1. Subjects & Verbs p. 406-410

2. Subjects & Verbs Every sentence has a subject & a verb. Who or what the sentence speaks about is called the subject. What the sentence says about the subject is called the verb. Ex. The teachersmiled. My kittenis sweet.

3. Find a subject To find a subject, ask who or what the sentence is about. Below are some examples. “The Children laughed”. Who is the sentence about? Children. “Several branches fell”. What is the sentence about? Several branches.

4. Find a verb To find a verb, ask what the sentence says about the subject. Ex.“The Children laughed”. What does the sentence say about children? They laughed. Another way to find the verb is to put I, you, he, she, we, it, or theyin front of the word you think is a verb. If it makes sense, it’s a verb. For example, if you put they in front of laughed in the above sentence, you have they laughed.

5. Verbs Remember that most verbs show action. However, linking verbsdo not show action. They give information about the subject. Ex. “That man is a hero”. The linking verbistells us that the man is a hero. Some other linking verbs include am, are, was, were, feel, appear, look, become, and seem.

6. More on subjects & verbs 1. A pronoun (Any word like he, she, it, we, you, & they used in place of a noun) can be the subject. Ex. Heseems lonely. Theylike to jog. 2. A sentence may have more than one subject & verb Ex. My heartskipped and pounded. The money and credit cardswere stolen.

8. A prepositional phrase is a group of words that begin with a preposition.

9. Some common prepositions include by, in, at, on, off, over, under, to, with, & among.

10. It helps to cross out prepositional phrases when looking for the subject.Ex. Under my pillow I found a quarter.

11. More on subjects & verbs 4. Many verbs consist of more than one word. For example, there are many forms of the verb smile (smiles, is smiling, had been smiling). 5. Words like not, just, never, only, andalways are not part of the verb, although they may appear within it. Ex. Sam did not start his homework.

12. More on subjects & verbs 6. No verb preceded by to is the verb of the sentence. Ex. My car began to sputter. I ran to get help. 7. No –ing word by itself is ever the verb. It may be part of it, but needs a helping verb in front of it. Ex. Incorrect: They leaving for school. Correct: They are leaving for school.