What is a Simple Subject and a Simple Predicate?

The previous lesson covered the complete subject and complete predicate.  This lesson is going to look at how to identify just the simple subject and simple predicate.

Like the last lesson we are going to find the subject and the predicate but we are only going to look for the simple answer.  In the last lesson, the sentence “The woman picks the apples” was broken down into the complete subject “the woman” and the complete predicate “picks the apples”.  This time, the simple subject would be “woman” and the simple predicate would be “picks”.

These simple subjects and predicates are going to be one word.  The articles and descriptive words are going to be taken out. It’s pretty easy, you already learned how to find the complete subject and complete predicate.  Now you’re just going to narrow it down to simple, single words.

Think of what a toddler would say, they often speak in sentences that use just the simple subject and simple predicate but we can still understand much of what they are saying.  A small child might say “I play” instead of “I want to play outside now”.  They just use the main words.

Let’s practice. Identify the simple subject or simple predicate in the following sentences:

1. Subject: The kids ran to school.
2. Predicate: Ming played basketball.
3. Predicate: The goldfish swam in the bowl.
4. Subject: These cars are super expensive.
5. Predicate: Birds fly in the sky.
6. Subject: I am Ironman.

The kids ran to school.  The simple subject in this sentence is “kids”.

Ming played basketball.  The simple predicate is “played”. The word “basketball” describes what she did but it is not part of the simple predicate.

The goldfish swam in the bowl. “Swam” is the simple predicate.  It describes what the subject did.

These cars are super expensive. “Cars” is the simple subject. The rest of the sentence “are super expensive” is the complete predicate.  However, the simple predicate doesn’t always follow right after the subject.  In this sentence the simple predicate is “expensive”.

Birds fly in the sky.  In this sentence, “fly” is the simple predicate.

I am Ironman.  Okay, that was just fun to say. The simple subject is “I”