Sentence Basics: Pick out Main Parts (Lesson 5)

For the video lesson, click here.
For the handout associated with this lesson, click here.

In the last lesson, we learned about phrases and clauses with a focus on prepositional phrases.

Now that we know how to identify prepositional phrases, predicates, and subjects, it’s time to add the rest of the parts of the clause to our understanding of sentences. To dissect a sentence, I find it is best to ask a series of questions, as opposed to memorizing a set of definitions. You must answer the questions in the correct order, but if you do, you’ll be able to find the main parts of each clause with ease.

First, one more key term: As we know every predicate must have a subject. A verb without a subject is not a predicate. Sometimes predicates also have COMPLEMENTS, words that help finish the thought. There are different grammatical terms for complements after action and linking verbs, which is another of those annoying points of grammar confusion for students. Don’t worry, though. The more you practice, the better you’ll get at spotting and correctly labeling all the predicate’s complements.

Below is a chart that demonstrates the questions you ask to find the main parts. I call this process POMP, or pick out main parts. Use this link to access a PDF of the flow chart to take you through the steps of POMP. At first, you’ll find it helpful to keep the chart handy as you study sentences, but over time the steps will become automatic.

Let’s see how all this works in the first three sentences from Exercise 1.

        S             AV
Jim Gilmore came [to Hortons Bay] [from Canada.] - In this sentence, the only main parts are the subject and verb. Everything else is a prepositional phrase.

 S     AV
He bought the blacksmith shop [from old man Horton]. - In this sentence, when we ask the complement question (“He bought what?”), the answer is “shop” or “blacksmith shop”. Since “bought” is an action verb, “shop” is the direct object. If we’re being super strict grammar guardians, we leave “blacksmith” out of our answer, because technically “blacksmith” is a modifier that tells us what type of shop. That said, in my humble opinion, if you include the whole phrase, you are showing good comprehension of what parts of the sentence go together. There are no more words in the sentence, so there’s no reason to go looking or an indirect object. Indirect objects are more rare than you might think. Often there won’t be one.

 S     LV
Jim was short and dark [with big mustaches and big hands]. In this sentence, when we ask the complement question (“Jim was what?”), our answers are “short” and “dark.” “Was” is a linking verb, and “short” and “dark” are descriptive words, not nouns. That means “Short” and “dark” are predicate adjectives. 

Exercise 1 Revisited: Pick out main parts for the underlined verb in the following sentences. Be sure to ask the questions in the correct order and take your time answering them. You should already have these sentences in your notes, with prep phrases bracketed off and predicates and subjects labeled from previous lessons.

• He was a good horseshoer and did not look much like a blacksmith even with his leather apron on. 
• He lived upstairs above the blacksmith shop and took his meals at A. J. Smith’s.
• Liz Coates worked for Smith’s. 
• Mrs. Smith, who was a very large clean woman, said Liz Coates was the neatest girl she'd ever seen. 
• Liz had good legs and always wore clean gingham aprons and Jim noticed that her hair was always neat behind. 
• He liked her face because it was so jolly but he never thought about her.

Click here to check your work.

Ready for more practice exercises for Picking Out Main Parts? Try your hand at Exercise 2.

LINK TO NEXT LESSON

Sentence Basics: Predicates and Subjects (Lesson 3)

Finding predicates and subjects

• Click here for the video lesson.
• Click here for a handout to accompany the video lesson. Note, handouts require the use of Google Drive.

In the last lesson, we talked about three kinds of words that work with verbs to form thoughts. Now let's see how sentences form from verbs.

When a verb works with a subject to express a thought, the verb is called the predicate. I often use the word verb and predicate interchangeably because all predicates are verbs. That said, not all verbs are predicates, so we’ve already encountered our first point of grammar confusion. I could make things even more confusing and get into the idea of the “complete predicate,” but let’s focus on the big picture. What matters is that a verb that takes a subject is a predicate.

Consider the following sentences, which are the opening lines of Moby Dick:

Call me Ishmael. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world.

