Subject and Predicate

Who or What + What They Do or Are

Every complete sentence has two main parts: a subject and a predicate. The subject tells who or what the sentence is about. The predicate tells what the subject does, has, or is. Learning to spot these two parts helps students read, write, and understand sentences more clearly.

To find the subject, ask who or what the sentence is about. To find the predicate, look for the action or the part that tells something about the subject. In simple sentences, there is usually one subject and one predicate. In longer sentences, there may be compound subjects or compound predicates, but the sentence still splits into these same two main parts.

Key Facts

Subject = who or what the sentence is about.
Predicate = what the subject does, has, or is.
In The dog barked, subject = The dog and predicate = barked.
A complete sentence needs a subject + a predicate.
Compound subject = two or more subjects that share the same predicate.
Compound predicate = one subject with two or more actions or descriptions.

Vocabulary

subject: The subject is the person, place, thing, or idea that the sentence is about.
predicate: The predicate is the part of the sentence that tells what the subject does or is.
complete sentence: A complete sentence has a full thought with both a subject and a predicate.
compound subject: A compound subject has two or more subjects joined together in one sentence.
compound predicate: A compound predicate has two or more actions or descriptions that go with the same subject.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Choosing the first word as the subject, because the subject is not always just the first word. Articles like the or a may come before the full subject, so students should find the whole who or what part.
Calling the action word the subject, because the action word is usually part of the predicate. The subject names who or what is doing the action.
Forgetting that the predicate can be more than one word, because predicates often include helping verbs or extra details. Students should take the whole telling part, not just one verb.
Missing compound subjects or compound predicates, because students may split the sentence too early. They should check whether two nouns share one action or one subject has two actions.

Practice Questions

1 In the sentence The yellow bird sings loudly, write the subject and the predicate.
2 In the sentence Mia and Ben played soccer and laughed, identify whether the sentence has a compound subject, a compound predicate, or both. Then write the subject and predicate parts.
3 Explain why the sentence Ran to the park is not a complete sentence.