Subjects, Predicates, Complements The Parts of a Sentence Subjects, Predicates, Complements

What makes a sentence? It’s a word group that contains both a SUBJECT and a VERB. It expresses a COMPLETE thought. If one of these conditions is not met, it’s considered a SENTENCE FRAGMENT.

A Bare Bones Sentence Bob runs. Yes, it’s a complete sentence. It contains both a subject (Bob) and a verb (runs).

Complements Most sentences aren’t that simple. We can add words to modify the subject or the verb. Below, I’ve added words to the subject to give more information. It’s part of the subject. Bob, from Dallas, runs.

Complementing the Verb I can do the same for the verb. Bob runs to the store. And putting both together, we have… Bob from Dallas runs to the store.

Subject / Predicate But when we start adding things to the verb, we call the whole verb part of the sentence a PREDICATE. Don’t ask me why. Just know that we do. So, to form a complete sentence we have a subject and a predicate.

Subject / Predicate So, the subject part of the sentence is… Bob, from Dallas, And the predicate part is… runs to the store.

When they start throwing around the word SIMPLE PREDICATE, they just mean the verb itself the other words that help it… so, the simple predicate is runs.

See if you can identify the complete subjects and complete predicates of the following sentences. Sarah, who likes to eat cereal in the afternoon, flies to California tomorrow.

Subject: Sarah, who likes to eat cereal in the afternoon, (this all helps identify Sarah) Predicate flies to California tomorrow. (This all concerns the verb flying. It answers when?)

Another… That guy Bob always flirts with the girls, even in the presence of Sarah.

Complete Subject: That guy Bob Complete Predicate: always flirts with Sarah, even in the presence of Sarah. Everything after the comma is also part of the predicate because it tells when the verb happens. It’s like and adverb word for when. In fact, this is an adverbial phrase.

One more… Bob and Sara, who have been dating for three years, go to the store together often.

Complete Subject: Bob and Sara, who have been dating for three years, (It all helps identify our two subjects—Bob and Sara) Complete Predicate: go to the store together often. (This all helps answers all the questions of the verb—where and with whom. So they adverbial.)

Sentence Fragment Now, when you only have one or the other, it doesn’t make a complete sentence. This makes it a SENTENCE FRAGMENT.

Examples Bob, who is from Dallas. You only have a subject here. “who is from Dallas” only helps identify Bob. We don’t know what Bob did. Runs from one city to the next, without stopping. WHO runs from one city to the next?

The End Now do the questions…