By definition, every sentence must have the following:
1. a predicate (usually called a verb)
2. the subject of the verb
3. the words must contain a complete thought
Rather than giving the definition of what a complete and simple subject is, let me show you.
The hungry fruitbat sucked on a tomato."The hungry fruitbat" is the complete subject; "fruitbat" is the simple subject.
"Sucked on a tomato" is the complete predicate; "sucked" is the simple predicate (verb).
If you have trouble locating the subject of a sentence, locate the verb first (sucked), then ask yourself "who or what sucked?" The answer is the subject.
Ged'dit?
[Get the book.]
2 comments:
Say, I used to think that using "predicate" (simple and complete) is the best way to teach the language. What's your view? Agreed that one can locate the verb ("the action")to link back to the subject.
Well, in a recent subject-verb agreement lesson, my supervisor asked me to take out the section on predicates because it was giving too much unnecessary information, so I don't know. In that lesson we jumped in straight to finding the verb.
Personally I don't think it is that complicated. Predicates are quite a simple idea, but I don't know if it is absolutely indispensable.
How would you use predicates to teach the language? Curious...
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