PARTS OF THE SENTENCE

Subject
In general, the subject refers to the part of the sentence which tells whom or what the
sentence is addressing. The subject is going to be either a noun or a noun phrase.
For example, "Kelly walked down the street." Kelly is the subject, because she is the
actor, or subject, in the sentence.
There are a few different types of subjects. The underlined word is the subject.
 Simple subject: Kate is a thin girl.
 Full subject: Jeffrey's poem about his mother made the class cry.
 Compound subject: Paul and Tommy joined the soccer team at the same time.

Predicate
Let us return to our example "Kelly walked down the street." In this sentence, "walked"
is the predicate because it is the verb that tells us what Kelly is doing. A sentence can
have just a subject and a predicate. For example, you could just say "Kelly walked"
and you have a complete sentence.
Here are the types of predicates.
 Simple predicate: Harry ate his apple.
 Full predicate: The mouse slowly ran towards the food.
 Compound predicate: She both laughed and cried at the film.

Clause
A clause is usually additional information to the sentence. We could say "They like ice
cream." However, we could also say "They like ice cream on hot days." "They like ice
cream" can stand by itself, but "on hot days" adds something extra to the sentence.
Therefore, "on hot days" is a clause.
There are two different types of clauses:
 Dependent clauses - "On hot days" is an example of a dependent clause because it
could not stand by itself as a sentence.
 Independent clauses - "Paul washed the dishes, but he didn't want to." "He didn't want
to" could be a sentence by itself; however, here it is connected to the larger sentence.

 1. Choose the subject in the sentence below: Jenny won the writing
competition.
o A. Jenny
o B. Won
o C. Competition
  2. Choose the subject in the sentence below: The old, abandoned church
caught on fire!
o A. Old
o B. Church
o C. Caught
o D. Fire

 3. Choose the subject in the sentence below: Are you going to the dance
tonight?
o A. Are going
o B. You
o C. Dance
o D. Tonight

 4. Highlight the predicate in the sentence below: Jenny won the writing
competition.
 5. Highlight the predicate in the sentence below: The old, abandoned
church caught on fire!

 6. Highlight the predicate in the sentence below: Are you going to the dance
tonight?

Direct and Indirect Object

What is an object?
An object in grammar is a part of a sentence, and often part of the predicate. It refers to
someone or something involved in the subject's "performance" of the verb.

Subject Verb Object

Leila wrote the poem

 "Leila" is the subject, the doer or performer,

 "wrote" is a verb that refers to the action,
 "the poem" is the object involved in the action.

Types of objects

Direct object

A direct object answers the question "what?" or "whom?"

Examples:

 David repaired his car → his car is the direct object of the verb repaired. ( What
did David repair?)
 He invited Mary to the party → Mary is the direct object of the verb invited.
(Whom did he invite?)

Indirect Object

An indirect object answers the question "to whom?", "for whom?", "for what?"...

There must be a direct object for an indirect object to be placed in a sentence. In other
words an indirect object cannot exist without a direct object.

Examples:

 They sent him a postcard - him is the indirect object of the verb sent. (To
whom did they send a postcard?)
 He bought his son a bike - his son is the indirect object of the verb bought. (For
whom did he buy a bike?)

Transitive and intransitive verbs

A verb can be classified as transitive or intransitive according to whether it takes or

doesn't take an object:

 If a verb takes objects, then it is a transitive verb.

Example:
They played soccer. → (The verb play takes ONE object 'soccer')
They sent him a postcard. → (The verb send takes TWO objects 'him' and 'a
postcard')
 If a verb doesn't take an object, then it is an intransitive verb.
Example:
She lies. → (The verb 'lie' doesn't take any object)
The building collapsed. → (The verb 'collapse' doesn't take any object)

 7. Identify the direct object in the sentence below: Hannah gave Madison a
birthday gift.
o A. Hannah
o B. Gave
o C. Madison
o D. Gift
 8. Identify the direct object in the sentence below. The Martin family
brought dessert to the dinner party.
o A. Family
o B. Brought
o C. Dessert
o D. Party

 9. Identify the direct object in the sentence below. Michelle dropped the
stapler on her toe.
o A. Michelle
o B. Dropped
o C. Stapler
o D. Toe

 10. Identify the indirect object in the sentence below. The Martin family
brought dessert to the dinner party.
o A. Dessert
o B. Dinner
o C. Party
o D. There isn't one

 11. Identify the indirect object in the sentence below: Austin passed
Michael a note in class when the teacher wasn't looking.
o A. Michael
o B. Note
o C. Class
o D. Teacher
1. Anne gave Tania a gift.  Anne gave her a gift.  Anne gave it

to her.  She gave it to her.

2. Tony told Gina a lie.  Tony told her a lie.

3. George passed his baby brother to his mom.  George passed

him to his mom.  George passed him to her.  He passed him

to her.