Chapter 13: the Subject and the Verb

Chapter 13: The Subject and the Verb

Then again, maybe I will …

Grammarly.com

When you read that this chapter covers the Subject and Verb, perhaps you’re thinking: “I’ve studied Subjects and Verbs since sixth grade. Why do I have to study them again now?”

Here’s the reason: Without knowing the Subject and the Verb, you’ll fail to know what’s important in the sentence; and without knowing what’s important in the sentence, you’ll fail to write clear sentences, clear paragraphs, and clear essays. And, of course, you’ll make lots of errors!

It’s unfortunate that the “grammar experts” got to name the terms that make up sentences, because actually writing sentences is no different than writing paragraphs or essays; they all have the same organization and could benefit from using the same terms. For example, the Subject and Verb of the sentence are the same as the Topic and Main Idea of the paragraph and essay.

Building Blocks of the Sentence
1. Subjects Pronouns as Subjects
Action Verbs Finding the Subject with Action Verbs
Multiple Subjects — Multiple Verbs
Linking Verbs Finding the Subject with Linking Verbs
Exceptions in Finding the Verb – The Three Imposters!
1. Verbs ending in “ing” without a Helping Verb
2. When “to” comes before a Verb
3. Nouns that pretend they’re Verbs
Subject-Verb Agreement
Two Exceptions to the Subject-comes-before-the-Verb Rule Adjectives Adverbs
Objects Pronouns as Objects
Websites with Additional Information
Grammar Challenge 1: How did the (to be) verb come to be?
Grammar Challenge 2: The strange case of (go) and (wend)
Grammar Challenge 3: How we manage to learn a language.

The Subject

Let’s start with the Subject or Topic of the sentence:

The Subject is the person, place, thing, or idea that the sentence is about.

To find the Subject, ask the question: Who or what is the sentence about? For example:

· “Marcia runs.” [Who] is this sentence about? “Marcia,” so Marcia is the Subject.*

· “The restaurant is open.” [What] is this sentence about? “Restaurant,” so “restaurant” is the Subject.

*(To help identify the Subjects and Verbs in our examples, we’ll be underlining the Subjects and putting the Verbs in bold type.)
Building Blocks of the Sentence
Subjects 2. Pronouns as Subjects
Action Verbs Finding the Subject with Action Verbs
Multiple Subjects — Multiple Verbs
Linking Verbs Finding the Subject with Linking Verbs
Exceptions in Finding the Verb – The Three Imposters!
1. Verbs ending in “ing” without a Helping Verb
2. When “to” comes before a Verb
3. Nouns that pretend they’re Verbs
Subject-Verb Agreement
Two Exceptions to the Subject-comes-before-the-Verb Rule Adjectives Adverbs
Objects Pronouns as Objects
Websites with Additional Information
Grammar Challenge 1: How did the (to be) verb come to be?
Grammar Challenge 2: The strange case of (go) and (wend)
Grammar Challenge 3: How we manage to learn a language.

Pronouns as Subjects

To keep from repeating the same Subject over and over, people invented Pronouns. The Pronouns that can be Subjects are:

I
You
He
She
It
They
We

Here are some example sentences where Pronouns are used in place of Nouns for the Subject:

Subject Noun
/ Subject Pronoun
The athlete ran. / He ran.
Michelle discovered the buried treasure. / She discovered the buried treasure.
The outcome was prearranged. / It was prearranged.

Pronouns can also have other roles in the sentence. (Click Here) to review other kinds of Pronouns.

“So, then … Would that be ‘us the people’ or ‘we the people?’”

http://images.google.com/images?sourceid=navclient&rlz=1T4GFRC_en__205US205&q=gary+larson+cartoons&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=1IWISozODZPgtgOe8bXiAg&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1

Building Blocks of the Sentence
Subjects Pronouns as Subjects
3. Action Verbs Finding the Subject with Action Verbs
Multiple Subjects — Multiple Verbs
Linking Verbs Finding the Subject with Linking Verbs
Exceptions in Finding the Verb – The Three Imposters!
1. Verbs ending in “ing” without a Helping Verb
2. When “to” comes before a Verb
3. Nouns that pretend they’re Verbs
Subject-Verb Agreement
Two Exceptions to the Subject-comes-before-the-Verb Rule Adjectives Adverbs
Objects Pronouns as Objects
Websites with Additional Information
Grammar Challenge 1: How did the (to be) verb come to be?
Grammar Challenge 2: The strange case of (go) and (wend)
Grammar Challenge 3: How we manage to learn a language.

