1. Subjects and Verbs

2. What is a subject?

3. What is a verb?

4. What does a sentence need to be complete?

5. 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?

6. 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?

7. What people are in this classroom?

8. What are these people doing?

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

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

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

12. 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

13. 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?”

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

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

16. 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.

17. 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.

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

19. 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.

20. 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.

21. 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.