Sentence Structure II The Subject

1. Sentence Structure IIThe Subject Carmela Grillone FAO Consultant

2. What�s the Subject The subject of a sentence is the person, place, thing, or idea that is doing or being something. You can find the subject of a sentence if you can find the verb. The answer to the question Who or what �does' or �did�? is the subject. In the sentence �The chairs in the Conference Room must be replaced," the verb is "must be replaced." What must be replaced? The chairs. So the subject is "chairs.� A simple subject is the subject of a sentence stripped of modifiers.

3. An Example The simple subject of the following sentence is issue: The really important issue of the conference, stripped of all other considerations, is the morality of the nation.

4. The Subject: an Entire Clause Sometimes a simple subject can be more than one word, even an entire clause. In the following sentence�. What he had already forgotten about computer repair could fill whole volumes, �..the simple subject is not "computer repair," nor "what he had forgotten," nor "he." What could fill whole volumes? The entire underlined clause is the simple subject

5. The Imperative In English, the subject of a command, order, or suggestion � you, the person being directed � is usually left out of the sentence and is said to be the understood subject: [You] Run or I'll leave you behind! Before using the microwave, [you] read these instructions carefully.

6. The doer of the action For purposes of sentence analysis, the doer or the initiator of action in a sentence is referred to as the agent of the sentence. In an active sentence, the subject is the agent: The Johnsons added a double garage to their house. The jury returned a verdict of manslaughter

7. Passive Sentences In a passive sentence, the agent is not the subject. In fact, sometimes a passive sentence will not contain an agent. The dean's report was reviewed by the faculty senate. Three cities in the country's interior were bombed.

8. Complete versus Simple Subject The complete subject is the who or what that is doing the verb plus all of the modifiers (descriptive words) that go with it. Read the sentence below: The huge, hairy, hungry, green Martian grabbed a student from the back row. Who did the grabbing? The Martian, of course. But this Martian wasn't small, bald, satisfied and blue. No, this one was huge, hairy, hungry, and green. The complete subject, then, is the huge, hairy, hungry, green Martian.

9. Complete versus Simple Subject (2) The simple subject, on the other hand, is the who or what that is doing the verb without any of the provided description. Take a look at this example: The bright coin sparkled on the sidewalk. What did the sparkling? Obviously, the bright coin. The and bright, are just description that distinguishes this coin. The simple subject is only the word coin.

10. Prepositional Phrase Remember that the subject is never part of a prepositional phrase The subject of a verb will never be part of a prepositional phrase. A prepositional phrase begins with a preposition (in, on, at, between, among, etc.) and ends with a noun. Look at these examples of prepositional phrases: in the dirty bathtub on the bumpy road at home between good friends among the empty pizza boxes

11. Prepositional Phrase (2) My dog, along with her seven puppies, has chewed all of the stuffing out of my sofa cushions. Here, both my dog and her seven puppies are chewing on the sofa, but because the puppies are part of the prepositional phrase along with her seven puppies, the only word that counts as the subject is dog.

12. Final Remarks Generally, but not always, the subject comes before the verb. There are, however, exceptions, like this one: In a small house adjacent to my backyard lives a family with ten noisy children. Lives is the action verb in this sentence, but it is not the house or the backyard that is doing the living. Instead, it is the family with ten noisy children. Family, then, is the subject of this sentence, even though it comes after the verb.