Skip to main content

Structure of a Sentence: Subjects and Verbs

All sentences are made up of a subject and a verb. Of course, there may be many other components (e.g., pronouns, prepositions), but a sentence cannot exist without at least one subject and one verb. So what are subjects and verbs? A verb is the action word of the sentence (walks, paid, runs, ate, etc.). The subject is the person or thing that is doing the action. If a group of words doesn't have these two components (subject + verb), it is called a phrase (e.g., the baskets at Target). See the example below of a very simple complete sentence.

Jim ran.
(Jim is the subject; ran is the verb)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A Whole Nother

"A whole nother" is a commonly used phrase. It is a habit that people don't even realize they are doing. The following is an example of the phrase being used in a sentence: She is living in a whole nother world. "Nother" is not a word. To correct this error, you could use "another," "a whole other," "a completely different," "an entirely different," etc. Correct sentences: She is living in an entirely different world. She is living in another world.

The Plural Form of "Rendezvous"

What, you may ask, is the plural form of the word "Rendezvous?" It is actually the same as the singular form--no extra "s" or apostrophe necessary. The distinction is in the pronunciation. When using the singular form, you do not pronounce the "s" at the end; it is silent. To pluralize it, you simply pronounce the "s." Singular: Rendezvous ( rän-di- vü) Plural: Rendezvous ( rän-di- vüz )

Is "themself" correct?

I hear many people these days on TV and radio using "themself." So why are they using it and what are they trying to communicate? Let's think about it logically. "Self" refers to one person. When you're using "them," you're talking about multiple people, not just one person. Some people are using the term "themself" as a way to get around unknown gender without having to say a mouthful like "himself or herself." However, "themself" is not correct. For example, someone might say, "A person can find themself in a precarious situation very quickly." The grammatically correct way to say this is, "A person can find himself or herself in a precarious situation very quickly." Also, "hisself" is not correct. I have heard this one many times too. I think this is really just a result of lazy speech. Swallowing that "m" is somewhat easier. However, it is not a word. Correct: the