Here we have two sentences, one short, and one long. Every sentence must have a predicate and a subject and express a complete thought. The first sentence in this example, “Call me Ishmael,” expresses a thought: the narrator has asked the reader to address him by his first name, Ishmael. It has a verb—"call"—and we can infer that the reader is being told to do the action of calling. As such, this sentence subject (the person doing an action) and a predicate (a verb that takes a subject). This basic command is a very simple sentence. Toddlers speak in this kind of sentence all day.

"Give me!"
"Hold me!"
"Show me!" 

The second sentence from Moby Dick is a perfect example of how a writer can build up a sentence with several predicates and subjects. First, let’s find all the verbs, both action and state of being.

Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world.

This one sentence contains five verbs. Let’s see which are predicates by seeing which verbs have subjects. To do so, we ask a question, “who or what + verb?” If that question has a logical answer in the sentence, the verb is a predicate.

Mind - (mind here means pay attention (as in “Mind the gap” or “Mind the door”)). Who or what mind? This sentence is asking the reader to mind, or rather, since the word never appears, it’s telling us not to mind. Mind has a subject, so it is a predicate.

Having - Who or what having? That question sounds grammatically awkward. To be a logical, natural question, we would need to rephrase it to something along the lines of “Who or what is having?” We can infer from this that “having” is not a predicate.

To Interest — Who or what to interest? Again, that question isn’t grammatically correct. To connect the verb to a noun, we would need to change the wording to something like “Who or what interests?” Because of this, we know that “to interest” does not have subject and is not a predicate.

Thought — Who or what thought? I thought. The subject of “thought” is “I.” Thought is a predicate.

Would sail — Who or what would sail? I would sail. The subject of “would sail” is “I.” Would sail is a predicate.

See — Who or what would see? I would see. The subject of “see” is “I.” See is a predicate.*

*Notice, in this instance, the subject was a little ways back in the sentence. In fact two verbs, “sail” and “see” share the subject “I.” We’ll talk more about this sharing later, but for now, it’s enough to know such things are possible. Isn’t grammar fun?

The steps we just completed are the foundation of understanding sentences. It is essential to master the skill of locating predicates and subjects. There are many more things we could discuss about the two sentences in this example, and indeed, we’ll return to this example sentence again a few times before we’re done, but for now here’s the important takeaway: When trying to understand a sentence, the first step is to find all the verbs, and the second step is to ask “who or what + verb?” to see which ones are predicates.

The more you practice, the more easily you’ll be able to tell on sight which verbs are predicates because you’ll understand the patterns that work in sentences. That said, it’s always a good exercise to walk through the question and answer process when identifying predicates and subjects. Skipping that process can lead to confusion and mistakes.

Click here for Exercise 1, practice finding subjects and predicates. (Note, handouts require the use of Google Drive).

Continue to Lesson 4

Sentence Basics: Nouns, Modifiers, Connectors (Lesson 2)

In the last lesson, we reviewed verbs. Now let's look at the other three main types of words that are used with verbs to form thoughts.

For a video version of this lesson, click here.

Nouns (and pronouns)

Nouns are words that name people, places, things, and ideas. Pronouns are stock words that replace nouns to help us avoid repetition.

Nouns (and pronouns) perform the verb’s action or receive something from the verb’s action, and a whole bunch of other things in a sentence, too.

Modifiers

A modifier is word that adds detail to a verb or noun (or pronoun). It changes a noun or verb or makes it more specific.

Example: Dress is a noun. If I want to refer to a specific dress and I say, "This red dress is my favorite." Red is a modifier.

Example: Run is a verb. If I want to say how someone ran, I might say, "Joe runs quickly." Quickly is a modifier.

Connectors

Connectors join words together to make pairs or lists or to show relationships between people, places, things, ideas, or actions.

There are many connectors, but two common types are conjunctions and prepositions.

Conjunctions join words and ideas (and, but, or, so, yet, for, nor, because, either…or, neither…nor, whether…or). To learn more about conjunctions, watch this short video from Schoolhouse Rocks.

Prepositions are short words that show relationships. Common prepositions are to, in, of, for, out, and on.

We’ll talk more about prepositions a little bit later.

Move on to Lesson 3