Subjects and Predicates Flashcards
Does every sentence has a subject and a predicate?
Yes. At minimum, a predicate always includes a working verb [e.g., We went; Love hurts]
What is the subject in a command?
It is the pronoun you which is implied in the phrase.
E.g., [you] Consider the case of Watson and Crick
What types of word are generally subjects?
Generally nouns and pronouns are the subject of phrases. But sometimes a gerund or infinitive can be a subject
“That 40 people dropped out is less a reason to condemn the program than to praise its rigor”
What is the subject?
“That 40 people dropped out”.
Note that a group of words can be the subject of a sentence
“Each of us has saved for weeks to be able to attend the Madonna concert”
What is the subject?
“Each” is the simples subject (always just one word, the core of the subject)
“Each of us” is the complete subject (the simple subject plus the other words that help to identify the simple subject
Can a subject consist of two or more things joined by “and”?
Yes. E.g., “Joe and Maria”
Can a subject be located in a prepositional phrase?
No. You can rule out prepositional phrases when looking for the subject.
How to find the subject in a subordinate clause?
You can rule out the subject of the subordinate clause. The main subject will be in the main clause of the sentence. E.g.: “Although the organization employs dozens of people, only three of them are full-time employees”
“There are 10 people waiting in the conference room”
What is the subject?
“People”.
In this kind of sentence, it can be helpful to eliminate the word “there” and to put the sentence in a more normal order: 10 people are waiting in the conference room
True or False: in the sentence “Although Italy is famous for pasta, noodles were invented by the Chinese”, the dependent clause has the subject “Italy” and the independent clause has the subject “the Chinese”
False. The dependent clause is “Italy is famous for pasta” and its subject is indeed “Italy”. The independent clause is “noodles were invented by the Chineses”. Its subject is “noodles”. The verb is “were invented”. “By the Chinese” is a prepositional phrase.
What is a sentence fragment?
Is a group of words that cannot stand alone as a sentence. It either does not contain a subject-verb pair or it does but it also contains a subordinating word that doesn’t allow the sentence to be a complete thought.
Sentence fragments trying to stand alone are always wrong.
Which sentence is complete or fragment:
1) My brother broke his foot
2) My brother who broke his foot
3) Since my brother broke his foot
1) Complete
2) Fragment, due to the subordinating conjunction “who”)
3) Fragment, due to the subordinating conjunction “since”)
What is a run-on sentence?
It consists of two (or more) independent clauses joined without appropriate punctuation or a conjunction.
Run-on sentences, including comma splices, are always wrong
