The (Super) Subjects Page:
Back in the early '60's there was a great movie called "What's It All About, Alphie?"
The song of the same name was a big hit.
Subject makes me think of that title.
The subject of the sentence is what it's all about, Alphie!
In the preceding sentence I am talking about "subject."
"Subject" is the subject of the sentence. (!)
Here's a sentence:
The aliens from the planet Fubar ate my homework.
The topic of the sentence, the subject, is "aliens."
We call that a "simple subject" because it's boiled down to the one, main word.
"The aliens from the planet Fubar" is the complete subject, that is the simple subject plus any stuff hanging off of it.
You might want to argue that the sentence is about "homework."
"Homework" is certainly discussed.
Any thoughts about why the subject is "aliens" and not "homework"?
Here's what I think: The sentence tells us what the aliens did, not what the homework did.
If you wanted to you could rewrite the sentence to make "homework" the subject.
Give it a try:
Look at a piece of writing you've done. Get one out of a notebook. I'll wait....
OK, now pick out the simple subject and the complete subject.
If you picked out the topic of the sentence and the topic plus any stuff that may be hanging off of it, you win.
If you'd rather, make up a sentence or two below and pick out the subject (s).
Note: Sometimes, for effect, we purposely leave the subject out the sentence.
This occurs when the subject is so clearly obvious, and we're in a hurry.
Example:
Look out!
The subject of "look out!" is "you".
I'm talking about "you" and what you'd better do.
The term we use for this situation is "you understood." Duh!
Any examples of "you understood" in your writing?
Did you notice that being a subject is one of the jobs that nouns/pronouns do? Well, it is!
To return to Step Two, please click : Step Two.
