the subject.

Parts of a Sentence Predicate nominative: When the subject compliment is a noun or subject pronoun. It was a hard trip. It was she and I who came to visit.

Parts of a Sentence Predicate adjective: When the subject compliment is an adjective. She is brilliant. I am sleepy.

Parts of a Sentence First look for the subject/predicate set. Then find the subject and its verb. Is the verb action or linking? If its an action verb, there may be a direct object. If there is a direct object, there may be an IO. If it’s a linking verb, then there might be a subject compliment.