SUBJECT
Definition: The subject of a sentence is the noun, pronoun or noun phrase that
precedes and governs the main verb. The subject is the part of the sentence
that performs an action or which is associated with the action.
For example:
* He is a really nice guy.
* "He" is the subject of the sentence, controlling the verb and the
complement.
* My dog attacked the burglar.
* "My dog" is the subject, controlling the verb and the rest of the
sentence.
* David plays the piano
* The subject "David" performs the action of "playing the
piano".
* The police interviewed all the witnesses.
* The subject the police performs the action of interviewing all the witnesses.
To determine the subject of a sentence, first isolate the verb and then make a
question by placing "who?" or "what?" before it. Having
identified the Subject, we can see that the remainder of the sentence tells us
what the Subject does or did. We refer to this string as the
"predicate" of the sentence.
For example:
* Who plays the piano?
=> "David" ( = Subject)
=> "plays the piano" ( = predicate) tells us what David does.
* Who interviewed all the witnesses?
=> "The police" (= Subject)
=> "interviewed all the witnesses" ( = predicate) tell us what the
police did.
Subjects can either be "simple", "compound" or
"complex"
Simple Subject
Composed of a single pronoun, noun or noun phrase.
Complex Subject
A complex subject consists of a noun phrase and any words, phrases, or clauses
that modify it.
For example:
* The man who had followed us inside walked over to the telephone.
=> central noun: man
=> complex subject: the man who had followed us inside
* The superior performance of La Traviata pleased the wealthy audience.
=> central noun: performance
=> complex subject: the superior performance of La Traviata
Compound Subject
A compound subject consists of two or more noun phrases (and their modifiers if
any) joined together with a coordinating conjunction.
For example:
* The man and the woman walked over to the telephone.
=> The compound subject here is the whole phrase, "the man and the
woman."
* Neither the superior performance of La Traviata nor the excellent wine at
intermission pleased the wealthy audience.
=> Again, the whole phrase, "neither the superior performance of La
Traviata nor the excellent wine at intermission," is the subject. The phrase
answers the question, "What pleased the wealthy audience?"
VERBS
Definition: Verbs are a class of words used to show the performance of an
action (do, throw, run), existence (be), possession (have), or state (know,
love) of a subject. To put it simply a verb shows what something or someone
does.
For example:
* Paul rides a bicycle.
* Here, the verb rides certainly denotes an action which Paul performs - the
action of riding a bicycle.
* We buy some books to learn English verbs.
* In this example, the action word is "to buy". It tells us that the
subject "we", that is the person who performs the action of the verb
is "buying some books".
The verb tense shows the time of the action or state. Aspect shows whether the
action or state is completed or not. Voice is used to show relationships
between the action and the people affected by it. Mood shows the attitude of
the speaker about the verb, whether it is a declaration or an order. Verbs can
be affected by person and number to show agreement with the subject.
Most statements in speech and writing have a main verb. These verbs are
expressed in "tenses" which place everything in a point in time.
Verbs are conjugated (inflected) to reflect how they are used. There are two
general areas in which conjugation occurs; for person and for tense.
Conjugation for tense
Conjugation for tense is carried out on all verbs. All conjugations start with
the infinitive form of the verb.
The infinitive is simply the to form of the verb For example, to begin.
The present participle form (the -ing form), is formed by adding ing to the
bare infinitive. For example, to begin - beginning.
There are two other forms that the verb can take, depending on the tense type
and time, the simple past form and the past participle.
The form of the verb or its tense can tell when events take place.
For example, the verb kiss:
Present Simple: kiss/kisses
Past Simple: kissed
Future Simple: will kiss
Present Perfect: has/have kissed
Past Perfect: had kissed
Future Perfect: will have kissed
Present Continuous (Progressive): is/am/are kissing
Past Continuous (Progressive): was kissing
Future Continuous (Progressive): will be kissing
Present Perfect Continuous (Progressive): has/have been kissing
Past Perfect Continuous (Progressive): had been kissing
Future Perfect Continuous (Progressive): will have been kissing
Conjugation for person
Conjugation for person occurs when the verb changes form, depending on whether
it is governed by a first, second, or third person subject. This gives three
conjugations for any verb depending on who is acting as the subject of the
verb. For example: we have I begin, you begin , and he begins. Note that only
the third conjunction really shows a difference.
In English, we distinguish between regular and irregular verbs. Regular verbs
are those ones which form their past simple and past participle just by adding
"-ed" to the base of the verb. The rest are irregular.
Examples:
* Dracula bites his victims on the neck.
* In early October, Giselle will plant twenty tulip bulbs.
* She travels to work by train.
* We walked five miles to a garage.
COMPLEMENTS
A complement completes the verb. It is similar to the subject
because it is usually a noun or noun phrase; however, it generally follows the
verb when the sentence is in the active voice. NOTE: Every sentence does not
require a complement. The complement CANNOT begin with a preposition. A
complement answers the question what? Or whom?
Examples
of complements:
·
John bought a cake yesterday. (What did
John buy?)
·
Jill was driving a new car. (What was
Jill driving?)
·
He wants to drink some water. (What does
he want to drink?)
·
She saw John at the movies last night. (Whom
did she see at the movies?)
·
They called Mary yesterday. (Whom did
they call?)
·
He was smoking a cigarette. (What was he
smoking?)
MODIFIER
A modifier tells the time, place, or manner of the action.
Very often it is a prepositional phrase. A prepositional phrase is a group of
words that begins with a preposition and ends with a noun.
Examples
of modifiers:
·
John bought a book at the bookstore.
(Where did John buy a book?) (at the bookstore: Modifier of place)
·
Jill was swimming in the pool , yesterday.
(Where was Jill swimming?)(When was Jill swimming?) (in the pool: Modifier of
place ) (yesterday: Modifier of time)
·
He was driving very fast. (How was he
driving?) (very fast: Modifier of manner)
·
The milk is in the refrigerator. (Where
is the milk?) (in the refrigerator: Modifier of place)
·
She drove the car on Main Street. (Where
did she drive?) (on Main Street: Modifier of place )
·
We ate dinner at seven o’clock. (When did
we eat dinner?) (at seven o’clock: Modifier of time)
sumber :
http://yebeblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/subject-verb-complement-modifier.html
https://hidayatullahahmad.wordpress.com/2013/03/18/normal-sentence-pattern-in-english/
