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Subject and Predicate
The Mystery of the Missing Mouse
Hi, I am Spike, the monkey, who loves mysteries.
I am on my way to Barney's house.
He's invited me on a playdate you see!
I'm so excited!
It feels so good to see you, Barney!
My little sister!
What happened, Barney?
My sister, she’s missing.
Where could Phoebe go?
I don’t know.
This morning when I went to wake her up, I found these on her bed.
There’s something fishy.
These, I am pretty sure, are some kind of clues.
Don’t worry, Barney. We’ll find her.
Break each of these sentences into a subject and a predicate.
Subject? Predicate?
Do you have any idea what this means, Spike?
Oh yes! I do!
The part that refers to who or what is performing the action in the sentence is the subject,
and the part that gives us information about what the subject is doing is the predicate.
Remember a subject and a predicate together make a complete sentence.
Let’s take our first sentence strip.
Tabby nibbled the peanuts.
Who is the doer here?
Tabby
Tabby is the subject.
This sentence is about her.
What did she do?
Nibbled the peanuts
This is the predicate.
It tells us what Tabby did.
I’ll snip, snip, snip it!
And the sentence is cut into two parts.
Here’s the next sentence strip, Spike.
Coco scurried across the floor.
Who is the sentence about?
Coco
So Coco is our subject.
What does it tell us about Coco?
It tells us that Coco scurried across the floor.
Therefore, “scurried across the floor” is our predicate.
There was a block of cheese lying on the plate.
What is this sentence about?
It is about a block of cheese.
Hence, “a block of cheese” is the subject.
And the predicate is
“was there lying on the plate”, right?
Yes, In many sentences that start with "here" and "there",
the subject comes after the predicate.
Our sentence “There was a block of cheese lying on the plate” is an example.
Let’s move on to the next sentence.
What is a mouse's favorite game?
Hide and squeak, of course!
No silly, I didn’t ask you that!
What is the subject here?
But this is a question.
When a “WH” question like “who”, “what”, and “which” is used to ask about the subject,
it takes the place of the subject.
So the word “what” is the subject here, isn't it, Spike?
Yes it is!
But what is the predicate?
“Is a mouse’s favourite game” is the predicate.
Snip it, Barney. Let’s move on to the next.
This one has an instruction on it.
Pick the simple subject and simple predicate.
Oh no! What on earth is that?
That’s very simple, Barney.
To find the simple subject, you just have to pick the main word,
which is a noun or a pronoun, leaving out all the describing words or phrases.
To identify the simple predicate,
all you need to do is to look for the verb, without its modifying words or phrases.
Look at this sentence.
Mike, the cartoonish-looking mouse, parked the boat at the Hickory Dickory Dock.
“Mike, the cartoonish-looking mouse” is the complete subject, but the simple subject is “Mike”.
The complete predicate is “parked the boat at the Hickory Dickory Dock”.
The simple predicate is the verb “parked”.
Let’s see another sentence.
We need to look for the simple subject and simple predicate here as well.
On seeing Mike, the helpless and frightened Theo darted out of the closet.
The simple subject here is
“Theo”.
What did she do?
She darted out of the closet.
That is the complete predicate, and the verb “darted”, standing alone, is the simple predicate.
What’s the sentence, Barney?
He is practicing for the rodent raft race.
“He” is the simple subject here,
and “is practicing” is the simple predicate.
Pass me the next sentence strip, Barney.
A cat and a mouse are a match made in heaven.
Spike, this sentence talks about two animals.
Which of them is the subject?
Both a cat and a mouse are the subjects.
This is what we call a compound subject.
A compound subject is when a sentence has two or more subjects, usually connected with "and” or "or".
Do we have compound predicates too, Spike?
Yes, we do!
A compound predicate is when a sentence has two or more verbs, usually connected with "and" or "or".
Take a look at this sentence strip.
The quarrelsome cat and mouse screeched, squeaked, and landed in a puddle of mud.
Wait, wait, wait!
Let me clear this!
We mice are not quarrelsome, it’s the cats you see!
ok! I got that!
May I!
Oh yes, please!
“The cat” and “the mouse” make the compound subject, and
“screeched”, “squeaked”, and “landed” form the compound predicate.
That was the last one.
What next, Spike?
What does all this mean?
Hello Spike!
What are you doing here?
Phoebe, my dear!
Where had you been all this while?
I was so worried!
I went to the store to buy some glue for the project.
Oh brother, what have you done to my sentence strips?
What will I do now?
This can’t be happening!
You two have ruined my project.
Oh! please don’t cry, Phoebe.
We'll put the subjects and predicates together and make complete sentences for you quickly.
Let's line up the pieces, Barney.
There you go!
Aha! That's wonderful, Barney!
Thank you, Spike!
Now that identifying subjects and predicates is fresh in your mind,
it’s time to start putting it into practice
by solving some of these worksheets @Tutoringhour.com.
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