Name:

English

Subjects and Prepositions

Identifying Subjects in Sentences

Subject:

Object:

What is one strategy? What questions do you ask?

Examples:

•The Romans constructed military roads, aqueducts, bridges, and marble buildings.

–The verb is constructed. Who constructed? The Romans, which is the subject of the sentence.

•Does our vacation include seeing Pike’s Peak?

---The verb is does include. What does include? Our vacation, which is the subject.

Recognize that there, here, and where are sentence starters and not subjects of sentences.

Write down the other two examples and circle the subject

1.

2.

If the sentence is a question, it might be easier to ______in order to find the subject .

•Example: Why does China have only one time zone?

–China does have only one time zone.

–The verb is does have. What does have? China, which is the subject

In class exercises:

In each sentence, underline the subject once and the verb twice.

Example: Did you know couples argue about money more than anything else?

Turn it around: You did know couples argue about money more than anything else.

You is the subject and did know is the verb.

  1. Mosquitoes have teeth.
  1. Did you know that a new skyscraper is built in China every five days?
  1. Feelings and emotions are stored in the brain, not the heart.
  1. Boring, Oregon has become a “sister community” with Dull, Scotland.
  1. Recycling can reduce household garbage and save resources.
  1. North Carolina is nicknamed the Tar Heel state.
  1. Shakespeare never attended a college or university.
  1. There are no rivers in Saudi Arabia
  1. Each human foot has 26 bones, 32 joints, and a network of more than 100 tendons, ligaments, and muscles.
  1. The artist’s sketch looked exactly like Joey.

Prepositions:

ALWAYS a part of a ______.

Examples:

•People (with blue eyes) see better (in the dark.)

•It would take (over an hour) (for a heavy object) to sink 6.7 miles down (to the deepest part) (of the ocean)

*Note the “to” in “to sink” is not a preposition. It is part of the infinitive (unconjugated) form of the verb.

A subject cannot ______.

Example: Of the five longest rivers in world, the Nile is the longest.

(Of the five longest rivers) (in the world) are two prepositional phrases.

The subject is Nile

Commonly used prepositions:

About
At
Above
Across
After
Against
Along
Among
Around
By
Before
Behind
Below
Beneath
Beside
Between
Beyond
Common compound prepositions
According to
Across from
Along with
Aside from
Because of
Far from
In front of
In place of

Practice: Put parentheses around each prepositional phrase in the following sentences. The number in parentheses is the number of prepositional phrases in each sentence.

Example: Each (of the contestants) was asked a different question (1)

  1. All business signs in the province of Quebec, Canada must be written in French (3)
  1. The first automated teller machine was installed by the Chemical Bank at Rockville Center, Long Island, in January 1969. (3)
  1. All pilots on international flights identify themselves in English. (2).
  1. Both men and women prefer an attractive face over an attractive body for a long-term mate. (2)
  1. During a sunstroke a body temperature is abnormally high. (1)
  1. Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII, was born with six fingers on her right hand. (3)
  1. Bill Gates said, “By 2018 an estimated 63 percent of all new jobs will require workers with an education beyond high school.” (4)
  1. The Pan-American Highway, the longest highway in the world, starts in northwest Alaska and stretches all the way to Chile. (3)
  1. In many North African countries, children ride to school on donkeys. (3)
  1. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is considered one of the top 100 American novels of the 20th century (3).

Practice:

In each sentence, underline the subject once and the verb twice.

  1. Here is the sports section.
  1. Lightening strikes the Earth 8.6 million times a day or about 100 times a second.
  1. Do you have an extra five dollars?
  1. An average human loses nearly two hundred head hairs a day.
  1. Justin Timberlake is now more successful as an actor than as a singer.

Put parentheses around each prepositional phrase in the following sentences. The number in parentheses is the number of prepositional phrases in each sentence.

  1. Between 1895 and 1905 the millionaire Andrew Carnegie spent 25 million dollars on fossil collecting trips. (2)
  1. Ancient Egyptian women painted black eye makeup around their eyes both for beauty and to reduce the glare of the sun. (3)
  1. People born under the sign of the dog in Chinese astrology are considered to be loyal and discreet, although slightly temperamental
  1. Throughout Europe, people eat with the fork in the left hand and the knife in the right. (4).
  1. The first love, televised presidential news conference occurred on January 25, 1961, when President John F. Kennedy answered 31 questions in 38 minutes. (2)
  1. In Turkey the color of mourning is violet. (2)
  1. The sky Dome’s Hard Rock Café in Toronto, Ontario, is the home of the largest electric guitar in North America. (3)
  1. One of the best values at a warehouse club is orange juice. (2)
  1. According to the Commerce Department, nearly one third of the U.S. economy is affected in one way or another by the weather. (4).
  1. In China the death penalty can be given for 68 different crimes including bigamy, Internet hacking, stealing gasoline, and tax evasion. (2)
  1. Most varieties of snakes can go a year without eating a single morsel of food (3).
  1. In California it is illegal for anyone to shoot at any kind of game from a moving vehicle unless the target is a whale. (5)
  1. The footprints of astronauts who landed on the moon could last 10 million years because the moon has no atmosphere (2)
  1. The band UB 40 got its name from an unemployment form in England. (2)
  1. Chop suey was created by a Chinese cook who worked in a California mining camp in the 1800s. (3)

In the following sentences, underline the subject once and the verb twice. Circle the adjective. Put a star by the adverbs. Put a square around pronouns. Place prepositional phrases in parentheses. In other words, diagram the sentences fully.

  1. Owners of monkeys in Indonesia must have an identity card for the animal,

complete with a photo of the monkey. (5)

  1. The number of people alive on earth right now is higher than the number of all the

people who have died. (3)

  1. The roar of a lion can be heard from five miles away. (2)
  1. The Gulf Stream could carry a message in a bottle at an average of four miles an

hour. (3)

  1. Dry breakfast cereal was invented by John Henry Kellogg at the beginning of the

20th century