Subject and Predicate

If you are to communicate effectively with somebody, he just know: (I) who PR what you are talking about. This we call the subject. (ii) what you have have to say about that person or thing. This we can the predicate.

For example, look at this sentence: 'peter fainted'.

  The person being talked about Is Peter , and we know what happened to him. Hr fainted. 'Peter' is the subject;  'fainted' is the predicate.

  Now look at a more complicated sentence: 'Mr. Vincent, our geography teacher , is likely to be transfered to another school when the new term starts'.

  The subject is , 'Mr. Vincent , our geography teacher ' and all the rest of the sentence tell us the new information about him. So, the predicate is, ' is likely to be transfered to another school when the new term starts'. However complicated your sentence, it can be divided into subject and predicate

Look at these further examples:

Subject - The boy , Predicate -cried.

Subject - The Man from Lagos , Predicate - came to visit his cousin at Ibadan.

Subject - Everybody , Predicate - left the his hurriedly when the storm Began.

Subject - Peter, Predicate - seemed very calm.

Exercise 1

Divide these sentences into subject and predicate in the same way:

(a) The door banged Suddenly.

(b) the farmer bought a new tractor.

(c) Bisi proudly showed her certificate to her friends.

(d) All the Candidates for the exam were waiting  outside the door at 8.00 a.m.

(e) Anybody who disagrees may go out now.

You will notice that in these sentences the subject comes first and the predicate completed the sentence. As we deal with more complicated sentences, you will find that this is not always so.

In question , for example, it will be different

Predicate -Has , Subject -the Boy , Predicate - Done his homework ?

Here 'the boy' is the person being discussed , and this is clearly the subject of the sentence, but the predicate is split up by the subject. The complete predicate is : 'has done his homework'.

Exercise 2

Put a box round the subject and label it. Underline the predicate.

(a) which road did he take?

(b) When did they see the car pass?

(c) Why are they going?

(d) Will Mr Thompson leave next week?

(e) How do you feel now?

  

  As we build up more complicated sentences, we shall still practise dividing them into subject and predicate.