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Subjects and predicates
A subject is the noun or pronoun-based part of a sentence, and a predicate is the verb-based part that the subject performs. Let’s explore how that works in context.
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- Yay David is back(18 votes)
- What is the meaning of goblin?(7 votes)
- A goblin is a mythical beast, tending toward the evil side of the taxonomy of such beings. If you draw a line across a page and put a dot in the middle to indicate "neutral", and then label one end "evil" and the other end "good", then you can create such a taxonomy. Think of the most evil mythical creature you can, and put that name at the "evil" end. Then think of the best mythical creature you can and put that name at the "good" end. Now, arrange all the names of all the other mythical creatures you can find or think of along the line depending on whether they are nearer or farther from the "neutral" dot in the middle. "Goblin" will be somewhere between neutral and evil.(21 votes)
- What about a copula? E.g. I [subject] am [copula] sad [predicate].(8 votes)
- What is a goblin(3 votes)
- I answered this 3 years ago and got a lot of upvotes, so let's do it again.
A goblin is a mythical beast, tending toward the evil side of the taxonomy of such beings. If you draw a line across a page and put a dot in the middle to indicate "neutral", and then label one end "evil" and the other end "good", then you can create such a taxonomy. Think of the most evil mythical creature you can, and put that name at the "evil" end. Then think of the best mythical creature you can and put that name at the "good" end. Now, arrange all the names of all the other mythical creatures you can find or think of along the line depending on whether they are nearer or farther from the "neutral" dot in the middle. "Goblin" will be somewhere between neutral and evil.(14 votes)
- Is it possible for there to be a sentence without a noun subject? Would the sentence be incorrect or correct? Also, what is a syntax and how is it related to grammar?(7 votes)
- Well there can be pronoun subjects, too. Otherwise, you can only have things that act as nouns be the subject of a sentence. In the sentence "Swimming is my favorite," the word "swimming" is the subject. It's a verbal (specifically a gerund), which is a form of a verb acting as a noun.
Syntax is sentence structure and the rules that govern it.(5 votes)
- Does this subject and predicate go for all sentences(3 votes)
- Let's try a short one, and see:
Jesus wept.
The subject of that sentence is "Jesus". The predicate of that sentence is "wept".
You'll find the same thing happening in long sentences, too.(11 votes)
- hehehe....goblin hats(8 votes)
- We sometimes don't appreciate ourselves. Is it a subject-predicate sentence?(1 vote)
- Yes. This is a "subject predicate" sentence. Let me demonstrate:
We (subject) sometimes (adverb of time, modifying the verb) don't (modal verb) appreciate (main verb) ourselves (reflexive pronoun serving as the object of the verb, "appreciate).(14 votes)
- Struggling with this sentence-One of my earliest memories of that day was watching the news on television with my aunt. Help! Can't figure out if the simple subject is "memories" or something else.(5 votes)
Video transcript
- [Voiceover] Hello, grammarians. Hello, Paige. - [Paige] Hi, David. - [David] Today we're going to talk about identifying subjects and predicates and in order to do that, we
shall begin with a sentence. Paige, would you read
me the sentence, please? - [Paige] I bought a crate of goblin hats. - [David] Thank you, Paige. So Paige, do you think
that's hats for goblins, or hats that make you look like a goblin? - [Paige] Well, I bought it, so I can say that it is both. - [David] So we could go either
way is what you're saying. - [Paige] (Laughs) Oh, yeah. - [David] A sentence is
kind of a like a car. It's got a lot of different
parts, like an engine, or wheels, or a body, whatever. A sentence is very much the same way and you can divide up
a sentence into parts. Today, we're going to be
dividing up the sentence into subject and predicate. Paige, what is the subject of a sentence? - [Paige] The subject
is a noun or a pronoun that is doing the action in the sentence or performing the verb. - [David] What does that
mean to perform a verb? - [Paige] Right, so a verb
isn't always an action, right? That's why I wanted to clarify. - [David] Mm-hmm. - [Paige] Because you
can say, "I am happy." Am is a verb, but that's not
an action that I'm doing. - [David] Right, you
can't just actively am. - [Paige] Right. (laughs) - [David] But in the
sentence, "I am happy," the subject I is performing
the verb to be, or am. - [Paige] Right. - [David] Gotcha. What is a predicate? - [Paige] A predicate is all
of the rest of the sentence that isn't the subject. What it really is is the verb and all of the parts that
are related to the verb. Yeah, verb and its pals, that's good. - [David] Let's apply that
approach to goblin hat sentence. - [Paige] Mm-hmm. - [David] Okay, so I'm
looking for a noun or pronoun that performs a verb in the sentence. Well, I found the verb
and the verb is bought. Who's doing the buying? I am. - [Paige] Right. - [David] So our subject is I. - [Paige] Yeah. - [David] Then predicate is basically everything else, right? It's bought, what did I buy? A crate of goblin hats. - [Paige] Right. You can see that a crate of goblin hats is also a noun, right? But it's not doing
anything in the sentence. I am buying. - [David] Just because there's a noun, just because there's another
noun in the sentence, like crate or goblin hats,
doesn't necessarily mean that it's the subject. - [Paige] Right. - [David] So you have to
look for the thing that is performing the verb. - [Paige] Exactly. - [David] Paige, I think
that covers everything except exactly what a goblin hat is,
but we can talk about that some other time. - [Paige] Yeah. - [David] That's identifying
subjects and predicates. You can learn anything. David out. - [Paige] Paige out.