English Grammar: Basic Sentence Elements September 10, 2006
Posted by LearningNerd in English, Grammar, Language.trackback
Got grammar? See Everything You Need to Improve Your English Grammar.
The basic parts of a sentence fall into two categories: the subject and the predicate. Know them well, because you can’t have a sentence without them!
Subjects
The subject performs the action of the sentence. It can be a noun, noun phrase, or noun clause. To analyze sentences, grammarians have distinguished three kinds of subjects:
- Complete Subject – “The old, dusty books on the table haven’t been read in years.” The complete subject includes the entire noun phrase — usually everything before the verb.
- Simple Subject – “books”. The simple subject is the main noun or pronoun stripped of all modifiers.
- Compound Subject – “The cowardly mailman and the huge, barking dog didn’t get along very well.” A compound subject consists of two or more subjects linked together by conjunctions. Note: the simple subject of that sentence would be “mailman and dog“.
See Sentence Subjects for a closer look at subjects and subject-verb inversion (placing a subject after the verb in a sentence, as in “How is Bob?”).
Predicates
As with subjects, predicates can be classified as complete predicates, simple predicates, and compound predicates; see this page in the UIUC Grammar Handbook for more. To form a complete sentence, the predicate must include a verb (a finite verb, more specifically). It can also include objects, complements, and adverbials.
Objects
The object is the receiver of the action in a sentence: “He broke the table” or “He threw the ball.” Like subjects, objects can be any word or group of words functioning as a noun, and each type of object can also be categorized as a complete, simple, or compound object. Categorized by their different functions within a sentence, the three types of objects are:
- Direct Object – “I wrote a letter.” (What did I write? A letter.)
- Indirect Object – “I wrote a letter to my friend.” (Who did I write a letter to? My friend.)
- Prepositional Object – “I wrote on the paper.” (What did I write on? The paper.) A thread on EnglishForums.com discusses prepositional objects and their potential for confusion.
Complements
Complements (also called predicatives) complete the predicate by modifying a noun in the sentence; copulas or linking verbs require a complement to form a complete sentence.
- Subject Complement – “The car is new.” The subject complement follows a linking verb and modifies the subject. It can be a predicate adjective (He is happy), a predicate noun (He is the boss), or an adverbial complement (He is in the house).
- Object Complement – “I painted my room purple.” The object complement modifies the direct object, either by describing it or renaming it (They elected him governor). Object complements can cause some confusion; check out this Pain in the English post. Also see Wikipedia’s note on Object Complements.
- Adjective Complement – “He was happy to help.” The adjective complement is a special case in which a group of words modifies an adjective. If removed, the adjective complement leaves a grammatically complete sentence, but the meaning of the sentence changes. The CCC Guide to Grammar and Writing explains the use of infinitive phrases as adjective complements. Note: predicative adjectives are also sometimes called adjective complements.
- Verb Complement – Some grammarians use the term “verb complement” to refer to direct and indirect objects (see the “Objects” section above), while others use it to refer to a complement occuring after a linking verb (a subject complement).
Adverbials
An adverbial is an adverb, adverbial phrase, or adverbial clause: any word or group of words that acts as an adverb within a sentence. They usually modify verbs, but they can also modify the whole sentence. Unlike an adverbial complement (He is in the house), an adverbial isn’t needed to complete a sentence (He had lunch in the house or He had lunch).
[...] * Complete Subject – “The old, dusty books on the table haven’t been read in years.” The complete subject includes the entire noun phrase — usually everything before the verb. * Simple Subject – “books”. The simple subject is the main noun or pronoun stripped of all modifiers. * Compound Subject – “The cowardly mailman and the huge, barking dog didn’t get along very well.” A compound subject consists of two or more subjects linked together by conjunctions. Note: the simple subject of that sentence would be “mailman and dog“. [...]
Is there any sentence in english or in Irish without a verb? If there is could anyone write it down for me? It is realy importand. Thank you.
I don’t know about Irish, but you can’t have a complete sentence in English without a verb.
I am a parent of a 10 year old and I was having trouble helping her with her homework. It has been a long time since I had to breakdown a sentence. Your blog help us both understand the difference between a complete subject and simple subject. We have you bookmarked for furture Language Arts help! Thanks and good luck on your journey.
Under the explanation about “objects,” the word “receiver” is misspelled
Thanks, Lynn! What would I do with you?
I just fixed it.
My bias against spell checkers backfired yet again! It’d be even more ironic if it was in my post about spelling — but I made sure to do some extra proofreading on that one.
what is the complete subject ?
1)Everyone in our school is working in the computer lab
what in the simple subect ?
2)Get away from the water during a storm.
what is the verb and the simple subject ?
3) Class, read the short story brgninning on page fifty-two tonight.
In the following sentence:
“When World War II ended, almost everybody thought that there would be no more wars, but twenty-one years later, World War II began.”
Would “When World War II ended” be part of the compound predicate or the compound subject?
“When World War II ended” is an adverbial, I believe. For the first part of the sentence, “everybody” is the subject, and “thought that there would be no more wars” is the predicate. In the second half of the sentence, “World War II” is the subject, and “began” is the predicate.
But don’t take my word for it. Ask the helpful people on EnglishForums.com — you should get an answer pretty quickly.
And to Mrs. Perez:
1) The complete subject is “Everyone in our school”.
2) The simple subject is the implied “you”, because this is an imperative sentence. (See Types of Sentences.)
3) The verb is “read” and, since this is also an imperative sentence, I’m guessing the simple subject would be “class” or some sort of implied “you”.
what is a noun coplement
i remember in school we had to break down a sentence. but i cannot recalled what it was called when we were asked to do this.