Subjects and Verbs Complete sentences must contain subjects, verbs, and complete thoughts. A subject of a sentence is almost always a noun or a pronoun. It is who or what the sentence is about, or who is doing the verb. The verb shows the action of the sentence, or tells what is happening.

Subjects and Verbs cont’d Underline the subject once and the verb twice in the following sentences. The grey and yellow bird whistled loudly. The vase on the table is full of wilted flowers. My rabbit has floppy ears.

Phrases Phrases are groups of words that function together as part of a sentence. They are missing either a subject or a verb or both. They cannot stand alone as sentences. Example phrases Verb phrase: “was going to call” Prepositional phrase: “to the store” Noun phrase: “green and yellow car”

Clauses A clause is a group of words that always has both a subject and a verb There are two types of clauses: independent and dependent.

Independent Clauses Independent clauses have a subject, a verb, and a complete thought. They can stand alone as complete sentences. We went to see a movie.

Dependent Clauses Dependent Clauses have a subject and a verb, but not a complete thought. They cannot stand alone as complete sentences. They are usually started with a subordinating conjunction Before, because, since, while, after, during, and even though are all subordinating conjunctions Subordinating conjunctions make clauses dependent because they now require an independent clause to complete the thought. We went to see a movie Before we went to see a movie Before we went to see a movie, we ate dinner.