Hey, everyone—welcome to another English grammar lesson.
Today we’re going to be covering simple and complete predicates.
So if you missed our last video on simple and complete subjects, you’ll want to go check that
out and then come right on back for this one. So, anyway, what exactly is a predicate? Well,
a predicate tells what action or actions the subject is taking,
or it can tell the general state of being or the condition of our subject. So what does that look
like, exactly? Well, let’s see. So we’ve got the sentence “My father opened the car door.”
So the complete subject—which you should know—is “my father,” and the complete predicate would be
the rest of the sentence, the part that tells what the subject (“my father”) actually did—the action
he took or the condition that he is in. So, again, that would be this: “opened the car door.” That
is my “complete predicate.” And just like we had with subjects, we also have a “simple predicate”;
this is going to be the smallest possible version of our predicate—the most essential part of the
action or condition being described. And here that would be “opened.” “Opened” is my simple predicate
because that is the simplest version of what my father did. Let’s look at another…
“My brother is a nice man.” Okay, so my complete subject is “My brother”—that’s who I’m talking
about, right? So my complete predicate would be everything else: “is a nice man.” Now,
if you notice, there’s no real action here; it’s not “My brother kicked…” or “My brother ran…”
or “My brother jumped…” You don’t always have to have an action as your predicate; sometimes you
can simply have a state of being or condition, like “is” or “was” or “were” or “seemed.”
And that’s exactly the case here with my simple predicate. My simple predicate would be “is.”
How about this one? “They were running through the field.” So my complete subject here is
“They”—that’s who I’m talking about. And the rest of it is going to be my complete predicate.
So what about my simple predicate? Well, in our first example, we had an action:
“opened”—“My father opened the car door.”
And in the last example we had a condition or state of being: “is”—“My brother is a nice man.”
But here we kind of have a little bit of both. We have the word “were,” which puts us in a
certain tense—at a certain time—and we have the word “running,” which shows a specific action.
So when you have that—when you have some sort of tense or time word,
paired with an action, they actually both work together as your simple predicate. So, again, your
simple predicate here would be “were running.” One more, and then we’ll do some practice…
“My cousin sings and plays the piano.” Okay, so we always start with our complete subject,
which is going to be “My cousin,” leaving the rest of this as our complete predicate. Except here we
actually have two predicates—two different things that my cousin does. So our simple predicates are
going to be “sings” and “plays” because my cousin does both of those things. All right,
now for some practice. How about this? “Kristin has called me twice today.” Complete subject is…
“Kristin,” making our complete predicate all of this stuff. And our simple predicate includes
both a tense or time word and an action, making our simple predicate “has called.” Next one…
“Liam took the sandwich and ate it.” Okay, complete subject here is “Liam,” leaving the rest
of this as our complete predicate. And here we’re looking at two simple predicates because Liam did
two separate things, and those two things would be “took” and “ate.” How about this one?
“Those two players are my favorite ones to watch.” Complete subject is…? “Those two players.”
My complete predicate is everything else, and my simple predicate, since there’s no real action
taking place, is just going to be a conditional or state-of-being verb, and that would be “are.”
Two more… “My neighbor and I have been arguing for hours.” Complete subject is…? “My neighbor
and I.” Complete predicate is everything else, and my simple predicate—the smallest version of
this that tells either the action or the state of being—is actually going to be three words here; we
need all three of them for our simple predicate. The first two, “have been,” put us in a certain
time or tense, and the last one, “arguing,” is the action that’s being done at the time.
So our full-on simple predicate is “have been arguing.” Now let’s do a bit of a tricky one and
see if you can get it. “I do not want eggs for breakfast.” “I do not want eggs for breakfast.”
Okay, so, as always, we want to start with our complete subject. And here that’s just going
to be “I.” So the rest of this is our complete predicate: “do not want eggs for breakfast.”
Okay, so what about our simple predicate? What are the essential parts of this predicate?
I’m guessing a lot of you might have said “do not want,” and you’re very close. Unfortunately,
the word “not” isn’t a verb. It’s helpful; it’s important for the meaning of the sentence
as a whole. But it’s not technically a verb; it’s not part of an action or the condition;
it doesn’t give a specific tense like “were” or “have” or “has.” So, as strange as it might seem,
our simple predicate is actually split around this word. Our simple predicate is actually “do
want.” And the more you read, and the more you see more complex,
kind of trickier sentences like this, you’re going to see these split simple predicates a lot more.
Like “We have recently traveled to Africa” or “They have often told us about their new baby” or
“Our dog has always growled at strangers.” Okay, so just keep that in mind that sometimes you’re
going to have simple predicates that are split around these modifying words.
Cool! Well, whether you came here for a refresher or are just now learning this stuff for the first
time, I hope this video helped. Be sure to check out the free practice down in the description,
and—uh—we’ll see you next time. Thanks.