Subjects and Verbs
A sentence is commonly defined as "a complete unit of thought." Normally, a sentence expresses a relationship, conveys a command, voices a question, or describes someone or something. It begins with a capital letter and ends with a period, question mark, or exclamation mark.
The basic parts of a sentence are the subject and the verb. The subject is usually a noun--a word that names a person, place, or thing. The predicate (or verb) usually follows the subject and identifies an action or a state of being. See if you can identify the subject and the predicate in each of the following short sentences:
- The hawk soars.
- The widows weep.
- My daughter is a wrestler.
- The wrestlers are tired.
In each of these sentences, the subject is a noun: hawk, widows, daughter, and children. The verbs in the first two sentences--soars, weep--show action and answer the question, "What does the subject do?" The verbs in the last two sentences--is, are--are called linking verbs because they link the subject with a word that renames it (wrestler) or describes it (tired).
Pronouns
Pronouns are words that take the place of nouns in a sentence. In the second sentence below, the pronoun she stands for Merdine:
- Merdine danced on the roof of the barn during the thunderstorm.
- She was waving an American flag.
As the second sentence shows, a pronoun (like a noun) may serve as the subject of a sentence. The common subject pronouns are I, you, he, she, it, we, and they.
Objects
In addition to serving as subjects, nouns may also function as objects in sentences. Instead of performing the action, as subjects usually do, objects receive the action and usually follow the verb. See if you can identify the objects in the short sentences below:
