Purpose
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to identify the subject and predicate of a sentence and recognize a grammatically complete simple sentence.Lesson Explanation
Every complete English sentence has two essential parts: a subject and a predicate. The subject is who or what the sentence is about — typically a noun or pronoun (Part 1, Lessons 1-2): “The dog barked.” (subject: “the dog”) The predicate is everything that tells us what the subject does or is — it always contains the verb: “The dog barked loudly.” (predicate: “barked loudly”) A simple sentence contains exactly one independent clause — one subject-predicate pair expressing a complete thought, with no dependent clauses attached: “Birds fly.” This is genuinely the shortest possible grammatical sentence, but simple sentences can still be quite long if they contain compound subjects or predicates: “The dog and the cat played together” (compound subject) or “She ran and jumped” (compound predicate) — both remain simple sentences because there is still only ONE independent clause overall, not two. A genuinely common point of confusion: a sentence can have an implied subject that is not written out, most notably in commands (the imperative mood), where the subject “you” is understood but omitted: “Close the door.” (implied subject: “you”) This is different from a sentence fragment, covered in Part 2, Lesson 6, where a subject or verb is genuinely missing rather than merely implied by convention.Practice Questions
1. What are the two essential parts of a complete sentence?
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The subject and the predicate.2. What is the subject of a sentence?
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Who or what the sentence is about.3. What is the predicate of a sentence?
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Everything that tells us what the subject does or is, including the verb.4. In “The dog barked loudly,” what is the subject?
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“The dog.”5. In “The dog barked loudly,” what is the predicate?
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“Barked loudly.”6. How many independent clauses does a simple sentence contain?
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Exactly one.7. In “The dog and the cat played together,” is the subject compound or simple?
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Compound.8. Does having a compound subject or predicate make a sentence no longer “simple”?
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No, it remains a simple sentence as long as there is only one independent clause.9. In “Close the door,” what is the implied subject?
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“You.”10. In which grammatical mood is the subject commonly implied rather than stated?
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The imperative mood (commands).11. Is an implied subject in a command the same issue as a sentence fragment?
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No — the subject is understood by convention, not genuinely missing.12. What later lesson covers sentence fragments, where a subject or verb is genuinely missing?