Simple Sentence
We have learned that a Simple Sentence is a set of words which makes complete meaning.
We also have learned that a Simple Sentence has two main parts- the Subject and the Predicate.
The Subject denotes the person or thing about which something is said.
The Predicate is what is said about the person or thing denoted by the Subject.
Examples-1:
• Dogs bark.
In this sentence, the Subject is a single word-‘dog’.
The Predicate is also a single word ‘bark’.
Example-2:
• The hour to prepare the lessons has arrived.
In this sentence, the Subject is a group of words ‘The hour to prepare lessons’.
The Predicate is also a set of words ‘has arrived’.
So the Subject may be a single word as in the Example-1 or may be a set of words as in the Example-2.
So the Predicate also may be a single word as in the Example-1 and may be a set of words as in the Example-2.
Examples:
You can find the Subjects and the Predicates in the following sentences.
• Stone walls do not make a prison.
• We heard a barking sound.
• No man can serve two masters.
• All matter is destructible.
• The cackling of geese saved Rome.
Few sentences may have a set of words as the subject. The main subject may be qualified by an adjective.
Such an adjective is called ATTRIBUTE.
• The brooms sweep clean.
In this sentence, the subject is ‘the brooms’.
• The new brooms sweep clean.
In this sentence, an adjective ‘new’ has been added to give an attribute to the subject.
In the following sentences, the attributes are colored blue.
• Barking dogs seldom bite.
• My views are quite different.
• The Poet, Goners wrote the Shahs nook.
• The burnt child dreads the fire.
• Ill habits gather by unseen degree.
Sometimes, the verb in the predicate is an intransitive verb of incomplete Predication.
That means such a verb will require a noun or an adjective or a pronoun to make the predicate complete.
• The baby seems happy.
In the sentence, the part ‘The baby seems" does not make the sentence complete one.
In order to make the sentences complete one, the verb requires an adjective ‘happy’.
Only with the adjective, the whole sentence becomes a complete one.
Such a complement of an intransitive verb serves to describe the Subject and is therefore called SUBJECTIVE COMPLEMENT.
Examples:
In the following sentences the Subjective Complements are colored blue.
• The sky grew dark.
• The building is in a dilapidated condition.
• The house is to let.
• The man seems worried.
• Venus is a planet.
Sometimes When the Verb in the Predicate is a transitive verb, that verb may take two objects.
1. A direct Object
2. An indirect object
Look at this sentence.
• He eats.
In this sentence which is complete one, there is no object at all.
• He eats bread.
In this sentence, the verb takes object ‘bread’. The object is “bread".
• He teaches us English.
In this sentence, the verb take two objects ‘us’ and ‘English’.
The Direct object is ‘us’ whereas the Indirect object is ‘English’.
Examples:
The following sentences have two objects (direct and indirect objects).
• My father bought me doll.
• I promised him a dinner.
• He gave us his car.
• They taught us how to swim.
Go to the section on Complex Sectence to continue
Go to the Intermediary Index Page
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