1. Subjects & Predicates
In order to express a complete thought, a sentence must have two parts: a subject and a predicate.
The subject names whom or what the sentence is about.
The predicate tells what the subject is or does.
(this is also the verb)

2. There is always a certain spot where a line can be drawn separating the complete subject from the complete predicate.
All of the words about the subject stay on the subject side.
All of the words about the predicate, or verb, stay on the predicate side.

3. Examples of subjects and predicates:
My brother’s friend works at the mall.
The book on the table belongs to me.
Bobby is eating his lunch.
Tyler runs.

4. Subjects All complete subjects have simple subjects.
The simple subject is the MAIN word in the complete subject.
Ex: That big, black dog with the bushy tail is in our yard.
Ex: Mike and Jerry are going to the movies.

5. Predicates All complete predicates have simple predicates, or verbs.
The simple predicate is the MAIN word (or words) in the complete predicate.(the verbs!)
Ex: Tom and Sara are eating at the mall.
Ex: The girl in the polka dots ran into the desk.
Ex: That crazy cat jumped and screamed at the same time.

6. Predicates A predicate and a verb are the same thing.
There are three types of verbs:
-Action
-Linking
-Helping

7. Verbs The most common, and the easiest, is the action verb.
Ex: run, jump, eat, fell, escaped, decided, covers, makes, died, invited, draws….
Sally and Jo ate all of the cake!

8. Verbs
Linking Verbs: They LINK, or connect, the subject to an adjective or to another noun in the sentence.
EX: Mrs. Jones is my teacher.
‘Mrs. Jones’ and ‘teacher’ are the same person; therefore ‘IS’ is connecting the nouns Mrs. Jones and teacher.
Mr. Cartwright is a nerd. Mr. Cartwright and nerd refer to the same person.

9. More linking verbs
Below, the subject is being connected to an adjective.
Mr. Adams is hungry.
-Hungry describes Mr. Adams.
Manny was sad.
-Sad describes Manny.

10. Verbs
Helping Verbs: They help us (the listener or the reader) to understand the action better.
For instance, in the sentence…Mark is running to the store… ‘is’ is allowing, or helping, us to understand that it is present tense. Versus this one… Mark will run to the store… in this one, we know, by the word will, that it hasn’t happened yet, and is future tense.

11. Wow, that was A LOT!!!!
Ok, let’s slow down…we are going to start with verbs (let’s get the hard part out of the way!)
Take out a sheet of paper and title it VERBS

12. Copy these notes:
There are three kinds of verbs: action, helping, and linking.
action verb – a word that expresses action
Examples: run, ran, shout, eat, shine, remember, dream, copy, write, read, bleed

13. Copy:
helping verb – a non-action verb that helps the action verb make sense (there are 23)
They are: am, are, is, was, were, be, being, been, do, does, did, have, has, had, may, must, might, can, could, would, should, shall, will

14. Turn page over and copy:
action and helping verbs– some action verbs use a helping verb, and some don’t
Bob crept into the room. (crept is the action verb; past tense of creep)
Bob is creeping into the room. (creeping is the action verb and is is helping us to know it is happening now)

15. Copy:
My friend did eat her lunch. (eat is the action and did lets us know it already happened, so did is a helping verb)
Sam may have eaten the whole pizza. (eaten is the action-past tense of eat- and may and have are helping verbs)

16. Copy:
Linking verbs – non-action verbs that link (or connect) the subject to an adjective or to another noun
They look like helping verbs –same words- but aren’t followed by action verbs.
Example: *Lucky is so handsome. (handsome describes Lucky, it is an adjective)
*Lucky is my dog. (dog is a replacement word for Lucky – they are the same creature)

17. Let’s practice verbs! Jill ran over to me.
Tomorrow I will take a test.
The two boys are cousins.