Subjects and Verbs
What are subjects and verbs?
•What is a subject?
– Usually a noun or pronoun –
the who or what of the sentence.
•What is a verb?
–
The action of the sentence or
the link in the sentence.
Recognizing Subjects
Subjects
– Often answers the who or what question
– Jamie stole the car – who?
– The dirty car wouldn’t come clean – what?
Action vs. Linking Verbs
• Action Verbs
– Show an action – what did so and so do?
Linking Verbs
– not actions (test replace verb with is or was –
if it makes sense, it’s probably a linking verb.
Recognizing Verbs
• VERBS
– May show action [jump, hop, skip]
– May link [is, was will be, appeared]
– May be compound [has been, will have, is
going]
– Might be infinite [to go, to listen]
**However a gerund is not an active verb
[ing verb without helping verb isn’t main verb]
Prepositional Phrases #1 of 3
•Often show place
– What can a marble do to a mountain?
•Why know them?
–They often confuse what verb to choose,
so eliminate to check the verb.
Prepositional Phrases #2 of 3
• Eliminate the prepositional phrases and
find the verb in the example.
Next to the bus stop, a group of new college
students is talking.
P. S. It’s okay to end a sentence with a
preposition.
Prepositional Phrases #3 of 3
• Eliminate: “next to the bus stop,” and
“of new college students.”
• Subject:
“a group”
• Verb:
“is talking”
Regular and Irregular Verbs #1 of 2
• How to know present tense
add the word every day
• How to know past tense
– add word yesterday
• How to know future tense
– Add word tomorrow
Regular and Irregular Verbs #2 of 2
Which sentence is in the present, past,
and future?
EX: Mary drives like a maniac on the freeway.
Bill didn’t like the apple cart.
Arthur is going to fly to Hawaii.
Puzzling Pairs
• Lend:
allow someone to borrow [verb]
• Loan:
is something borrowed [noun]
• Lay:
to put in place
• Lie:
to recline
• Sit:
to take a seat
• Set:
to put or place