A SENTENCE is a word or group of words that has a complete thought.
A.
- The woman wearing pink dress.
- The man who won the lottery
- watching TV
B.
- The woman wearing pink dress is reading a newspaper.
- He won.
- The children are watching Dora the Explorer.
The entries in column A are not sentences because they don’t convey complete thoughts. On the other hand, all entries in column B are examples of a sentence. Each of them has a subject and a predicate which make them have a complete thought.
What is a SUBJECT?
>Word or words about which something is said.
>It is either a noun or pronoun.
What is a PREDICATE?
>It is something about the subject.
IMPORTANT!
A subject and a predicate are called SIMPLE if they have only one word. The predicate is usually a verb. If they contain modifiers, then they are called COMPLETE.
Example:
1. The man standing near the cafeteria says he speaks five different languages.
2. The man standing near the cafeteria says he speaks five different languages
Examples showing simple subjects and simple predicates.
1. I frequently work at home.
2. The children read books every day.
3. She likes him very much.
4. All the citizens go out to vote.
5. The senior class studies Physics.
Examples showing complete subjects and complete predicates.
1. The director of the school gives lectures on how to survive in college.
2. Listening to music is one of Vanessa’s hobbies.
3. Josie and Ana eat their favorite breakfast at Pancake House every Saturday.
4. New York is also called “The Big Apple”.
5. Gina’s aunt works in Canada as a nanny.
Test Yourself!
Directions:
I. Underline the simple subject once and the simple predicate twice.
1. Growing children need to drink milk.
2. Your fee includes laboratory expenses.
3. Burnham Park looks stunning even at night.
4. Vivien loves to bake chocolate chip cookies.
5. The principal says that a closed books never open one’s mind.
II. Underline the complete subject once and the complete predicate twice.
6. Riza tells her son not to text while he is driving.
7. I don’t like the hip-hop music that you always play.
8. Her term paper was rejected by the professor.
9. Dani always watches The Tyra Banks Show.
10. Oprah Winfrey is the highest-paid talk show host in the US.
source: English Grammar Plus
