A sentence is a grammatically independent unit of expression, made up of two essential parts called the Subject and the Predicate.
Every complete sentence has a subject and a predicate.
Example
| The Subject | The Predicate |
Example
| The girl dances well |
The girl is a subject and dances well is the predicate. If I come up to you and say "The girl", you know that is the subject about which I wish to talk. But I have said nothing about the subject. To make a sentence I must say something about the girl.
If I say "The girl dances well", I have expressed a complete thought and I have made a sentence.
In grammar the person or thing we speak about is called the subject. What we say about the subject is called the predicate.
Subjects tell the listener and the reader whom or what the sentence is about. The subject is that part of a sentence which names a person, thing, or idea
Examples Of Subject
| The master | The teacher | Stars |
| The dog | Flowers | The sun |
| Clock | The girl | The horse |
| David | The Child | The newspaper |
Every complete subject contains a simple subject. The simple subject, which is a noun or pronoun, is the most important word in the complete subject.
Examples
| A loud argument |
| The newspaper article |
| We listened to the radio at the beach |
| Sausage and mushrooms are Leo’s favorite pizza toppings |
The predicate is that part of a sentence which tells something about the subject.
Example Sentences Of Predicate
| teaches well | eats grass | twinkle at night |
| the phonograph | shines during the day | bite the boy |
| crows in the morning | dances well | is clever |
A simple predicate (or verb) describes the action or condition of the subject or subjects in a sentence.
Examples
| Danielle sketched |
| always support each other |
| rarely complains about snow |
Notice how the following sentence are divided into subject and predicate:
Examples
| Subject | Predicate |
|---|---|
| The teacher | teaches well |
| Stars | twinkle at night |
| Flowers | bloom in the garden |
| Dogs | like to bark and sniff |
| Active boys | never stop playing |
| The birds | always sing early in the morning |
| The horse | is white |
| The young, worried pilot | read the storm warning |
| Taylor and Charlie | played with their toys |
| The waiter | tripped and fell over the diner’s legs |
Modal auxiliaries are used for
1.Probability - will ought
2.Possibility - can, could, may, might