Name: KEY
Subjects, Predicates, and Objects
Review: Parts of Speech
Directions: In the following sentences, label each word with its part of speech.
1.Circus parades were long and elaborate.
Adj.
Noun Verb
Adv.
Conj. Adv.
2.They arrived in town by train.
Pron. Verb
Prep. Noun Prep. Noun
3.Night parades seemed especially exciting.
Adj.
Noun Verb
Adv.
Adj.
4.Wow! Those electric lights and torches glowed so brightly!
Int.
Adv.
Adj.
Noun Conj. Noun Verb
Adv.
Adv.
5.Animals rode in velvet-draped cages.
Noun Verb
Perp. Adj.
Noun
CHAPTER 18
•A sentence is a group of words with two main parts: a COMPLETE SUBJECT and a
COMPLETE PREDICATE.
•Together, these parts express a COMPLETE THOUGHT.
Exercise 1: Identify the complete subjects (bold) and predicates (underline) in each sentence.
1.Ellen and her friends visited the Museum of Modern Art.
2.You will need a good college dictionary and some other reference texts.
3.Rounding the bend, we saw the old village store under and immense elm tree.
4.Everyone must pass the same entrance examinations.
5.The end of the play was not at all surprising.
Exercise 2: Identify each sentence as a sentence or fragment.
1.Choose to lead the team.
SENTENCE
2.Suddenly, at the crack of dawn.
FRAGMENT
3.The house is fenced on three sides.
SENTENCE
4.The assistant principal of the high school. FRAGMENT
5.Near the top of the mountain range.
FRAGMENT
•The SIMPLE subject is the ESSENTIAL noun, pronoun, or group of words acting as a noun
that cannot be left out of the COMPLETE subject.
•The SIMPLE predicate is the essential VERB or verb PHRASE that cannon be left out of the
COMPLETE predicate.
Exercise 3: Divide the sentence into subject and predicate with a vertical line: I. Then bold the
subject and underline the verb.
1. Cattle herders
2. They I
I
worked up to twenty hours a day.
drove cattle up and down the Chisholm trail.
3. Sources of water
I
were sometimes not easily found.
4. Natural predators
I
hunted the cattle.
5. Wild buffalo stampedes
I
often occurred late at night.
•In most sentences, the subject comes before the verb. This is called NORMAL word order.
•In some sentences, however, the verb comes first, and the word order is INVERTED.
•If there is a problem finding the subject, change the sentence back to NORMAL word order,
placing the SUBJECT first.
Exercise 4: Identify and bold the simple subject and underline the verb in each sentence.
1.There are three strange men in your office.
2.Have the grandparents arrived yet?
3.Near the bank of the river was an old canoe.
4.Where can my notebooks be?
5.Here are the books from the library.
•A DIRECT OBJECT is a word or group of words that COMPLETES the meaning of the
predicate of a sentence.
•A DIRECT OBJECT is a noun, pronoun, or group of words acting as a noun that receives the
ACTION of the transitive verb.
Exercise 5: Underline the direct object in each sentence.
1.My mother asked her for the cookie recipe.
2.We will need a dictionary and some paper.
3.Which television did you finally buy?
4.My uncle opened a small business in Buffalo.
5.What book do you recommend?
•An INDIRECT OBJECT is a noun or pronoun that appears with a direct object and names the
person or thing that something is given to or done for. Note that indirect objects are found only
in sentences that also have DIRECT OBJECTS.
Exercise 6: Identify and bold the indirect object(s) and underline the direct object(s) in each
sentence.
1.I promised Marie and Betty tickets to the concert.
2.Show them your injury.
3.Why did you lend her your new sweater?
4.Teach the chorus the song.
5.After dinner, I gave the girls their presents.
•An OBJECTIVE COMPLEMENT is an adjective, noun, or group of words acting as a noun that
follows a DIRECT OBJECT and describes or renames it.
•Objective complements are usually found after such verbs as APPOINT, call, CONSIDER,
elect, label, make, NAME, and think.
•A SUBJECT COMPLEMENT is a noun, a pronoun, or an adjective that appears with a
LINKING verb and tells something about the SUBJECT.
•There are two kinds of subject complements:
–PREDICATE NOMINATIVES
–PREDICATE ADJETIVES
•A predicate nominative is a NOUN or PRONOUN that appears with a linking verb and
RENAMES, identifies, or EXPLAINS the subject.
•A predicate adjective is an ADJECTIVE that appears with a LINKING VERB and describes the
SUBJECT of the sentence.
Exercise 7: Underline the predicate in each sentence, then label it as a predicate nominative or
predicate adjective.
1.For thousands of years, spaceflight seemed a dream.
2.The desire to fly remained distant and elusive.
PN
PA
3.Nicolas Copernicus was a Polish astronomer in the sixteenth century.
4.His observations of the universe were quite insightful.
PN
PA
5.Other contributors to the study of astronautics were physicists, mathematicians, and
astronomers. PN