Subjects & Predicates

Picture your teacher's written this on the board:

Ran down the road.

You look at it and something feels wrong — you just can't say what. Or maybe you're sitting a test and the instruction says "underline the subject, circle the predicate," and your brain quietly goes, the what now?

Here's the thing. Every proper sentence in English is built on the same two-part engine: a subject and a predicate. Learn to spot those two parts and sentences stop being a guessing game. You can see straight away what's doing the action, and what's being said about it — and once you can see that, half the mystery of "why is this a fragment" or "why doesn't this sentence work" just evaporates.

You've already met the idea of a "complete sentence" over in our article on How Sentences Work — the difference between a full sentence and a scrap of one. What we're doing here is opening the bonnet on that full sentence and finding the two parts that keep it running.

Before you read on, here's where we're heading. By the end you'll be able to: - Find the subject and predicate in any sentence, short or long. - Tell simple subjects/predicates apart from complete ones. - Spot compound subjects and predicates — when there's more than one of either. - Recognise the implied subject hiding inside commands like "Sit down." - See how this sets you up for objects, complements, and sentence patterns later on.

Beginner (Foundation): the two jobs every sentence does

Let's start small — genuinely small.

Cats sleep.

Two words. Full sentence. And it's doing exactly two jobs:

• a subject: Cats — who or what the sentence is about
• a predicate: sleep — what the subject's doing, or what's true of it

Swap the words and the pattern holds:

My brother snores. The window broke. Pizza is delicious.

Subject: My brother / The window / Pizza. Predicate: snores / broke / is delicious. Nobody's born knowing this, by the way — it just needs pointing out once, and then it clicks.

The subject usually comes first, and the predicate usually kicks off with the main verb — the action or being word. Now watch what happens when the sentence gets longer:

The tall boy in the red jumper kicked the ball over the fence.

Don't panic — it's the exact same two-part pattern, just with extra padding stuck on:

• subject: The tall boy in the red jumper
• predicate: kicked the ball over the fence

Ask yourself two questions and you'll never lose the thread:

• Who or what are we talking about? → subject
• What are we saying about them? → predicate

Simple vs complete — the bit that trips people up

Teachers like precision, so you'll hear two extra terms:

• Simple subject — the one main noun (or pronoun) the sentence is about.
• Complete subject — the simple subject plus every word describing it.

Same split for the predicate side:

• Simple predicate — the main verb (plus any helping verb — has gone, is running).
• Complete predicate — the verb plus everything attached to it.

Back to our boy in the jumper:

• Complete subject: The tall boy in the red jumper → simple subject: boy
• Complete predicate: kicked the ball over the fence → simple predicate: kicked

One more, because repetition is how this actually sticks:

My two best friends from drama club are singing in the show tonight.

• Complete subject: My two best friends from drama club → simple subject: friends
• Complete predicate: are singing in the show tonight → simple predicate: are singing

Common Mistake: Pupils very often underline just the first word as the subject — My, instead of My two best friends from drama club. Remember: the subject is the whole "who/what" gang, not just its opening word.

Quick recap: - Every full sentence has a subject (who/what) and a predicate (what about them). - The predicate starts at the main verb — that's your hinge. - Simple = the core word; complete = the core plus all its baggage. - Long sentences still split into just those two jobs.

Intermediate (Development): compounds, and the sentences that hide their subject

Once the basics feel solid, real writing starts throwing curveballs — extra clauses, lists, description piled on description. Underneath it all, though, you're still just hunting for the same two things.

Long subjects, long predicates

The students from Year 10 who stayed after school for football practice were completely exhausted.

Find the verb first — were. That's your way in.

• Complete subject: The students from Year 10 who stayed after school for football practice
• Simple subject: students
• Complete predicate: were completely exhausted

And:

On Saturday afternoon, our whole family went to see the new superhero film.

Set the opening phrase — On Saturday afternoon — to one side for a second. The core is:

• Simple subject: family → complete subject: our whole family
• Simple predicate: went → complete predicate: went to see the new superhero film

That opening phrase and the "to see the new superhero film" tail aren't new subjects or predicates — they're just extra information hanging off the main pattern. Don't let them fool you into thinking there are two sentences hiding in there.

Compound subjects and predicates

Sometimes more than one subject shares a single predicate:

Tom and Aisha laughed.

Compound subject: Tom and Aisha. Predicate: laughed.

Or the reverse — one subject doing more than one thing:

The dog barked and growled.

Subject: The dog. Compound predicate: barked and growled.

You can get both in one go:

My brother and his friends played video games and ordered a pizza.

Compound subject: My brother and his friends. Compound predicate: played video games and ordered a pizza.

Pro-Tip: To test for a compound subject, split the sentence and see if both halves still work on their own: - My brother played video games. ✓ - His friends played video games. ✓ Both check out — so you've got a shared predicate with a compound subject. Do the same trick for predicates.

The "invisible" subject in commands

Commands look odd, because they don't show their subject:

Sit down. Don't touch that. Please be quiet.

