{"id":3176,"date":"2019-06-18T23:00:27","date_gmt":"2019-06-19T05:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/?p=3176"},"modified":"2020-12-09T16:30:27","modified_gmt":"2020-12-09T22:30:27","slug":"predicating-our-knowledge-of-predicates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/pronouns\/predicating-our-knowledge-of-predicates\/","title":{"rendered":"Predicating Our Knowledge of Predicates"},"content":{"rendered":"

A thorough review of English structure includes understanding\u00a0subjects\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0predicates\u00a0<\/em>in broader terms. While the concepts of\u00a0subjects\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0predicates\u00a0<\/em>in their totality may not be as commonly taught as they once were, a brief study will both reinforce our facility as writers and grammarians and further acquaint us with grammatical terminology.<\/p>\n

Today, we\u2019ll focus on the predicate, the engine of the action we communicate.<\/p>\n

The predicate includes at least one verb and joins with the subject to form a clause. It also is further categorized as a\u00a0simple predicate<\/em>\u00a0or a\u00a0complete predicate.<\/em><\/p>\n

The\u00a0simple predicate<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0is the main verb and any of its auxiliaries.
\nExamples:<\/em><\/strong>
\nRain\u00a0falls<\/u>.<\/em>
\nThe girl\u00a0jumped and ran<\/u>.<\/em>
\nStudents\u00a0should study<\/u>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The\u00a0complete predicate<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0consists of the main verb or verbs, any auxiliaries, and any complements and modifiers.
\nExamples:<\/em><\/strong>
\nThomas\u00a0hit the baseball<\/u>.<\/em>
\nThe giraffes\u00a0ate leaves from the tall trees<\/u>.<\/em>
\nCharmaine\u00a0will return to the office and give her presentation after she has finished her scheduled appointments<\/u>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Predicates also can be broken down into smaller parts of speech when they contain an intransitive linking verb such as\u00a0be<\/em>\u00a0(in all its forms), seem, appear, become, remain, taste, look, smell, sound,<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0feel.<\/em>These smaller parts are\u00a0subject complements<\/em>, which either rename or modify the subject of the clause.<\/p>\n

Subject complements<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0can be:
\nnominatives (nouns, pronouns, or possessive nouns or pronouns)
\nadjectives, or
\nadverbs of time or place (simple adverb or prepositional phrase).<\/span>
\nExamples:<\/em><\/strong>
\nWhenever Bernadette starts discussing current city spending, she suddenly becomes<\/em>\u00a0a\u00a0lawyer<\/u><\/em>\u00a0(noun:\u00a0predicate nominative<\/strong>).
\nA mighty fine dancer is\u00a0he<\/u><\/em>\u00a0(pronoun:\u00a0predicate nominative<\/strong>).
\nIn two months the deed will be\u00a0yours<\/u><\/em>\u00a0possessive pronoun:\u00a0predicate nominative<\/strong>).
\nThe bouquet of flowers smells\u00a0sweet<\/u><\/em>\u00a0(adjective:\u00a0predicate adjective<\/strong>).
\nThe volleyball game is\u00a0tomorrow night<\/u><\/em>\u00a0(simple adverb:\u00a0predicate adverb<\/strong>)<\/p>\n

Your gardening tools remain\u00a0in our yard<\/u><\/em>\u00a0(prepositional phrase:\u00a0predicate adverb<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

We hope today\u2019s article helps demystify the terminology surrounding predicates. Now that we have discussed them,\u00a0<\/em>we\u2019ll soon focus on the subject half of English sentences. Stay tuned!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pop Quiz<\/h2>\n

Using what you\u2019ve learned in this article, identify the predicate or predicate part in each sentence.<\/p>\n

1. The coyotes\u00a0usually won\u2019t come out before nightfall<\/u>.
\na. Simple predicate
\nb. Complete predicate<\/p>\n

2. I\u2019m sure Margaret\u00a0will infuse<\/u>\u00a0the team with extra energy.
\na. Simple predicate
\nb. Complete predicate<\/p>\n

3. Her Uncle Raul is a well-known\u00a0lumberjack<\/u>.
\na. Predicate nominative
\nb. Predicate adjective<\/p>\n

4. This pickle tastes\u00a0funny<\/u>.
\na. Predicate nominative
\nb. Predicate adjective<\/p>\n

5. The time for action is\u00a0now<\/u>.
\na. Predicate adjective
\nb. Predicate adverb<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pop Quiz Answers<\/h3>\n

1. The coyotes\u00a0usually won\u2019t come out before nightfall<\/u>.
\nb. Complete predicate<\/strong><\/p>\n

2. I\u2019m sure Margaret\u00a0will infuse<\/u>\u00a0the team with extra energy.
\na. Simple predicate<\/strong><\/p>\n

3. Her Uncle Paul is a well-known\u00a0lumberjack<\/u>.
\na. Predicate nominative<\/strong><\/p>\n

4. This pickle tastes\u00a0funny<\/u>.
\nb. Predicate adjective<\/strong><\/p>\n

5. The time for action is\u00a0now<\/u>.
\nb. Predicate adverb<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A thorough review of English structure includes understanding\u00a0subjects\u00a0and\u00a0predicates\u00a0in broader terms. While the concepts of\u00a0subjects\u00a0and\u00a0predicates\u00a0in their totality may not be as commonly taught as they once were, a brief study will both reinforce our facility as writers and grammarians and further acquaint us with grammatical terminology. Today, we\u2019ll focus on the predicate, the engine of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,10,34,33,8,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adjectives-adverbs","category-definitions","category-possessives","category-prepositions","category-pronouns","category-verbs"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3176"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3176\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}