A Quick Review of Subjects and Verbs
The subject of a sentence is the person, place, thing, or idea that the sentence is about. It is always a noun or pronoun. The verb tells what the sentence is saying about the subject. Look at the following sentence:
The tiny pig squealed loudly.
This sentence is about a pig, so PIG is the subject. The verb is SQUEALED—that's what the pig did.
A subject is never in a prepositional phrase. A prepositional
phrase begins with a preposition (such as OF or FROM) and ends with a
noun or pronoun. Now look at this sentence:
Most of my friends are married.
The subject of this sentence is MOST. Because OF MY FRIENDS is a
prepositional phrase, the subject cannot be FRIENDS. The verb is ARE, a
linking verb that connects the subject to the descriptive word MARRIED.
Here are a few more things to remember about verbs: The verb of a
sentence may be a main verb plus one or more helping verbs. The verb of
a sentence never begins with the word TO. Also, a word ending in –ING
can be part of a verb only if a helping verb comes before it. Finally,
words such as NOT and ALWAYS are never part of the verb.
