Page 121 - English Grammar - 8

In some sentences, the subject may come after the verb. These are mostly sentences that
begin with the words, there and here. For example:
There are countless mountains on the west coast.
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Here comes your bus.
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In the above sentences, are and comes are the verbs and countless mountains and your
bus are the subjects respectively.

In some sentences, the subject is not given. These are usually imperative sentences, where
the subject you is implied, but not given. For example:
(You) Sit at that place.
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Rememberemember
Ask who or what before a verb and the answer you get is the subject of a sentence.

Attribute of the Subject
The subject is the most important word in a subject. It can be qualified by an adjective or
another word that serves as an adjective. The word that qualifies the subject is called the
attribute of the subject. For example:
The naughty dog chewed up my slippers.
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In the above sentence, dog is the subject and the naughty is the attribute.
The attribute of the subject can be an article, an adjective, a possessive noun or a possessive
adjective.

Attribute Sentence
Article The children play basketball.

Adjective Young children play basketball.
Possessive noun Neighbours’ children play basketball.

Possessive adjective Their children play basketball.

In the above sentences, all the highlighted attributes modify the subject children.

Predicate

The predicate of a sentence is the part that tells about the subject. It usually follows the Structure of Sentences
subject and tells us something about it. It contains a verb, an object or a complement and
other phrases. For example:
Rohan has come back from the playground.
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I have never cooked before.
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In the above sentences, the highlighted groups of words are predicates.
A predicate can be a single word—the verb. For example:
Arjun smiled.
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A predicate can be a group of words made up of a main verb along with a helping verb. For
example:

Arjun is jumping.
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