The predicate

MEMBERS OF THE SENTENCE

MEMBERS OF THE SENTENCE

PRINCIPAL SECONDARY

SUBJECT PREDICATE object attribute adverbial modifier

Apposition

PRINCIPAL MEMBERS OF THE SENTENCE

THE SUBJECT

The subject can be expressed by:

1. a noun

· a noun in the common case, e.g. The sea is calm tonight. Anna sings beautifully.

· a noun in the possessive case, e.g. Anna’ s was the best voice of all.

· a noun group, Paul and Vera are my best friends. The blue of the sky showed that it was morning already.

2. a substantivized adjective, e.g. The old and the young must be helped by the society.

3. a numeral, e.g.

a) Thirteen is my favourite number. (cardinal numeral)

b) The third was our bus. (ordinal numeral)

4. a pronoun

· a personal pronoun, e.g. She is my sister. We were really happy.

· a possessive pronoun in its absolute form, e.g. Theirs was a happy marriage.

· an indefinite pronoun, e.g. Anyone can do it, it’s easy.

· a demonstrative pronoun, e.g. That was not true.

· a negative pronoun, e.g. No one knew the truth.

· an interrogative pronoun, e.g. Who has been sitting on my chair and has broken it?

· a detaching pronoun, e.g. The other is better.

· a universal pronoun, e.g. All is well that ends well.

5. an infinitive or an infinitive phrase, e.g. To live is to love. To forgive that was impossible.

6. a gerund or a gerundial phrase, e.g. Seeing is believing. Sleeping all the time is wasting your life.

7. dummy subjects ‘it’ and ‘there ’, e.g. It is never late to learn. There is many a slip between the cup and the lip.

8. a quotation, e.g. ‘Daddy’ is one of Danielle Steel’s romantic novels.

9. a subject clause, e.g. What is done cannot be undone.

**TASK 11. Find the subject of the sentence and match it with the parts of speech given below.

Part 1.

1. The fog is thinning. a) an adjective;

2. My sister’s sons are playing now. b) a possessive pronoun;

3. The unbelievable has happened. c) an interrogative pronoun;

4. Is she really very beautiful? d) a noun;

5. That was the last straw. e) a demonstrative pronoun;

6. Kate’s is not this book, it’s that. f) a negative pronoun;

7. Nothing comes from nothing. g) a subject group/ a noun group;

8. One learns by experience. h) a personal pronoun;

9. Hers was the final judgment. i) a noun in the possessive case;

10. Who told you this? j) an indefinite pronoun.

Part 2.

11. Four and four is eight. k) an infinitive phrase;

12. The third was a young man. l) a quotation;

13. To understand is to forgive. m) a cardinal numeral;

14. To deny the past is to deny the future. n) a gerundial phrase;

15. Talking mends no holes. o) an ordinal numeral;

16. Gardening after work is my father’s hobby. p) a subject clause;

17. That he will be on time is not very likely. q) a dummy subject “there”;

18. “How do you do?” is not an everyday r) an infinitive

greeting in modern English.

19. It’s no use crying over the spilt milk. s) a dummy subject “it”;

20. There was nothing to say or to do. t) a gerund

THE PREDICATE

PREDICATE

SIMPLE COMPOUND

verbal nominal verbal nominal

Modal aspect

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