Subjects and Verbs

What is a subject?

What is a verb?

What does a sentence need to be complete?

Complete sentences  In order to write a complete sentence you need four things.  A subject  A verb  A complete thought  Ending punctuation (. !?)  I ran.  Is this a complete sentence?

Subjects  The subject of a sentence is the person, place, thing, or idea that the sentence is about.  We can call the subject the “ who” or “what” word.  To find the subject, ask yourself, “Who or what is the sentence about?  Who or what is doing something in this sentence?

What people are in this classroom?

What are these people doing?

Example  People laugh.  Who or what is this sentence about?

Example  The subject is people; they are the ones who laugh.  So people is the subject of the sentence.

Example  John found the subject of the sentence.  Who is doing something in this sentence?

Subjects  A subject will always be either a noun or a pronoun.  A noun is the name of a person, place, thing or idea.  A pronoun is a word—like I, you, he, she, it, we, or they—that stands for a noun

Verbs  Many verbs express action: they tell what the subject is doing.  You can find an action verb by asking, “What does the subject do?”

Example  People laugh.  We know that “people” is the subject.  What do people do?

Example  Gloria wrote the answers on the board.  What does Gloria do?

Verbs  While many verbs express action and tell us what the subject does…  Some verbs are called linking verbs.  Linking verbs like is, are, was, and were join (or link) the subject to something that is said about the subject.  Gloria is a teacher.  The linking verb “is” connects the subject Gloria with what is said about her—that she is a teacher.

Examples  My friends and I eat in a restaurant every Monday.  Before going home, John finished his essay.  Grammar is easy to understand with practice.  Geometry and algebra seem difficult to math students.  Parents always have the best interests of their children in mind.

A preposition can describe the relationship of the caterpillar and this apple.

What is a preposition?  A preposition is a little word that shows the relationship between a noun or pronoun, and some other word in the rest of the sentence.

Prepositional Phrases  A prepositional phrase is a group of words that begins with a preposition and ends with a noun. Common prepositions are about, after, as, at, before, between, by, during, for, from, in, into, like, of, on, outside, over, through, to, toward, with, and without.  To find a prepositional phrase, ask “How? When? What? Where? Under what condition? Which one? Whose? What kind? How many?”  As you look for the subject of the sentence, it may help to cross out any prepositional phrases that you find.

Examples—cross out prepositional phrases and find the subject and verb.  The coffee from the leaking pot stained the carpet.  One of my classmates fell asleep during class.  The woman on the motorcycle has no helmet.  The cracks and booms during the thunderstorm were terrifying.  The coffee from the leaking pot stained the carpet.  One of my classmates fell asleep during class.  The woman on the motorcycle has no helmet.  The cracks and booms during the thunderstorm were terrifying.