Bagaoisan University

Hi Ryan and Eric,

Okay, before delving into a specific topic that I want you guys to reflect and write an essay on, let’s go over a few simple and basic stuff regarding sentences.

First off, a sentence is a GROUP of words containing a SUBJECT and PREDICATE.

Subject + Predicate =

	James jumped.
	James and I jumped.
	My friend James jumped on the bed.
	James jumped on the bed and fell on the floor.
	James and I jumped on the bed.

I. A subject is:

A person, place, thing, or idea that is doing or being something. You can find the subject of a sentence if you can find the verb. Ask the question, “Who or what ‘verbs’ or ‘verbed’?” and the answer to that question is the subject.

For instance, in the sentence “The computers in the Learning Center must be replaced,” the verb is “must be replaced.” What must be replaced? The computers. So the subject is “computers.” A simple subject is the subject of a sentence stripped of modifiers. The simple subject of the following sentence is issue:

The really important issue of the conference, stripped of all other considerations, is the morality of the nation.

Sometimes, though, a simple subject can be more than one word, even an entire clause. In the following sentence —

What he had already forgotten about computer repair could fill whole volumes,

—the simple subject is not “computer repair,” nor is it “what he had forgotten,” nor is it “he.” Ask what it is that “could fill whole volumes.” Your answer should be that the entire underlined clause is the simple subject.

More on subjects:

Simple subject: a noun or a pronoun he she dog house

 

	Complete subject: a noun or a pronoun plus any modifiers the black dog the trees across the bay his dog house
	Compound subject: two or more subjects joined by a conjunction Mitch or Amy the dog and the house he and I

II. Predicates is:

The completer of a sentence. The subject names the “do-er” or “be-er” of the sentence; the predicate does the rest of the work. A simple predicate consists of only a verb, verb string, or compound verb:

* The glacier melted.
* The glacier has been melting.
* The glacier melted, broke apart, and slipped into the sea.

A compound predicate consists of two (or more) such predicates connected:

* The glacier began to slip down the mountainside and eventually crushed some of the village’s outlying buildings.

A complete predicate consists of the verb and all accompanying modifiers and other words that receive the action of a transitive verb or complete its meaning. The following description of predicates comes from The Longman Handbook for Writers and Readers (examples our own):

With an intransitive verb, objects and complements are included in the predicate. (The glacier is melting.) With a transitive verb, objects and object complements are said to be part of the predicate. (The slow moving glacier wiped out an entire forest. It gave the villagers a lot of problems.) With a linking verb, the subject is connected to a subject complement. (The mayor doesn’t feel good.)

A predicate adjective follows a linking verb and tells us something about the subject:

* Ramonita is beautiful.
* His behavior has been outrageous.
* That garbage on the street smells bad.

A predicate nominative follows a linking verb and tells us what the subject is:

* Dr. Couchworthy is acting president of the university.
* She used to be the tallest girl on the team.

More on predicates:

Simple predicate: a complete verb (a verb and any helping verbs) sit was singing could have danced

	Complete predicate: a simple predicate plus all modifiers sit on the couch was singing quietly could have danced across the room
	Compound predicate: two or more predicates with the same subject was singing quietly and smiling to himself could have danced across the room and stayed awake all night sit on the couch or sit on the floor

Question: Do all sentences need both a subject and a predicate?

Yes, most complete sentences need both. 

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There is more to subjects and predicates, but for right now we will just leave it at that. I’m sure you guys have already cover this, but going over basics is always important. The same philosophy can be applied to photography and/or graphic design.

Anyway, the next subject that we will cover in the next entry is the difference between a run-on sentence and a long sentence.

Your assignment for this entry is to create 20 examples with 20 different subjects and predicates. Also, I want you guys to underline subjects and predicates.