In What Is a Sentence? you learned that a sentence tells who or what and what happens. Grammar names those two halves. The complete subject is who or what the sentence is about. The complete predicate is everything said about it.
Key idea
Find the predicate by finding the verb. Everything from the verb on (and its helping verbs) is usually the complete predicate; the words before it that name who or what make the complete subject.
Why it works
A sentence makes a claim about something. The subject says what the claim is about; the predicate makes the claim. If either half is missing, the reader is left with a fragment.
Worked example: A long subject
Split: “The box of old crayons fell off the shelf.”
- The verb is fell.
- What fell? The box of old crayons: the whole group of words before the verb.
- What is said about it? fell off the shelf.
Answer: The box of old crayons | fell off the shelf.
Worked example: A subject that is a thing
Split: “The old bridge creaked in the wind.”
- The verb is creaked.
- What creaked? The old bridge. Subjects can be things, places and ideas, not just people.
Answer: The old bridge | creaked in the wind.
Common mistake
Thinking the subject is always the first word, or always a person. In “After lunch, the class went outside,” the sentence starts with After lunch, but the subject is the class. Ask the question: who or what does the verb tell about?