ENGLISH GRAMMAR (Part 1)

Parts of A Word

A word can be divided into its STEM (the basic part of the word containing the meaning) and its INFLECTIONS (the endings added to indicate such things as that a noun is PLURAL or a verb is in the pas).

Examples:

Stem                                      : dog

                                                Walk

Inflections                              : s in dogs

                                               ed in walked

Part of A Sentence

SUBJECT

The subject is the person, thing or topic which the sentence deals with. To discover the subject, as who or what before the verb, e.g. in the sentence The house stands on the hill, what stands on the hill? Answer: the house.

Examples:     The house stands on the hill

                     It overlooks the plain

PREDICATE

The predicate is all of the sentence except the subject.

Examples:       The house stands on the hill

                      It overlooks the plain

OBJECT

The object is the person, thing or topic upon which the subject carries out the action of the verb. To discover the object, ask who or what  after the verb, e.g. the house overlooks what? Answer: the plain.

Examples:      The house overlooks the plain

                     I see him clearly

                     He watches himself carefully

Sometimes we apparently have two objects. Where one of these can alternatively be expressed by placing to before it, it is called the indirect object. For example, instead of He gave me the book we can say He gave the book for me. Here the book is the direct object and me the indirect object.

COMPLEMENT

After the verb to be there is no object since the noun which follows refers to the same thing as that which precedes the verb (the subject). The noun following the verb to be is called the complement.

Examples:       I am a man

                      This is the question