Ever since school, everyone knows that the predicate and the subject are the main members of the sentence. However, not everyone fully understands what this mysterious definition means. Let's try to fill in the gaps in our knowledge and understand in detail what a predicate and a subject are. What parts of speech can they be expressed in? And in what cases are they separated in writing by such a punctuation mark as a dash?
Definition
To understand what a predicate and a subject are, you need to understand their definitions.
The subject is one of the main members of the sentence, answering the questions: who? or what? and denoting the subject that is being discussed in the sentence. Warm weather has set in throughout the region. In this example, the word "weather" acts as a subject (that is, the subject of speech), and thosegrammatical features that the other main member of this sentence will receive - the predicate.
The predicate is one of the main members of the sentence, answering the questions: what to do? what? what's happening ? Who is (or what is) the subject? It denotes an action that is performed by the subject of speech, its state or sign. In the above example, the verb "established" acts as a predicate. From the subject, he received such features as the singular and the feminine ending.
Methods of expressing the subject and predicate
This is one of the more difficult questions on this topic. Indeed, in order to understand what a predicate and a subject are, it is necessary to be able to correctly define them in speech.
Subject
The subject in a sentence can be expressed by the following parts of speech:
- Noun or pronoun (in I. p.). The weather is fine.
- Adjective, numeral or participle (in I. p.). Seven do not wait for one.
- Composite structures:
- numeral + noun: A lot of people crowded into the room;
- adjective + preposition + noun: The best athlete did not start the competition;
- pronoun + adjective or participle: Something light rustled in the air;
- noun + preposition + noun: Elena and her husband came to visit friends.
- Infinitive. Smoking is harmful to he alth.
Predicate
The predicate in a sentence can be expressed by the following parts of speech:
- Verb (simple or compound). Marina dreams of becoming a biologist.
- A noun. Victor is my only love.
- Adjective or participle. How rich is the nature of the Ural Mountains!
Dash between subject and predicate
The table below clearly shows in which cases the main members of a
sentence are separated in writing by this punctuation mark.
Instances where a dash is placed |
Examples |
| n. in I. p. - noun. in I. p. | My years are my we alth |
| n. in I. p. - verb. unspecified f. | The main task for newlyweds is to learn to understand each other |
| v. unspecified f. - vb. unspecified f. | Smoking is bad for he alth |
| v. unspecified f. - noun. in I. p. | Love is an art |
| n. in I. p. - idiomatic expression | My friend is the shirt guy! |
| quant. num. - quantity num. | Seven six - forty two |
| quant. num. - noun. in I. p. | Eight hundred meters is the length of the stadium's running track |
| n. in I. p. - quantity. num. | The depth of our pool is four meters |
It should be remembered what the predicate and the subject are, as well as the fact that when they change places in a sentence, they change their functions. My best friend is Julia. Julia is my best friend.
