Recognizing Subjects and Verbs

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Recognizing Subjects and Verbs

• By Kevin Chen

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A simple sentence

• The simplest form of a complete statement is
  called an independent clause or a simple
  sentence.
• Every simple sentence must have two basic
  elements
• The Subject
• The Predicate

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The Subject

• the thing one is talking about
• usually a noun, a pronoun, or some other group of
  words used as a noun.

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The Predicate

• what one says about
• a verb is the essential part of the predicate.

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Ex. Birds fly. Dogs bark. Stones roll.

• Birds, dogs and stones are the subjects.
• Fly, bark and roll are the verbs, seen as the
  predicate.

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The first step

• Finding subjects and verbs in a sentence is the
  first step to see if the sentence expresses a
  complete thought.

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• Look first for the verb, the most important word
  in a sentence, and then for the subject.
• Note
• The ancient men knew what they need to do
  first, such as eat, hunt, run, and then they knew
  and named what to eat and hunt. So, remember the
  first thing is that you need to do something and
  then determine what something is.

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One sentence, one verb

• In principle, there must be one subject and one
  verb in a sentence. (Without conjunction not an
  imperative sentence) If you see conjunctions in
  the independent clause, there would be more than
  one verb. Or if there are dependent clauses, the
  verbs in the dependent clauses are not the
  so-called main verbs of the sentence.

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Example Test

• Read the short passage below and find the main
  verb of each sentence (the verb of independent
  clause).
• Please post your answers on the discussion board
  of our course in EngSite.

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• The Beatles were without any question the
  most popular, most influential of all rock
  groups. Their influence expressed itself first of
  all in the simple sociological dimensions of
  their success, unmatched in pop-music history.
  But the band also managed almost singlehandedly
  to transform the innocent entertainment of
  rock-and-roll into the artistically self
  conscious pretensions of rock.

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• As the Beatles began to define their
  generation, it became apparent that John Lennon
  and Paul McCartney were the creative forces
  behind the band. Ringo Starr was cute and cuddly
  and George Harrison played eloquent lead guitar,
  but it was Mr. Lennon and Mr. McCartney who
  composed most of the band's songs and were the
  lead singers. They worked together in a
  classically complementary manner. Mr. McCartney
  was the sunny, bright one, the purveyor of
  lilting ballads and cheery love songs. Mr. Lennon
  was the harder, fiercer man, the true rocker of
  the foursome, with the deepest, most convoluted
  sense of rock's anger and potential triumph.

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• The Beatles By John Rockwell
• http//topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopic
  s/organizations/b/beatles_the/index.html
• END