Complete Subject and a Complete Predicate

Your goal:

• Understand and identify the complete subject in a sentence.
• Understand and identify the complete predicate in a sentence.

Complete Subject:

The complete subject of a sentence refers to the part that includes all the words or word groups that identify who or what the sentence is about. It typically contains the main noun or pronoun along with any modifiers that describe or limit it.

For example, in the sentence: “The brown dog with a wagging tail chased the squirrel up the tree,”

• Complete Subject: “The brown dog with a wagging tail”
  • It includes the main noun (“dog”) along with the modifiers (“the brown” and “with a wagging tail”) that provide additional description about the dog.

Complete Predicate:

The complete predicate refers to the part of the sentence that includes the verb or verb phrase along with all the words or phrases that modify or complete the action or state of the subject. It contains the main verb and everything else related to that verb.

In the same example sentence: “The brown dog with a wagging tail chased the squirrel up the tree,”

• Complete Predicate: “chased the squirrel up the tree”
  • It includes the main action (“chased”) and the direct object (“the squirrel”) along with any modifiers or additional phrases (“up the tree”) that complete the meaning of the verb.

Understanding the complete subject and complete predicate helps in identifying the main elements of a sentence. The subject tells us whom or what the sentence is talking about, while the predicate tells us something about the subject—what the subject is doing or what is being said about it. Identifying these parts assists in analyzing and comprehending sentence structure and meaning.