Subjects and predicates | Syntax | Khan Academy

Hello grammarians, hello Paige, hi David. So today we're going to talk about identifying subjects and predicates. In order to do that, we shall begin with a sentence. Paige, would you read me the sentence please?

"I bought a crate of goblin hats."

Thank you, Paige. So do you think that's like hats for goblins or hats that make you look like a goblin?

Um, well I bought it, so I can say that it is both. So we could go either way, it's what you're saying.

Oh yeah, so a sentence is kind of like a car. It's got a lot of different parts, right? Like an engine, or wheels, or a body, whatever. A sentence is very much the same way, and you can divide up a sentence into parts. So today, we're going to be dividing up the sentence into subject and predicate.

Paige, what is the subject of a sentence?

So the subject is a noun or a pronoun that is doing the action in the sentence or performing the verb.

What does that mean to perform a verb?

Right, so a verb isn't always an action, right? That's why I wanted to clarify, because you can say like "I am happy," and "am" is a verb, but that's not like an action that I'm doing, right? You can't just actively "am."

Right, but in this sentence, "I am happy," the subject "I" is performing the verb "to be" or "am."

Gotcha. What is a predicate?

So a predicate is kind of all of the rest of the sentence that isn't the subject. So what it really is, is like the verb and all of its— all of the parts that are related to the verb.

Yeah, verb and its pals. That's good.

So let's apply that approach to the goblin hat sentence.

So, okay, so I'm looking for a noun or pronoun that performs a verb in the sentence. Well, I found the verb, and the verb is "bought." Who's doing the buying?

I am, so our subject is "I."

Yeah, and then the predicate is basically everything else, right? So it's "bought." What did I buy? A crate of goblin hats.

Right, so you can see that "a crate of goblin hats" is also a noun, right? But it's not doing anything in the sentence. I am buying.

So just because there's a noun—just because there's another noun in the sentence like "crate" or "goblin hats," doesn't necessarily mean that it's the subject, right?

So you have to look for the thing that is performing the verb.

Exactly.

So I think, Paige, I think that covers everything except exactly what a goblin hat is, but we can talk about that some other time.

Yeah, so that's identifying subjects and predicates. You can learn anything.

Dave out.
Paige out.