What
are Predicates: The predicate in the
sentence can be thought of as the other half of the sentence.
The subject is one half and the predicate is the other. Like
the subject there are a few questions you can ask to define
whether or not the word you think is the predicate truely is.
These questions are :
1. Is the word a verb?
(if not it cannot be the predicate)
2. Is the word in a clause? (if so it cannot be the
predicate)
3. Is the subject perform the action of this word (see
Subjects)
Simple
vs. Complete: Like the subject of a
sentence, the questions above can only define the simple
subject (also called the main verb) and not the whole subject
(also called the complete predicate). A complete predicate is
the simple predicate with all of its modifiers.
Action/Linking/Helping:
For more information of this, see Verbs
Definition Page.
Compound
Verbs: Also like subjects, predicates
can also be compound. A compound
subject are two nouns that share a
verb. A compound predicate, then, is two verbs that share a
noun. In one sentence, a person may do two or more things and
then those things are a compound predicate.
Predicate Definition
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