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.
Understanding Subject and Predicate
Subjects can be single words, but they are often groups of words. The most important word in the subject is called the simple subject. In the sentence, "A flock of geese crossed the lake," flock is the simple subject.
"A flock of geese" is the complete subject. Words such as a, the, old, noisy, and of geese add detail around the main word.
Finding the simple subject first can make a long sentence easier to untangle. Ignore extra describing words for a moment, then build the full subject again.
The predicate has a main verb, which carries the central meaning. Sometimes that verb stands alone, as in "The candle flickered." Often it works with helping verbs.
In "The students will have been practicing," the words will have been practicing form the verb phrase.
A predicate can include an object that receives an action. In "Lena carried the boxes," the boxes belong in the predicate, not the subject. Predicates can describe rather than show action.
In "The soup smells wonderful," smells links soup to wonderful. Words such as is, seem, become, feel, look, and remain often connect a subject to a description or a new name.
Sentence order can make identification harder. Commands usually leave out the subject because it is understood. In "Close the window," the unstated subject is you.
Some sentences begin with a helping verb, as in "Did Maya finish the project." Maya is still the subject, even though did comes first. Sentences beginning with there need special care.
In "There are three coins on the desk," there is a placeholder.
Coins is the word that controls the verb. This is why the sentence uses are rather than is. Looking for the verb first is useful in these less usual sentence patterns.
This skill helps during revision because many writing problems come from incomplete or mismatched parts. "After the final bell rang" has a subject and a verb, but it leaves the reader waiting for the main idea. It is a dependent clause, not a complete sentence by itself.
A writer can finish it by adding "we walked home." Subject and verb agreement matters too. "The list of supplies is on the table" uses is because list is the simple subject, not supplies.
When checking a draft, underline the main subject once and the main verb twice. Then check that each verb matches its subject and that every sentence gives a complete thought.
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.