Every sentence must have a subject and a predicate. The subject is usually a noun or a pronoun. The predicate must contain a verb. The predicate may also contain several other words.
Study the examples given below.
- The driver stopped the car. (Subject – the driver; predicate – stopped the car)
Here the predicate consists of a verb (stopped) and a noun (the car).
The noun which follows the verb acts as its object.
More examples are given below.
- These boys play cricket. (Subject – these boys; verb – play; object – cricket)
- The girls lit a fire. (Subject – the girls; verb – lit; object – a fire)
Just like the subject, the object can also be modified by a determiner, an adjective, an adjective phrase or an adjectival clause.
- I met a girl. (Here the object ‘girl’ is modified by the article ‘a’.)
- I met a beautiful girl. (Here the object ‘girl’ is modified by the article ‘a’ and the adjective ‘beautiful’.)
- I met the girl who won the first prize. (Here the object ‘girl’ is modified by the adjective clause ‘who won the first prize’.)
The verb can also be modified by an adverb, an adverb phrase or an adverb clause.
- I saw a beautiful girl yesterday. (Here the adverb ‘yesterday’ modifies the verb ‘saw’.)
- I saw a beautiful girl in the store. (Here the adverb phrase ‘in the store’ modifies the verb ‘saw’.)
- I saw a beautiful girl when I went to the store. (Here the adverb clause ‘when I went to the store’ modifies the verb ‘saw’.)