Sentence Grammar 1
Every sentence in English must have a subject and a verb. The subject comes before the verb.
There may be an object, and the object would come after the verb. There may also be other
decoration, like participial phrases or prepositional phrases. These are optional, however, and the
subject and verb are not optional.
I. The (grammatical) subject is the person or thing that does the action or whose state we are
describing. You find the subject by asking who or what the sentence is about. The subject can
be a noun or a pronoun.
2. The verb is the action that the subject is doing or the state that it is in. You find the verb by
asking what the subject is doing if the verb is an action verb. Non-action verbs are a little
trickier (you ask about states: how does the subject feel, what does the subject think, and
things like that).
3. The object of the verb is affected by the action in the verb. You find the object by asking
“What + S + V?” The object can be a noun or pronoun.
For example:
The students studied.
S
*Who studied? (students = subject)
V
* What did the students do? (studied = verb)
Ashley and Amare asked questions.
S
V
O
*Who asked? (Ashley and Amare – this is a
compound subject because it’s connected by “and”)
* What did A & A do? (asked = verb)
* What did A & A ask? (questions = object)
With a prepositional phrase:
In this class, you will write four essays.
S
V
O
*Who will write essays? (you = subject)
* What will you do? (write = verb)
* What will you write? (essays = object)
As a question:
Did you print your paper last night?
S
V
O
*Who printed? (you= subject)
*What did you do? (printed=verb)
* What did you print? (paper= object)
Practice
Directions: Identify the subjects, the verbs, and the objects (if there is one) in the following
sentences. They are simple, compound, and complex (and complex-complex!) sentences so there
might be more than one subject or verb. Examine each sentence carefully.
1. I like it when you ask me questions.
2. She brought four copies of her essay to class.
3. Subjects and verbs are sometimes tricky to find.
4. ESL (English as a Second Language) students are often good at grammar because they have
to study it when they learn English.
5. You can practice in the Loft, or you can practice on the website.