Subject and Predicate: Complete Subject and Complete Predicate

In the first lesson, we covered what makes a complete sentence.  Remember that a complete sentence includes a full idea and has both a who/what and what is happening or what has happened.

These two parts are called subjects and predicates.  In this lesson, you will learn how to identify the complete subject and complete predicate.  It sounds much more complicated than it is.

The subject is who or what the sentence is about. Just like we showed in the first video, you can often hear the break between the subject and the predicate. If you read the sentence “Mr. Johnson is a great pilot.”, you’ll probably pause between the subject (Mr. Johnson) and the predicate.

A complete subject is going to include all the words about the subject. In the sentence “The school bus arrived” the complete subject is “the school bus”. The complete subject will often have words that identify or describe the subject.  For example, “The orange cat likes to play with yarn” has the complete subject of “the orange cat”.

The predicate finishes the idea in the sentence and tells you what a subject is or what it does.

Breaking that sentence, taking off the subject, is going to give you the predicate. “She is ice skating”, take out the subject (she) and you have the predicate “is ice skating”.

A complete predicate is going to include all the words that describe what the subject is doing or what has happened.  It could be one single word like “arrived” from the “The school bus arrived” example or it may have several words like “is ice skating”.

Let’s practice with a few sentences.  

Directions: Look at the underlined part in the sentences below and identify whether that is the subject or the predicate.

1. That family is on a picnic.
2. They run around the playground.
3. I study.

Now try to find the subject or predicate in these sentences:

• Subject: Those grapes are delicious.
• Predicate: All of the sheep sleep outside.
• Predicate: We jump rope.

That family is on a picnic.  The underlined part is the complete subject, it tells us who or what the sentence is about.

They run around the playground.  This time the predicate is underlined.  This part of the sentence tells us what is happening.

I study. This sentence might be short but it has both the subject and predicate.  The subject “I” was underlined.

Those grapes are delicious.  Were you able to identify the subject? “Those grapes” is the complete subject in this sentence.

All of the sheep sleep outside. The subjects “sleep outside” so that is the predicate for this sentence.

We jump rope. The predicate in this sentence is “jump rope”.