Word Classes 2: Parts of the sentence. (The subject, the verb and the predicate)

Sentence Structure

A sentence is compound basically of three elements: The subject, the verb and the predicate.

The subject is the element which the verb makes reference. For example:

I have a car. In this sentence, 'I' is the subject because the action expressed by 'have' is related to 'I'.

John is a teacher. In this example, the subject is 'John' because the state expressed by 'is' is related to 'John'.

A good way of finding the subject in a sentence is asking the verb who is performing the action or being the state the verb expresses.

Let's take the examples above:

I have a car. Q: Who has the car? A: I ('I' is the subject)

John is a teacher. Q: Who is a teacher? A: John ('John' is the subject)

The subject is a noun or a pronoun, that is any person or being (Peter, John, Ralph, a cat, the birds) and all subject pronouns (I, you, he, she, it, we, you and they).

The verb is a really important part of the sentence, because if you don't have a verb you can't make a sentence.

The predicate is the part responsible for giving additional information about the subject, that is, it is responsible for telling the hearer or the reader what exactly the subject is doing (action) or what it is (state). 

It is composed by the following structures: The object and the complement (predicative and adverbial).

1. The object can be a noun or a pronoun and is responsible for giving information about the subject.
   Ex: I have a car. ('a car' is the object because it informs what 'I' (the subject) 'have' (verb).
   Ex: Andrew loves her. ('her' is the object because it informs who 'Andrew' (subject) 'loves' (verb).
   1. The predicative can be found in two types: The predicative of the subject and the predicative of the object.
      a) The predicative of the subject is responsible for giving a quality to the subject in a static verb sentence:
      Ex: The car is red. ('red' is the predicative of the subject because it shows the colour the car is. Car is the subject of the sentence and 'is' is an static verb (it doesn't express an action)
      b) The predicative of the object is responsible for giving a quality to the object in an action verb sentence.
      Ex: Michael painted his wall blue. ('blue' is the predicative of the object because it shows what colour Michael painted his wall. Wall is the object of the sentence and 'paint' is an action verb.
      
   2. The adverbial complement is responsible for attributing a manner, a time, a position to the sentenceEx: The garage is near. ('near' is the adverbial complement because it shows 'how far' the garage is.
      
      
      Exercise:
      
      
      1. Identify in the following sentences which part of the sentence is underlined. For the parts of the predicate, specify if it is the object, the predicative or the adverbial.
      
      
      a) We're having a bad time.
      b) Mary really enjoys playing tennis.
      c) Steve works in a company.
      d) Dan often goes to the cinema.
      e) We're painting the roses red.
      f) Garry has gone to Australia last year.
      g) The scenery is very beautiful.
      h) Gabriel is sad very rarely.
      
      
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