AboutRosemary Lenc Expertise I am a retired Middle School teacher. I am an expert in grammar (structure of the English
language) and writing. I have been a volunteer with AOL Ask A Teacher and have
submitted many articles and special collections (one on diagramming sentences and one
with worksheets and answers so students can check their own practice on grammar skills)
to their knowledge database. I still am with them but would like other work where I can
help students with their English study. I have time to help you with this, if you want me. I
can help with grade school, middle school and high school grammar & writing and can
also look up information on literature (reading) for students and help them with it.
Please let me know if I can be of help in these areas. Thank you.
Rosemary Lenc
Experience
Past/Present clients Have helped many, many students in grade school language arts, middle school and high
school grammar and writing in both the chat rooms (live help that AOL use to have) and
message board answers plus the many students i have taught as a teacher.
Question I am having some trouble figuring out predicates because there are different definitions. I was wondering if you could tell me whether I am on the right track.
Sentence: "Elizabeth Smith Miller became tired of long skirts and petticoats." Is the entire phrase "became tired of long skirts and petticoats" the predicate?
Sentence: "The new outfit was described in Amelia Bloomer's newspaper." Is "was described in Amelia Bloomer's newspaper" the predicate?
Thanks for your time and help.
Answer Dear Jeremy,
There are two types of predicates. Predicate have to due with the part of the sentence that includes the verb and all the words that modify the verb. The first type of predicate is just that: the verb and all the words that modify it.
The second type of predicate is called the simple predicate and it is just the verb or verb phrase.
So in your first sentence: "Elizabeth Smith Miller became tired of long skirts and petticoats." The complete predicate is "became tired of long skirts and petticoats." The simple predicate is: "became"
In the second sentence: "The new outfit was described in Amelia Bloomer's newspaper." The complete predicate is:
"was described in Amelia Bloomer's newspaper" The simple predicate is: "was described". So it depends on what you have to find or if you have to find both the complete and simple predicate.
An example of a sentence where you might have more difficulty finding the complete and simple predicates is a sentence that we called "inverted sentence". It has part or all of the predicate before the subject. Your two sentences above are natural order sentences, that is, the subject comes first and then the predicate.
Here are examples of inverted sentences:
Yesterday, I had corn for my supper.
The subject is: I
The complete predicate is: yesterday...had corn for my supper.
Note that the adverb, yesterday, tells when I had the corn, so it modifies the verb had.
The simple predicate is: had.
Another example is in a question:
When will you bring me the paper?
Subject: you
Complete predicate: when will...bring me the paper.
Simple predicate: will bring
I have more explanations and examples and practice on finding complete and simple subjects and predicates on my web page, if you wish to try them. I also give you the answers to the exercises so you can test yourself.
The website is: http://members.cox.net/teachro/
When you get to the site, click on grammar practice. The click on:
nouns and scroll down the list to subject-verb#1 and subject-verb#2 and you will find more help there.
Good luck in your studies. You are a very smart young person to ask for help when you need it.
Thanks for using AllExperts.
Mrs. Lenc (also known as TeachRo)
