Writer's Choice Grade 11Unit 11:
Parts of the SentenceOverviewIn the last unit you reviewed the parts of speech. This unit teaches you how to competently brandish the parts of the sentence. A simple subject is the key noun or pronoun that tells what a sentence is about; a simple predicate is the verb or verb phrase that expresses the essential thought about the subject of a sentence. Simple subjects and predicates can be expanded to form complete subjects and complete predicates. Complete subjects and predicates include the simple subject or predicate and all the words that modify the simple subject or predicate.
Conjunctions join two or more subjects or predicates creating powerful compound subjects and compound predicates. Generally in English the subject comes before the verb; exceptions include when the subject you is understood but not expressed, when the word there or here begins a sentence and is followed by a form of the verb to be, and when sentences are written in inverted order to emphasize the subject.
A complement is a word or group of words that completes the meaning of a verb. There are four kinds of complements: direct objects, indirect objects, object complements, and subject complements. A direct object answers the question what? orwhom? after an action verb; whereas an indirect object answers the question to whom? for whom? to what? orfor what? after an action verb. An object complement answers the question what? after a direct object, completing the meaning of the direct object by identifying or describing it. A Subject complements follows a subject and a linking verb and identifies or describes the subject. There are two kinds of subject complements: predicate nominatives and predicate adjectives. A predicate nominative is a noun or a pronoun that follows a linking verb and points back to the subject to identify it further; whereas a predicate adjective follows a linking verb and points back to the subject to further describe it.
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