The Subject of a Sentence

I mentioned the Subject of a Sentence and the Predicate earlier in the page about the Parts of a Sentence. I had said there that the division of a sentence into these two parts was according to meaning. (Click here to refresh your memory about Subject and Predicate).

There I had promised to give you a more sophisticated explanation...and this is what I am going to do now. I am going to explain the Subject of a Sentence according to English syntax (i.e. the various relationships between words within a sentence).

Try to follow me slowly step by step, so that you perfectly understand this particular part of a sentence.

What Do We Mean by the Subject?

When we talk of the subject in grammar, we mean the grammatical subject, i.e. a particular part of the sentence. This part has certain special properties and behaves in a particular way in a sentence.

Look at these sentences...

1. Boys ride bikes.
2. Smart boys ride bikes.
3. Very smart boys ride bikes.
4. Some very smart boys ride bikes.
5. They ride bikes.

In all these sentences, the italicized part is the subject and the remaining words (ride bikes) is the predicate.

What Can We Learn About the Subject
from the Above Five Sentences?

The subject may be one word or more.

In sentences 1 and 5 above, we have one-word subjects. in others, we have more than a word. The groups of words (as well as the single words in sentences 1, and 5) in italics are called phrases.

The main word of the subject
is always a noun or a pronoun.

In sentences 1-4, the main word is a noun (boys). In the last sentence, it is a pronoun (They). This main word is usually called the head word of the phrase. Any phrase that has a noun or pronoun as its head word is called a noun phrase.

The whole subject
can be replaced by a pronoun.

The pronoun 'they' in sentence 5 is a perfect replacement for the noun phrases in the previous sentences.

The head word of the subject
can be modified.

Adjectives, adverbs, and determiners can modify the head word of the subject.

The words: smart (adjective), very (adverb), and some (determiner), illustrate this idea.

The head word will always be
in the nominative case.

The head word in the first four sentences cannot be boys'; it has to be boys. In sentence 5, the head word has to be the word they; it cannot be them or theirs or their. Words such as boys and they are said to have the nominative case form.

The head word has
Number, Gender, and Person.

The word 'boys' has plural number, masculine gender, and is in
the third person.

Semantically, the Subject of a Sentence
May Be an Agent or a Patient.

• If the verb is an active verb, it shows that the subject is an agent (i.e. someone who does an action - a doer). In our examples, the verb 'ride' is an active verb. Therefore, the subject 'boys' and 'they' are agents.

• The subject could be a patient (one who suffers an action, good or bad) in another sentence. This happens if the verb is a passive verb.

  Look at the sentence: "The workmen were praised by the boss."
  Here, the verb 'were praised' is in passive form; and therefore, the subject head word 'workmen' is a patient.

For further study...

Go from the Subject of a Sentence to Parts of a Sentence

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