Finding the Subject is not hard as long as the sentence is not complicated. However, finding the Subject can be tricky when the sentences become more complex as no doubt you’ve discovered in reading some of the sentences in your college textbooks! With more complicated sentences, it is often better to find the Verb first, and then use the Verb to find the Subject. So let’s learn how to find the Verb. There are two kinds of Verbs; we’ll tackle the easier kind first.

Action Verbs

As the name suggests, Action Verbs tell the action that’s going on in the sentence. For example:

· “The athlete ran the 100 meters in world record time.”

To find the Action Verb, look for a word that expresses action. A trick you can use to find the action going on in the sentence is by asking a question about each word in the Sentence: “Can you do [it] all day?” Here’s how it works with our example sentence:

· “The athlete ran the 100 meters in world record time.”

Can you “the” all day? No.

Can you “athlete” all day? Not really.

Can you “run” all day? Yes, you can “run” all day, so “run” is the Action Verb.

Usain Bolt runs for Olympic Gold

http://observers.france24.com/files/images/usain-bolt-m.jpg

YouTube Video: Usain Bolt smashes the world record in 100 meters: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By1JQFxfLMM

Here are some other examples:

· “Miguel likes his coffee in the morning.”

Can you “Miguel” all day? No.

Can you “like” all day? Yes, you can “like” all day, so “like” is the Action Verb.

Miguel’s Morning Cup of Java!

http://themasterstable.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/business-men-drinking-coffee.jpg

· “Around suppertime, I finished my essay.”

Can you “around” all day? No.

Can you “suppertime” all day? No, again.

Can you “I” all day? No, no, and no!

Can you “finish” all day? Yes, you can “finish” all day, so “finish” is the Action Verb.

You may be thinking, “I can find the Verb without going through all those steps!” and that’s true of simple sentences, but as the sentences become more complicated – and the sentences will become more complex – you’ll need to use the (Can you do [it] all day?) test, or you’ll end up making a host of errors.

Building Blocks of the Sentence
Subjects Pronouns as Subjects
Action Verbs 4. Finding the Subject with Action Verbs
Multiple Subjects — Multiple Verbs
Linking Verbs Finding the Subject with Linking Verbs
Exceptions in Finding the Verb – The Three Imposters!
1. Verbs ending in “ing” without a Helping Verb
2. When “to” comes before a Verb
3. Nouns that pretend they’re Verbs
Subject-Verb Agreement
Two Exceptions to the Subject-comes-before-the-Verb Rule Adjectives Adverbs
Objects Pronouns as Objects
Websites with Additional Information
Grammar Challenge 1: How did the (to be) verb come to be?
Grammar Challenge 2: The strange case of (go) and (wend)
Grammar Challenge 3: How we manage to learn a language.

Finding the Subject by using the Action Verb

Once you have the Action Verb, finding the Subject is not too difficult. Because the Subject almost always comes before the Verb, you can do a little fill-in-the-blank test, using the words in the sentence, starting right after the Verb. Here’s what we mean:

· “The athlete ran the 100 meters in world record time.”

Knowing the Verb is “ran,” we’ll do a (fill-in-the-blank test) to find the Subject:

“The (click here to fill-in-the-blank) ran the 100 meters in world record time.” No problem finding the Subject now!

“The (athlete) ran the 100 meters in world record time,” so (“athlete”) is the Subject.

· “Miguel likes his coffee in the morning.”

Knowing the Verb is “likes,” the (fill-in-the-blank) test helps us find the Subject:

“(Click here to fill-in-the-blank) likes his coffee in the morning.” It’s not hard to see that

“(Miguel) likes his coffee in the morning,” so (“Miguel”) is the Subject.

· “Rafael Nadal’s coach taught him how to play tennis.”

This sentence is a bit tricky: Is the Subject (“Rafael Nadal”) or (“coach”)? Once we know that the Verb is “taught,” it’s not so difficult to find the Subject. A (fill-in-the-blank) test tells us that it was the: the “(coach)” who taught him how to play tennis. Now we can tell that (“coach”) is the Subject and not “Rafael Nadal”!

Rafael Nadal’s “Rafa’s” two handed backhand

http://digitalheadbutt.files.wordpress.com/2007/07/rafael-nadal.jpg

YouTube Video of “Rafa” playing tennis: (Click Here)

Building Blocks of the Sentence
Subjects Pronouns as Subjects
Action Verbs Finding the Subject with Action Verbs
5. Multiple Subjects — Multiple Verbs
Linking Verbs Finding the Subject with Linking Verbs
Exceptions in Finding the Verb – The Three Imposters!
1. Verbs ending in “ing” without a Helping Verb
2. When “to” comes before a Verb
3. Nouns that pretend they’re Verbs
Subject-Verb Agreement
Two Exceptions to the Subject-comes-before-the-Verb Rule Adjectives Adverbs
Objects Pronouns as Objects
Websites with Additional Information
Grammar Challenge 1: How did the (to be) verb come to be?
Grammar Challenge 2: The strange case of (go) and (wend)
Grammar Challenge 3: How we manage to learn a language.

