Suppose you pop the verb question (What’s happening? So the verb went has two subjects. The word or can also be used to connect multiple simple subjects (as in the second sentence). (Alex is wiping would be okay, but that’s not what the sentence says.) Every complete sentence includes at least one simple subject. Improve your language arts knowledge with free questions in "Identify the simple subject or predicate of a sentence" and thousands of other language arts skills. Often there is a hyphen between the parts of the compound, but sometimes the single noun is written as two unconnected words. In the second version, firefighter is the simple subject. Some additional samples of double verbs, which in grammatical terms are called compound verbs: George snatched the atomic secret and quickly stashed it in his navel. Another variation is one subject paired with two (or more) verbs. While the complete subject may contain modifiers (adjectives, relative clauses, and prepositional phrases), the simple subject contains only one, unmodified person, place, thing, or idea.. Every complete sentence includes at least one simple subject. You can tell if a question word is a pronoun if you can replace it with a noun and form a complete answer without changing word order (as is done in brackets above). Complete subject definition: A complete subject is all of the words that tell what or whom a sentence discusses, including any modifiers. So guess what? One way to think about the subject is to say that the subject is the who or what part of the subject-verb pair. Like the examples above, noun compounds are formed with a modifier followed by a core noun. Although you is not contained in the second sentence, it is still the simple subject. Although “dog” is the first noun in this sentence, its function is to modify breeders by telling us what kind of breeders are being referred to. So now you know for sure that your first “verb” isn’t really a verb. Although, sometimes the subject is a pronoun such as he, they, it, and so forth. You’ve got two actions (burped, cried) and one person doing both (ex-girlfriend). ( Log Out /  The simple subject is the main focus of the sentence. Subjects and verbs pair off, but sometimes you get two (or more) for the price of one. You can have two subjects (or more) and one verb. Although “Franklin High is your school” is a complete sentence, it does not answer the question “where?”. Click Next to go to the next sentence. In these examples, the simple subject is clear: both that and you come before the verb, and so each is the main focus of the sentence. Modifying nouns are not part of a simple subject. The questions don’t sound right, and that’s your first hint that you haven’t found a real verb. A reasonable guess. How to Find the Subject of a Sentence. Normally, the simple subject of a sentence will come before the verb. This last example contains two simple subjects, planes and blimps. While a simple subject is a standalone noun, a compound subject includes two or more noun phrases linked to the same verb: In this example, both Mona and Tyrese “played tennis.” Therefore, this sentence has a compound subject: “Mona and Tyrese.” Compound subjects contain any linking words (and/or) between them. Now try a sentence without action. She is the author of more than 50 books, including English Grammar Workbook For Dummies and Research Papers For Dummies. Who is also the noun that performs the action of the verb (said).When “to be” is used to ask a question, the simple subject of a sentence may be very vague: Although “girl” is much more specific than who, “the girl” is not the focus of the sentence. When making a command, both in speech and in writing, we are always instructing someone: either “you” or “you all.”. Because we can’t say which part of the compound modifies the other, we must treat ice cream as an independent concept. Here the verb is “is doing.” The subject of “is doing” is she, and so she is the simple subject. The phrase “planes and blimps” is called a compound subject (see section IV for more details). (Lola, Lulu = subjects), The omelet and fries revolted Eggworthy. The simple subject is the noun which cannot be removed without completely changing the meaning of the sentence. The answer, however, is! In this example, “people” is the simple subject. The first sentence contains two simple subjects linked with the word and. You can’t have a naked, solitary state of being either. Compound nouns cannot be split into separate nouns without the second noun losing its meaning. Some sentences contain multiple simple subjects. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. The someone or something doing the action or being talked about is the subject. Someone or something must also be present in the sentence — the who or what you’re talking about in relation to the action or state of being expressed by the verb. Your email address will not be published. The articles a/an/the are not included in simple subjects. In order to use simple subjects correctly, we must decide which person, place, thing, or idea is truly the focus of a sentence. When you is the simple subject but does not appear in a sentence, we refer to you as “understood,” since we understand that it is intended even though it’s not there. But you can’t have an action in a vacuum. What is?) Every sentence has to have two parts: a subject and a verb (or predicate). Put it aside and keep looking. In section 4. b, we learned about compound nouns (like ice cream), which are single nouns composed of two or more words. (ranted, crept = verbs), Eggworthy came out of his shell last winter but didn’t stay there. Other sentences contain dependent clauses, which do not include simple subjects: Although “Andre” is the subject of the verb “returns,” he is the subject of the sentence’s main clause. Because these noun compounds are not proper nouns, the thing being referred to does not require both nouns to be understood: all “movie stars” are stars, all “phone booths” are booths, and all “diesel engines” are engines. Simple Subject "Simple subject" is the term used for the single word that is the subject of a verb. You may try Alex, but when you put him with the “verb,” it doesn’t match: Alex wiping. You can tell whether a clause is independent or not if it would be a complete sentence on its own: This is not a complete sentence; it is a sentence fragment and a dependent clause. The way we give a command is by leaving the pronoun “you” out of the sentence; after all, it’s always clear that we are talking to “you.” Consider these examples: By including “you,” the first example means that you tend to eat dinner with a spoon. Consider the following: In this sentence, dog is the simple subject. This can make it confusing to identify the simple subject of a sentence. It will be checked when we get back to school. Justin will judge the beauty contest only if his ex-girlfriend competes. So, we look next to the verb “go.” The subject of the verb “go” will be the simple subject. a.A single verb connected to an adjective, b.A single noun or pronoun connected to a verb. Just as with other simple subjects, the modifier “green” is not included. In a common noun compound, only the final noun will be included in the simple subject. Since ones is the main focus of the sentence, it is the simple subject. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. The sentence can be rewritten to show the understood subject: Since every complete sentence must have a subject, we say that you is the simple subject. English grammar teachers like to torture students by asking them to find the subjects of sentences. Simple subjects can also come after the verb. Here are a few examples: The other question words, however, cannot be pronouns, and so cannot be simple subjects. Has been is a linking verb, and linking verbs always need something after the verb to complete the idea. (came, did stay = verbs). The two words are part of the single name of a territory.

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