A sentence is a group of words that gives a complete meaning, thought or idea. A sentence has the following three parts.

1. Subject
2. Predicate
3. Object

The subject is a noun or pronoun that performs the action. It is the agent of the action in the sentence.

Examples:

• He is eating an apple.
• She is writing a story.
• They play football.
• David works in a factory.

In the above examples, He, She, They, David are the subjects because they perform certain actions. For instance, in the first sentence, he is the subject because he is doing some work (i.e., eating). In the second sentence, she is the subject because she is doing some work (i.e., writing).

In most cases, the subject is the person, thing, or idea performing an action. However, in some cases, the subject may not perform any action but is still the main focus of the sentence. Therefore, a subject can also be defined as a noun or pronoun about which something is told in the sentence.

Examples.

• He is happy.
• She looks beautiful.
• He seems to be angry.

As noted above, subject may perform some action or is a noun or pronoun about which something is told in the sentence. This distinction exists because there are two types of verbs in English: action verbs and stative verbs.

• Action verbs express a physical action performed by the subject.
• Example: She is going to school. ('She' is performing an action of going.. Here the verb 'go' describe' an action e.g., to move from one place to another)
• Stative verbs describe a state, condition, or quality rather than an action.
• Example: He seems tired. ('He' is not performing an action. Here the verb 'seem' describes his state of being tired.)

As noted above, subject is a noun or a pronoun that performs some action. The object is the noun or pronoun that receives the action. The subject acts, while the object is acted upon. It tells us who or what is affected by the action in the sentence.

• He is eating an apple.

Here, apple is the object because some work is being done on it (i.e., it is being eaten). Recall that he is the subject because he is performing the action, while apple is the object because the action is done on it (it is being eaten).

Examples.

• She is singing a song.
• He is writing a letter.
• She is repairing her laptop.
• They are making a table.

Note: Not all sentences have an object. Some verbs do not require an object and can express complete meaning on their own. These are called intransitive verbs.

Examples:

• He is laughing.
• She is sleeping.
• They are running.

On the other hand, some verbs require an object to complete the meaning. These are called transitive verbs.

For example, buy is a transitive verb. We cannot say “He bought ___” without an object.

Examples:

• He bought a book.
• He bought a chair.

.Here, book and chair are objects and using them with verb 'buy' in examples complete the meaning of the sentence.

The predicate is the part of a sentence that tells us something about the subject. It is the part of a sentence other than the subject. It includes the verb, object, and other parts of the sentence. The predicate shows what the subject is doing or what is happening to the subject.

The underlined part in each of the following sentences is the predicate part of the sentence.

• She will buy a camera.
• He broke the cup.
• She is writing a poem.
• He is laughing.
• They are making a noise.
• John works in a hospital.
• They are playing football.