Multiple Subjects – Multiple Verbs

Of course, Sentences can have more than one Subject and more than one Verb! For example:

Two Subjects: / Sabin and Jared studied for the exam.
Three Subjects: / Corey, Angelica, and Senaida ran in the Bolder-Boulder.
Two Verbs: / I went back and retraced my steps.
Two Subjects and Two Verbs: / Evan thought about the answer, but he missed a key point.

The lesson here is that you cannot be satisfied when you find a Subject and Verb in a sentence. You must test further to see if there are additional Subjects and Verbs to found.

Helping Verbs

Helping Verbs are added to the Main Verb to express how things happen over time. Helping Verbs are forms of three common Verbs (be, have, and do). For example:

Be: / I am borrowing the car.
Have: / I have borrowed the car.
Do: / I did borrow the car.

Because expressing how things happen over time is complicated, the English language uses Helping Verbs to “help” out. Here are some examples:

Simple Present
Complex Present / I study the assignment.
I am studying the assignment.
Simple Past
Complex Past / I studied the assignment.
I have studied the assignment.
I have been studying the assignment.
Simple Future
Complex Future / I will study the assignment.
I will be studying the assignment.

You can also use Helping Verbs to show Condition – what you “should” or “might” do. For example:

· You should go to the store.

· You could go to the store.

· You might go to the store.

· You may go to the store.

· You must go to the store.

Practice 1. Subject-Verb – Green (Beginning) Ski Run

http://superfunsnowboardlessons.com/wp-content/uploads/Beginner_snowboarders_2-e1290555110701.jpg

In the following sentences, underline the Subject(s) and put the Verb(s) in bold. (If you’re not using a computer, double underline the Verb(s).) Make sure to use the (Can you do [it] all day?) test outlined above to find the Verbs, and the (fill-in-the-blank) test to find the Subject, even if it takes a bit longer!

1. I have kept the butter in the fridge.

2. Alex and David returned the painting without delay.

3. In the morning, they will be repairing the road.

4. My friend wrote a best-selling novel.

5. John's mother lives and works in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland

http://kollinz.ironcube.info/kollin/amazingplaces/places/Edinburgh%20Castle,%20Edinburgh,%20Scotland.jpg

Edinburgh Castle is a castle fortress which dominates the skyline of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, from its position atop the volcanic Castle Rock at the center of the city. There has been a royal castle here since at least the reign of David I in the 12th century with the city building up around it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edinburgh_Castle

Building Blocks of the Sentence
Subjects Pronouns as Subjects
Action Verbs Finding the Subject with Action Verbs
Multiple Subjects – Multiple Verbs
6. Linking Verbs Finding the Subject with Linking Verbs
Exceptions in Finding the Verb – The Three Imposters!
1. Verbs ending in “ing” without a Helping Verb
2. When “to” comes before a Verb
3. Nouns that pretend they’re Verbs
Subject-Verb Agreement
Two Exceptions to the Subject-comes-before-the-Verb Rule Adjectives Adverbs
Objects Pronouns as Objects
Websites with Additional Information
Grammar Challenge 1: How did the (to be) verb come to be?
Grammar Challenge 2: The strange case of (go) and (wend)
Grammar Challenge 3: How we manage to learn a language.

Linking Verbs

While Action Verbs and Helping Verbs are straightforward, Linking Verbs can at first seem tricky. That’s because Linking Verbs do not show action; they have a totally different purpose in the sentence. Linking Verbs connect or “link” the Subject to a word that describes or names the Subject.

Here’s how Linking Verbs work in the sentence:

Subject / Linking Verb / [Word that describes or names the Subject]
The cat / is / curious.
Shari / is / a police captain.

Linking Verbs are like looking in a mirror. What you see is what you link the Subject of the sentence to. We could say:

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/hdRsrtpiSoY/0.jpg

· The cat is [curious].

· The cat is [adorable].

· The cat is [speckled gray].

Most Linking Verbs are forms of only one Verb, a very important verb, called the to be verb. The to be verb is important because it’s used more than any other verb, and because when you identify a to be verb in the sentence, you know you have the verb and not an imposter!

Here are the basic forms of the to be verb:

Present / Past / Future
2I am / It was / It will be
You are / They were
She is

2(We’ve added Subject Pronouns to better show how the (to be) verbs are used in a sentence.)

“I am what I am and that’s all that I am”