Parts of a Sentence (Basic)
Name: ___________________________________________________ Date: __________________ Period: __________
Rationale: In order to able to determine whether a sentence is formed correctly, you must be able to break that
sentence down into the component parts which create it! For this purpose we will be learning the most basic sentence
parts today— predicates, subjects, direct/indirect objects, predicate nouns/adjectives, and prepositional phrases.
Definitions:
Predicate
A predicate is the word which expresses what is happening, being done, or the state of being,
being expressed in a sentence. A predicate is an action verb, linking verb, or is made of helping
verb(s) combined with an action or linking verb to make a verb phrase.
Answers the question: What is happening in this sentence?
Subject
A subject is a person, place, thing, or idea that is doing the doing or being.
Answers the question: Who/what is (predicate)?
Direct Object
A direct object is a noun/pronoun which follows an action verb and receive the action of the
verb.
Answers the question: Whom/what does the (subject) (predicate)?
Indirect Object
An indirect object is a noun/pronoun which follows an action verb and tells to whom or for
whom the action is done.
Answers the question: To whom/for whom does the (subject) (predicate) (direct object)?
Predicate Noun
A predicate noun is a noun which follows a linking verb and equals or renames the subject.
Predicate Adjective
A predicate adjective is an adjective which follows a linking verb and which describes/modifies
the subject.
Prepositional
Phrases
A prepositional phrase is made from a preposition and a noun/pronoun which follows that
preposition and is called the “object of the preposition.”
Note: Prepositions always show the relationship between a noun (which follows the
preposition) and the rest of the sentence.
Basic Building Blocks:
To form a complete (proper) sentence you must have at least two things: a predicate, and a subject. If you do not have
these two components, you only have a phrase (an incomplete sentence), rather than a complete sentence (clause).
Example of a complete sentence (clause):
I run.
I play.
Example of a phrase:
At home
Clogged with dog hair
Exercise I: Circle the verbs and underline the subjects in the exercise. Note that not every number provides a complete
sentence!
1. At one time.
2. I live here.
3. Skipping through the rain.
4. The cow jumped over the moon.
5. The cake started to burn.
6. At a young age I learned how to swim.
7. Jumping up and down.
8. Sit down!
Complements
While some sentences are complete with just a subject and a verb, other's require a complement to complete the
meaning of the verb.
Example:
I slept all day. --no complement
I gave James the book. --two complements
The cake was soggy. --one complement
There are four types of complements which we care about:
 Direct objects -- follow an action verb and receive the object of the verb. They answer whom or what.
 Indirect objects -- follow an action verb and tell to whom or for whom the action is done.
 Predicate nouns -- follow a linking verb and equal the subject.
 Predicate adjectives -- follow a linking verb and describe or modify the subject.
Exercise II: First, circle the action verbs and then underline the subjects. Next, find and label the direct objects (DO) and
indirect objects (IO) in the following sentences (if there are any).
1. The boy hated his brother.
2. He was a silly little boy.
3. The boy's brother cried.
4. He was mean.
5. The boy gave his brother a toy.
6. The brother hit his brother.
7. They were cruel.
8. The children scared their sister with a slug.
9. The children were being awful.
10. Ms. Tuttle has given her students sentences about awful children.
Exercise III: First, circle the linking verbs and underline the subjects. Next, find and label the predicate nouns (PN) and
the predicate adjectives (PA) in the following sentences (if there are any).
1. I am depressed.
2. Most of the time I am happy.
3. Sleeping is a luxury.
4. I wish to sleep.
5. I long for sleep.
6. My head is foggy.
7. Sitting on the edge of the bed, Max looked sad.
8. Ms. Tuttle cannot think clearly.
Prepositional Phrases
To make sure that your subjects and verbs match, you must be able to find the subject and verb in the midst of a sea of
prepositional phrases.
A prepositional phrase connects a noun to the rest of the sentence by using a preposition. Prepositional phrases
CANNOT stand on their own because they are PHRASES meaning that they have no subject or verb, only preposition and
the object of the preposition.
Example:
The team was on the moon.
At home she likes to cook.
She was sick for years.
Exercise IV: First, circle the verb and label them either action or linking. Next, underline the subjects. Shade in the
prepositions, and then finally label all the complements (DO, IO, PN, and PA) as well as the objects of the prepositions
(OP).
1. On Sunday it will rain.
2. It is beautiful today.
3. Once upon a time, I was in a story.
4. The dog jumped over my legs, onto my books, through the laundry, and onto the other dog.
5. My dog is very loud.
6. Both of my dogs are sleeping on the floor.
7. I need more topics.
8. I am tired of writing about dogs.
9. Boomer is mean to Max.
10. Max loves Boomer anyway.