The subject is a word or a group of words which names the
person, object or phenomenon the sentence informs us about. It
may be expressed by a noun, a pronoun, a substantivized adjec-
tive, a numeral, an infinitive and an ing-form.
e.g. The stranger came early in February.
Hospitality was a passion with him.
You're not a bad fellow.
This is my son Henry.
Someone was singing an Italian tune.
Much depends on the letter.
What has become of him?
It has been raining since the morning.
It's hard to forget one's past.
The young often complain that the elders do not understand
them.
Two of the letters were from my uncle.
The Dutch are famous for their tulips.
The extraordinary always excites curiosity.
To know all about English is one thing; to know English is
quite another.
Watching TV has become his favourite pastime.
II. The Predicate
The predicate is a word or a group of words that informs us of
what is happening to the person, object or phenomenon indicated
as the subject in the sentence.
The predicate differs from all the other parts of the sentence in
that it relates the information contained in the sentence to reality, i.e.
it is the means of expressing predication and modality for the whole
sentence. For that reason there is only one part of speech that can
function as predicate it is the verb in one of its finite forms.
A finite verb may be used in this function alone or combined
with other parts of speech. Depending on the structure, predi-
cates are divided into the following kinds:
1) simple verbal predicates they consist of only a notional
verb (in any tense, aspect, voice or mood form),
e.g. His words frightened me.
I've given her every chance.
The heavy luggage had been put in a dry place.
I shouldn't think the idea so unreasonable.
To this kind also belong predicates expressed by phraseological
units and set phrases which are treated as verb equivalents in this
book.
e.g. They are having breakfast now.
I took a walk as far as the river.
She amuses herself at our expense.
They have been taking care of your children long enough.
2) compound nominal predicates they consist of a link-verb
and a predicative (= a nominal part) commonly expressed by a
noun or an adjective. Other parts of speech may also be some-
times found in the function of predicative (see below).
The link-verb expresses all the verbal characteristics of the
predicate whereas the nominal part is the main bearer of mean-
ing. The most commonly occurring link-verbs are to be, to be-
come, to get, to grow, to look, to seem, to turn.
e.g. He was a mining engineer by profession.
The leaves are turning yellow.
Dave looked surprised.
3) compound verbal predicates they consist of a finite form
and a verbal or an adjective. The meaning of the first component
is very pale. It mainly serves as a finite verb and usually express-
es the speaker's attitude or indicates the position/motion of the
subject. The meaning of the verbal or the adjective is quite promi-
nent and determines the meaning of the whole unit.
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As the first component of a compound verbal predicate we find:
a) modal verbs (can, may, must, be to, have to, shall, should,
will, would, ought to, need, dare),
e.g. You oughtn't to go back on your word.
You should have gone to the concert.
He had to tell the story to his room-mate.
She must have regretted doing it.
b) verbs of seeming (to seem, to appear),
e.g. He seemed to have heard the news.
For a moment she appeared to be hesitating.
c) verbs of unexpected occurrence (to happen, to turn out, to
chance, to prove),
e.g. They happened to meet at the bus-stop.
He turned out to have no feelings for his nephew.
d) some verbs of position and motion (to stand, to sit, to lie,
to be in/out/away, to come, to go),
e.g. He sat staring at the letter.
The boys have gone fishing.
Mother is out shopping.
They stood motionless with their backs to the wall.
