Identifying Verbs and Their Subjects

http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/grammar/verbsub.html

LEO: Literacy Education Online

When you are trying to proofread your writing for clear, accurate, and correctly punctuated sentences, it is a big help to be able to spot verbs and their subjects. These quick hints will help you find the verbs and the subjects of your sentences.

Hints to identify verbs

Verbs are words that will make sense if they are inserted in one of these blanks. I _______. You _______ . He _____. It ______.

Only verbs make sense after personal references: I, you, he, she, it, we, they; other words don't. Study the following examples of verbs and other parts of speech. Verbs I see You feel He walks It is Other Parts of Speech I with You carefully He book It desk

Sometimes, you may find two or more words in your sentence that can be verbs because they fit in the blanks above. For example, The lost document was part of the legacy. In this case, both lost and was fit in the blanks above. To figure out which one of the two is the verb, change the verb tense of the sentence, and see which word changes; the one that changes is the verb of the sentence. Past The lost document was part of the legacy. Present The lost document is part of the legacy.

To change "The lost document was part of the legacy" to the present tense, I must write "The lost document is part of the legacy." Since lost stays the same but was changes to is, I know that was is the verb in the original sentence.

Hints to identify subjects

In order to distinguish the subject of your sentence, ask "Who?" or "What?" in front of the verb. The following examples illustrate this strategy. Example Question for the subject Answer

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Identifying Verbs and Their Subjects

http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/grammar/verbsub.html

The theory stated by the German astronauts amazed the government. The acid spilled in the laboratory caused a delay in the investigation. The assistant manager at the store filed a lawsuit against the company for age discrimination.

What amazed the government? What caused a delay in the investigation? Who filed a lawsuit against the company for age discrimination?

the theory stated by the German astronauts the acid spilled in the laboratory the assistant manager

Remember that sometimes the subject comes after the verb, but it still will answer "Who?" or "What?" The subject of your sentence will agree in number with the verb; in other words, a singular subject requires a singular verb, and a plural subject requires a plural verb: The article reports an increasing rate of citizens who vote in the national elections. The articles report an increasing rate of citizens who vote in the national elections. The subject of the sentence will be transformed to its pronoun form when forming the tag question. Tag questions are short questions added at the end of a sentence when the speaker seeks confirmation of his/her statement. The nurse administered to him the right doses of morphine, didn't he? The nurses administered to him the right doses of morphine, didn't they? 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 The Write Place

The print handout was revised and then redesigned for the Web by Maggie Escalas for the Write Place, St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, Minnesota, and may be copied for educational purposes only. If you copy this document, please include our copyright notice and the name of the writer; if you revise it, please add your name to the list of writers. URL: http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/ grammar/verbsub.html Last Update: 5 October 1999

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