{"id":1849,"date":"2015-05-29T09:00:53","date_gmt":"2015-05-29T16:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/?p=1849"},"modified":"2020-12-10T13:45:51","modified_gmt":"2020-12-10T21:45:51","slug":"sentences-subjects-and-predicates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/sentences-subjects-and-predicates\/","title":{"rendered":"Sentences, Subjects, and Predicates"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You probably know what a sentence is. Even if you can\u2019t give an exact definition of one, you\u2019re able to recognize a complete sentence when you see it. You may have heard that a sentence must contain a subject and verb (with a few exceptions), especially if you read <a href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/how-to-make-a-sentence\/\">Kate\u2019s post on sentence construction<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019ve probably also heard that a sentence in English has a subject, a verb, <em>and<\/em> an object, usually in that order. This is true of many sentences in English. Here is an example taken from a TOEFL Listening track:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You want contemporary reviews.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Not all sentences have a subject verb and object in English, though. It would be more accurate to say that sentences in English all have a subject and <em>predicate<\/em>. A predicate is the set of words that describes a subject. In the example sentence above, the predicate contains the verb \u201cwant,\u201d and the object of \u201cwant,\u201d the noun \u201ccontemporary reviews.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Below, see an example of a TOEFL sentence that has a predicate, but doesn\u2019t really have a verb-object structure:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>These are what we call \u201ccomfort behaviors.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Here, the subject of the sentence is \u201cthese.\u201d The sentence\u2019s verb is \u201care,\u201d a form of \u201cto be.\u201d \u201cTo be\u201d is a <a href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/stative-verbs-perceptions-and-opinions\/\">stative verb<\/a> that describes the way the subject <em>is<\/em> instead of what the subject <em>does<\/em>. Stative verbs don\u2019t have an object, because no object is really being acted upon. So here, the predicate consists of the verb \u201care\u201d and the words \u201cwhat we call \u2018comfort behaviors.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In English, a sentence can actually have more than one subject and predicate. Here is an example of this (a very complicated example!).<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>But if we accept the witness at his word, it is ultimately a result of our own biases, due to the fact that our assessment is based on our perception of his character and not on the inherent truthfulness of his statement.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This sentence, like many TOEFL Reading sentences, is complex. You\u2019ll find the sentence easier to follow if you identify all the subjects and predicates in it. \u201cWe\u201d is the first subject in the sentence. It\u2019s followed by the verb-object predicate \u201caccept the witness at his word.\u201d The next subject is \u201cit.\u201d This is followed by the stative-verb predicate \u201cis ultimately a result of our own biases.\u201d The third and final subject in the sentence is \u201cour assessment.\u201d Its predicate is \u201cbased on our perception of his character and not on the inherent truthfulness of his statement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A subject-predicate pairing in a sentence is called a <em>clause<\/em>. A clause may be a whole sentence, or it could be a subject-predicate pair that is part of a larger sentence. Inside clauses, you\u2019ll find smaller sets of words called <em>phrases<\/em>. In my next post on this subject, we\u2019ll take a closer look at clauses and phrases.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You probably know what a sentence is. Even if you can\u2019t give an exact definition of one, you\u2019re able to recognize a complete sentence when you see it. You may have heard that a sentence must contain a subject and verb (with a few exceptions), especially if you read Kate\u2019s post on sentence construction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13603],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[13630],"class_list":["post-1849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grammar"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.7 (Yoast SEO v21.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Sentences, Subjects, and Predicates - Magoosh Blog \u2013 TOEFL\u00ae\ufe0f Test<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/sentences-subjects-and-predicates\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sentences, Subjects, and Predicates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You probably know what a sentence is. 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Additionally, he's helped students with TOEIC, PET, FCE, BULATS, Eiken, SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT. David has a BS and MA from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an MA from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MagooshEnglishLearning","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/david-recine\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCra3KQoJlOP7RYwaCyH2qew"],"knowsAbout":["TOEFL","IELTS","TOEIC","PET","FCE","BULATS","Eiken","SAT","ACT","GRE","GMAT"],"knowsLanguage":["English","Italian"],"jobTitle":"Content Creator","worksFor":"Magoosh","url":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/author\/davidr\/"}]}},"authors":[{"term_id":13630,"user_id":80,"is_guest":0,"slug":"davidr","display_name":"David Recine","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b70c17ee6f3ef87dc4cc5dbdebda911d6dd30dfe15845e4b1d459a3e1b33ef98?s=96&d=mm&r=g","user_url":"","last_name":"Recine","first_name":"David","description":"David is a Test Prep Expert for Magoosh TOEFL and IELTS. Additionally, he's helped students with TOEIC, PET, FCE, BULATS, Eiken, SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT.\r\n\r\nDavid has a BS from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an MA from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. His work at Magoosh has been cited in<a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/scholar?hl=en&amp;as_sdt=0%2C50&amp;q=Recine+magoosh&amp;btnG=\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> many scholarly articles<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/minds.wisconsin.edu\/handle\/1793\/65479\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> his Master's Thesis<\/a> is featured on the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.readingwithpictures.org\/2013\/09\/research-highlight-teaching-english-language-learners-with-comics\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Reading with Pictures<\/a> website, and he's presented at the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.witesol.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/2014-WITESOL-Program-FINAL-10-28-14.pdf\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> WITESOL (link to PDF)<\/a> and<a href=\"https:\/\/issuu.com\/interoff\/docs\/nafsaregionv_2014conference\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> NAFSA<\/a> conferences. David has taught K-12 ESL in South Korea as well as undergraduate English and MBA-level business English at American universities. He has also trained English teachers in America, Italy, and Peru.\r\n\r\nCome join David and the Magoosh team on<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCra3KQoJlOP7RYwaCyH2qew\"> Youtube<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MagooshEnglishLearning\"> Facebook<\/a>, and<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/magooshenglish\/?hl=en\"> Instagram<\/a>, or connect with him via<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/david-recine\/\"> LinkedIn<\/a>!"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1849\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1849"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=1849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}