The Sentence and Its Parts All you ever need to know!

A sentence can be divided into 2 parts: The complete subject The “who” or “what” a sentence is about INCLUDING all of the modifiers The complete predicate The verb and its modifiers

You can break it down even further into: Simple Subject The “who” or “what” WITHOUT any modifiers. This is always going to be a noun or pronoun! Simple predicate This is the actual VERB of the sentence. It can be an action verb (ran, sang, thought, acted, etc.) It can also be a linking verb (is, am, are, was, were, etc.) Complements Might be: Direct object, indirect object, predicate nominative, or predicate adjective

Complements Direct Object A direct object is always going to be a noun or a pronoun (which is why it’s called an “object!” It’s a THING!) It will only be in a sentence with an ACTION verb Not all sentences will have one! To see if your sentence has one, find the simple subject and the action verb Ask yourself Subject, action Verb, WHAT? If you can answer that question, you have one!

Direct Object example: The young mother gave the bottle to her crying baby. Subject? Mother Action verb? Gave Mother gave what? Mother gave bottle. Bottle is the direct object!

Complements continued: Sometimes when you have a direct object, you will also have an indirect object! (You will NEVER have an IO without a DO!) The indirect object will always come between the verb and the direct object! To find it ask: Subject, verb, direct object, TO WHOM/ WHAT or FOR WHOM/WHAT?

Indirect object example: Remember! If you do not have a direct object, you will never have an indirect object! Example: The young mother gave her crying baby a bottle. Subject: Mother Verb: Gave Direct object: (Mother gave what?) bottle Indirect object: (Mother gave bottle to whom?) baby! EASY PEASY!

The old man gave the waiter a tip. Try these: Find the direct and indirect objects in these sentences: The old man gave the waiter a tip. The teacher made her class some delicious cookies.

Did you say: 1) DO: tip IO: waiter 2) DO: cookies IO: class

Complements If you have a linking verb, you may have a predicate adjective or predicate noun (AKA: Predicate nominative) They are called so because they are found in the PREDICATE of the sentence, but tell about the subject!

Predicate Noun (nominative) You find this very similarly to a direct object, only this time you must have a linking verb. The predicate noun is a noun in the predicate that RENAMES the SUBJECT. Example: The girl is a doctor. Girl is what? Girl is doctor. (Doctor is a noun that renames the subject!)

You must have a LINKING VERB in order to have this! Example: Predicate adjective You may also have a predicate adjective, which is an adjective in the predicate that DESCRIBES the subject. You must have a LINKING VERB in order to have this! Example: That model is gorgeous! Model is ?? Gorgeous! That’s an adjective in the predicate that describes the subject!

Find the Predicate noun or predicate adjective: Try these: Find the Predicate noun or predicate adjective: The principal at that school is very mean. The stuffed animal is a tiger.

1) Predicate Adjective= MEAN 2) Predicate Noun= tiger Did you say: 1) Predicate Adjective= MEAN (principal is what? mean) 2) Predicate Noun= tiger (animal is what? Tiger)

BE CAREFUL! NONE of the complements you just learned will EVER be found inside a prepositional phrase!!! EVER! Example: The young mother gave the bottle to her crying baby. (to her crying baby is a prep phrase, therefore there is no indirect object!) Bottle is the direct object!!! (MOTHER GAVE WHAT? BOTTLE!)