What Makes a sentence “complete?” SUBJECTS & PREDICATES: What Makes a sentence “complete?”

Complete sentences contain: Subject Predicate If you don’t have both parts, you don’t have a complete sentence- you have a FRAGMENT! Boo! 

SUBJECTS of sentences WHAT or WHOM the sentence is about

PREDICATES of sentences Tells us SOMETHING ABOUT the subject Predicates ALWAYS include the VERB!

Examples SUBJECTS are in green. PREDICATES are in purple. Judy runs. Judy and her dog run on the beach each morning.

A helpful hint * isolate the verb and then make a question by placing "who?" or "what?" before it -- the answer is the subject. Ex. The audience littered the theatre floor with torn wrappings and spilled popcorn. The verb in the above sentence is "littered." Who or what littered? The audience did. "The audience" is the subject of the sentence. The predicate (which always includes the verb) goes on to relate something about the subject: what about the audience? It "littered the theatre floor with torn wrappings and spilled popcorn."

Tricky, tricky Imperative sentences aren’t quite so easy. Imperative sentences give commands. Ex. Do your homework. The verb is do. Who or what should do homework? The subject is implied before the sentence- “you” The predicate then is “do your homework.”

One more warning Beware of sentences that start with “there” followed by a form of the verb “to be” Ex. There were three stray kittens cowering under our porch steps this morning. The verb is cowering Who or what did the cowering? Three stray kittens (your subject)

Schoolhouse Rock time! Our last one this term! Boo (again!)  Mr. Morton is the of the and what the says, he .