Who's meant to sit, or not touch, or be quiet? You.

In imperative sentences — commands, requests, instructions — the subject is implied. It's there in meaning, it just never gets written down. Grammar people call it "you understood."

Sit down. Subject: (you) — implied. Predicate: sit down.

If a worksheet asks you to underline the subject in a command, write (you) above the line. It shows you know exactly what's going on, even though the word itself never appears.

Common Mistake: Some pupils label down or quiet as the subject in commands, because it's the first noun-shaped word on the page. In imperatives, the subject is almost always you — even when it's nowhere to be seen.

Quick recap: - Long sentences still have one main subject–predicate pair, unless they're compound. - Find the verb first — it's the fastest way into the sentence. - Compound subject = more than one subject, one shared predicate. - Compound predicate = one subject, more than one action. - Commands run on an implied you, even though it's never written.

Advanced (Mastery): tricky word order, and why this matters beyond the worksheet

If you're feeling confident, let's push further — this is the layer that pays off in top-grade writing and in spotting your own mistakes before anyone else does.

When the subject comes after the verb

Most of the time subject comes first. Not always. Questions flip it:

Is your sister coming to the party? Are those your trainers?

Verb first (Is, Are), then subject (your sister, those). If you're stuck, flip it back into a statement:

Your sister is coming to the party. Those are your trainers.

Now the subject's sitting where you expect it, and it's easy to spot.

Sentences that open with there play a similar trick:

There are three biscuits left. There was a strange noise in the corridor.

There looks like the subject — it's sitting right where the subject usually sits — but it isn't. Ask "what are?" or "what was?":

• Three biscuits are left → subject: three biscuits
• A strange noise was in the corridor → subject: a strange noise

We call there a dummy subject — it fills the seat, but the real subject turns up after the verb.

Phrases parked in front of the subject

Writers love sticking extra bits at the start of a sentence, for pace or atmosphere:

After the match, the team and their coach went out for pizza. In the middle of the field stood a single, ancient tree.

Neither After the match nor In the middle of the field is the subject — they're scene-setting. Strip them away and the true pattern's clear:

The team and their coach went out for pizza. A single, ancient tree stood in the middle of the field.

That second one is doing the same trick as our "there" sentences — verb before subject, on purpose, for effect. Story writers do this deliberately. Once you know the trick's being played, it stops fooling you.

Why bother with any of this

Once you can spot a subject and predicate on sight, you can:

• Catch sentence fragments in your own work — no subject, or no predicate, means it isn't a full sentence yet (there's a whole article on this over at Sentence Fragments).
• Vary your own sentences on purpose — open with a phrase, ask a question, issue a command — and still know exactly where your core sits.
• Understand what comes next in grammar. The object — what receives the action — and the subject complement — what renames or describes the subject — both live inside the predicate. You can't really place them until you know where the predicate starts.

Pro-Tip: When you're checking over your own writing, try a "subject–predicate scan" on a tricky paragraph. Underline the subject once, underline the main verb twice, for every sentence. Whatever's left is extra detail. If you can't find a subject, or can't find a main verb, something in that sentence isn't finished yet.

Quick recap: - Questions flip word order — turn them back into statements to find the subject. - There often hides the real subject just after the verb. - Opening phrases (After the match…) don't move or replace the core subject–predicate pair. - Writers invert word order on purpose, for effect — it's a choice, not an error. - Objects and complements both sit inside the predicate, so this is the foundation everything else builds on.

UK vs US Note

The grammar of subjects and predicates doesn't change from one side of the Atlantic to the other — same rules, same patterns. All you'll spot are spelling and word differences dotted through the examples: favourite [US: favorite], trainers [US: sneakers], jumper [US: sweater]. The actual grammar works identically both ways.

Key Takeaways

• Every full sentence has a subject (who/what it's about) and a predicate (what we're saying about it).
• Simple = the key word; complete = that word plus everything describing it.
• Compound subjects and predicates happen when there's more than one of either, sharing the other.
• Commands carry an implied "you" as their subject, even though it's never written.
• Questions, "there is/are" sentences, and phrases parked up front can shuffle the word order — the underlying subject–predicate pair never changes.

Check Your Understanding

1. For each command, write the implied subject and underline the predicate: a) Close the window. b) Don't be late for rehearsal.

Rewrite this question as a statement, then mark the subject and predicate:

Are those your books on the table?

Is the bold part a compound subject or a compound predicate?

My cousin and his best friend are learning French.

Identify the simple subject and simple predicate:

After the final whistle, the tired players slowly left the pitch.

Underline the complete subject and circle the complete predicate:

The new science teacher at our school wears bright yellow socks.

Internal Links

Back to: Pillar 1 — How Sentences Work

Forward to: - 1.2 Objects and Complements - 1.3 Subject Complements - 1.4 Sentence Patterns - 2.1 Sentence Types - 5.1 Sentence Fragments

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