That part of a sentence which names the person, idea or thing about which something is
being said is called the subject of the sentence. That part of a sentence which says
something about the person, idea or thing named by the subject is called the predicate of
the sentence. Every sentence contains both a subject and a predicate.
Look at the examples below.
Subject Predicate
The prime minister Was a wise man
The family Lived in mud house
I Like to see smiling face
The cook Belongs to Afghanistan.
You will find it easy to remember the functions of the subject and the predicate if you
think about the meanings of the two terms. The subject names the person, thing or idea
about which something is being said. A sensible term, for the subject announces the
subject of the sentence: who or what it is about.
The predicate says something about the person, thing or idea named by the subject.
Another sensible term, if you remember that it comes from a Latin word meaning to
declare. So the predicate declares/states something about the subject named by the
subject. Predicate must have a verb in it.
So from this discussion we can come to the point that in order to make a sentence
we must have two things:
A subject: the one we wish to talk about
A predicate: what we want to say about the subject.
As we have learned earlier that:
(i) Every sentence consists of a subject and a predicate.
(ii) Every predicate must contain a verb.
It can be deduced from this that every sentence must contain a verb and the subject of
that verb. A simple sentence contains one verb (and only one verb) plus the subject of
that verb.
Not all sentences are simple, of course. Many have more than one verb and more than
one subject. We will come to such sentences later in this chapter. Nevertheless, the
grammar of the simple sentence lays down the basic pattern on which all other sentences
are built. When applied to a sentence, the term 'simple' has nothing to do with its length
(long or short) or its content (intellectually easy or difficult). 'Simple' has a precise
grammatical meaning. It denotes a sentence that contains one verb and the subject of that
verb. As we have seen in chapter 1 that words combine to make phrases and phrases
combine to make a sentence. Let us discuss and understand the concept of phrase.
Look at the examples below.
Subject Predicate
The prime minister Was a wise man
The family Lived in mud house
I Like to see smiling face
The cook Belongs to Afghanistan.
You will find it easy to remember the functions of the subject and the predicate if you
think about the meanings of the two terms. The subject names the person, thing or idea
about which something is being said. A sensible term, for the subject announces the
subject of the sentence: who or what it is about.
The predicate says something about the person, thing or idea named by the subject.
Another sensible term, if you remember that it comes from a Latin word meaning to
declare. So the predicate declares/states something about the subject named by the
subject. Predicate must have a verb in it.
So from this discussion we can come to the point that in order to make a sentence
we must have two things:
A subject: the one we wish to talk about
A predicate: what we want to say about the subject.
As we have learned earlier that:
(i) Every sentence consists of a subject and a predicate.
(ii) Every predicate must contain a verb.
It can be deduced from this that every sentence must contain a verb and the subject of
that verb. A simple sentence contains one verb (and only one verb) plus the subject of
that verb.
Not all sentences are simple, of course. Many have more than one verb and more than
one subject. We will come to such sentences later in this chapter. Nevertheless, the
grammar of the simple sentence lays down the basic pattern on which all other sentences
are built. When applied to a sentence, the term 'simple' has nothing to do with its length
(long or short) or its content (intellectually easy or difficult). 'Simple' has a precise
grammatical meaning. It denotes a sentence that contains one verb and the subject of that
verb. As we have seen in chapter 1 that words combine to make phrases and phrases
combine to make a sentence. Let us discuss and understand the concept of phrase.
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