Have you ever struggled with the niceties of English grammar? Have you tried to learn the rules of sentence structure only to find yourself confused by the terminology used to explain the rules? The good news is we are all pretty much capable of stringing a sentence together with a little practice, and it doesn't have to be a painful learning process.

Basic English grammar dictates that to be complete, a sentence must have either a subject and a predicate, or a subject, verb and object. But what does that mean?

Subject

The subject of a sentence is the person, thing, place or idea, driving the sentence. It is who, or what the sentence is about. Take the following example:

Person: My father has trouble understanding English grammar basics.
Thing: That sentence was incomplete.
Place: Wolverhampton is a town in the united Kingdom.
Idea: English grammar rules are confusing for many people.

In the above sentences "My father," "That sentence," Wolverhampton," and "English grammar rules," are the subjects. In technical terms, they are either nouns or pronouns, but it's often easier to think in terms of them as the "who or what?" of the sentence if nouns and pronouns confuse you.

Notice the subject doesn't have to be a single word, it can be a word pair or group.

Predicate or Verb

Having established the subject, the predicate or verb is the action word that answers the question, "what about them?" It defines the action or state of being being described.

In the above examples, consider "has trouble understanding," "was," "is," and "are confusing," as the verbs. The middle two are simple enough. In the first and last, the verbs stand complete. In the last, the verb confusing alone would not make sense, so we have to add the word "are" to complete the thought. This could be rewritten as "English grammar rules confuse many people." Notice how the change affects the immediacy of the sentence though? With "English grammar rules are confusing," you are in the middle of the confusion, whereas "English grammar rules confuse," has a sense of distance, due to the absence of the present tense.

In the same way, "has trouble understanding," could be replaced by "can not understand," "struggles to understand," or "never understood." Each substitution changes the meaning or implication of the sentence.

Notice not all words in these phrases are verbs, or action words. Trouble, for instance, is a noun that's needed to make sense of the verb "understanding," and the helping verb "has."

• 1
• 2
• next page >>

---

Add your voice

Know something about English grammar basics: How to construct a sentence?
We want to hear your view. Write now!