SIMPLE SENTENCES:
SUBJECT & VERBS
Sentence (or Independent Clause): a group of words that expresses a complete thought. Every sentence includes a subject and a verb.
Subject: The subject of a sentence is the person, place, thing, or idea that is doing or being something. If you can find the verb, you can find the subject. Try asking who or what is performing the action or is being talked about in the sentence.
Example: "The computers in the Computer Lab must be replaced."
The verb is "must be replaced." What must be replaced? The computers. So the subject is "computers."
A simple subject is the subject of a sentence stripped of modifiers (describing words/phrases). For example: The shiny, new car sped down the road. Car is the simple subject.
Sometimes, though, a simple subject can be more than one word, even an entire phrase. In the following sentence, the simple subject is not "computer repair," nor is it "what he had forgotten," nor is it "he." Ask what it is that "could fill whole volumes." Your answer should be that the entire underlined clause is the simple subject:
What he had already forgotten about computer repair could fill whole volumes.
Verbs: The verb tells what the subject does
or connects the subject word to words that describe or rename it. A simple
verb (or predicate) consists of a verb, verb string, or compound verb:
There are several types of verbs:
Action Verbs—tells what the subject does, did, or will do.
Example: My nephew plays football.
Linking Verbs—connects the subject to a word or words that describe or rename it; a linking verb tells what the subject is.
Example: Summer is my favorite time of year.
Common
linking verbs: be (am, is, are, was,
were), become, feel, seem, appear, get.
Helping Verbs—many verbs are made up of more than one word, though one will be the main verb.
Examples: Maria should have gone earlier.
Did Larry ask for directions?
Updated 4/2001