How do you find the subject in a sentence?

Question

can the word 'that' be a subject? I'm really confused :( because the word 'were' comes after it and that is a verb? Can a subject only be a subject if a verb comes after it? And can something be a subject if it is in a prepositional phrase?

Answer 1

A subject can be any noun, pronoun, or even a participe; just ask yourself "who did it? Who is the actor here?" Right here, "subject"and "who"are the grammar subjects in these sentences. "that" could be a subject, as well, refering to "that thing" or to "that situation". If a noun comes without a verb, there is no action then so no actor and that noun could be anything... a single word, an object or a subject. If any noun comes with a preposition, it's not the subject (except from some really rare cases).

Answer 2

A word is usually (not always) the subject if a verb comes after it. Adverbs, appositives, etc. can also go before a verb, but it is still not a noun (I'm not sure if you learned these so I will not talk about them too much).



Subjects are never in the prepositional phrase. The subject is always the word or words that are doing an action or receiving an action.



example: Henry kicked the ball.

Who is doing the action (who is kicking the ball)? Henry is kicking the ball, so Henry is the subject.



example 2: Jack ate a sandwich in the kitchen.

"in the kitchen" is the prepositional phrase

Who ate the sandwich? the kitchen did not eat the sandwich, nouns are never in the prepositional phrase

Who ate the sandwich? Jack ate the sandwich, Jack is the subject



example 3: Susie, the dog, slowly walked into the house.

"walked" is the verb

the verb "walked" is right after the word "slowly"

do not be tricked, "slowly" is not the subject, "the dog is not the subject"

the word right before a verb is not always the subject

"Susie" is the subject

Answer 3

The subject has to be a noun, a pronoun, or a phrase acting as a noun, so that narrows it down some.



The subject doesn't always come before the verb. One example: "Were you at the movies yesterday?" The verb is "were," but the subject, "you," comes after it.



I don't think anything in a prepositional phrase can be a subject. There's a preposition, and its object.



A relative clause can have a subject, though: "The woman whose hat I found thanked me." The main subject and verb in this sentence are "woman....thanked." But in the relative clause there are also a subject and verb: "I found."

Answer 4

How to find the subject & verb:



The confusing part is to remove the dependent clauses. You're looking for the subject-verb of the INdependent clause, but the dependent clauses all have subjects-verbs, too. There are adjective clauses, noun clauses, and more.



So let's say you have a sentence like this:



My little old grandmother said to my father that she doesn't understand why those teenagers are always looking at their cell phones in the restaurant.



So you have 3 clauses: 1 main clause and 2 dependent clauses. That means 3 subjects and 3 verbs, but you're looking for the main ones:



My little old grandmother said to my father [that she doesn't understand [why those teenagers are always looking at their cell phones in the restaurant]].



Then, you need to remove the prepositional phrases because they can't be part of the subject-verb. You can put parenthesis around the prepositional phrases.



Then, you can cross out adjectives and adverbs because they can't be subjects-verbs.



(My) (little) (old) grandmother said (to my father) [that she doesn't understand [why those teenagers are always looking at their cell phones in the restaurant]].



So, all you have left is "grandmother/said" which is the subject/verb.

Answer 5

I'm pretty sure the subject is right before the verb. Yes. That and were are subjects. Find the verb and it's usually the word right before it.

Answer 6

That is an easy question to answer. ("That" is the subject.)



The subject comes after the verb in inverted sentences: Rarely, do I pass the dog without it barking at me.

"I" is the subject, "do" is the verb.



Prepositional phrases, in their entirety, are modifiers and, thus, can not be the subject.

Answer 7

Can the word 'that' be a subject? That is the question.

Answer 8

It's the one being talked about.

Answer 9

ask it to show u the subject and the sentence will show u

Answer 10

muy bien