2. Finding Parts of a Sentence Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Skeleton of a Sentence

3. Things to get rid of: Cross out prepositional phrases. Cross out “here” or “there” at the beginning of the sentence. Change questions into statements. This brings subjects to the front of the sentence and puts parts of the verb phrase together.

4. Find the verb Look for verb phrases Locate helping verbs (“be” verbs, has, have, had, may, might, must, could, should, would, will, shall, do, did, does) Look for compound verbs

5. To find the subject: Ask “Who” or “What” + verb = Subject Look for compound subjects Look for (you) understood subjects. (You) is always the subject of a command or a request. (You) Stop hitting him!

6. Complements Rain falls. (complete sentence) Birds sing. (complete sentence) The principal gave. (not a sentence--needs to be completed by a COMPLEMENT) The principal gave an announcement.

7. What kind of complement? Decide whether the verb in the sentence is a linking verb or an action verb. If the verb is linking, you are looking for a subject complement. The student became a police officer. (“Officer” renames “student.”) My cat’s fur is extremely soft. (“Soft” describes “fur”.) These are subject complements.

8. Subject Complements If the subject complement is a noun, it renames the subject--this is a PREDICATE NOMINATIVE (He is an author.) If the subject complement is an adjective, it is a PREDICATE ADJECTIVE. (She smells fabulous.) These can be compound.

9. So, what if it’s an action verb? If it’s an action verb, look for a DIRECT OBJECT (receives the action of the verb). Ask: Subject + Action Verb + who/what? = Direct Object The car hit the wall. (wall = D.O.) Direct objects must be nouns or pronouns. Can be compound.

10. Am I done yet? If there is a direct object, there might be an INDIRECT OBJECT. An indirect object tells to/for whom/what the action is done. It always comes between the action verb and the direct object. She sent the class a letter.

11. Practice sentences The hurricane victims in the South need help. Cross out prep phrase: in the South Verb = need (action) Subject = victims D.O. = help

12. The soup on the stove smells wonderful. Cross out: on the stove Verb = smells (linking verb) Subject = soup Wonderful= predicate adjective