The (Peachy) Predicates Page:
A sentence tells us about something; that's its subject.
What the sentence tells us about the *subject is the predicate.
If you can spot the subject, the predicate is the rest of the sentence.
For instance:
Dick punched out Mary.
The sentence is about Dick, the subject.
What about Dick? He "punched out Mary," the predicate. (What a Dick!)
Here the predicate tells us something the subject did. An action.
Here's another sentence designed to not only show you about predicates it also keeps things even.
Mary punched out Dick and Tom and Harry.
Another for instance:
Dick feels ashamed of himself.
The sentence is still about Dick, but this time the predicate tells us something about what Dick is. A "state of being".
In each of these sentences there is a verb.
Sometimes people refer to the verb as the "simple predicate".
The verb is the main word in the predicate.
If you boil down the sentences to their most basic parts you'd have:
Dick (still the simple subject) feels (simple predicate/verb)
Think Tarzan!
Mary (simple subject) punched out (simple predicate/verb).
Your turn.
Look over a piece of writing you have done.
Find an example of the two kinds of predicates, one that shows the subject doing something, and one that tells the reader something about what the subject is.
If you'd rather, make up a sentence or two and jot them in the box below, again doing an action sentence and a state of being sentence.
Now go tell your MOP about verbs. Remember, especially the part about action and state of being verbs.
*Thank you, Charles Szymanski, for making this correction!
To return to Step Two, Step Two
