Essentials 101

Section 1: Simple Sentences > Subjects

L1: Subjects
A sentence must contain a subject and a verb. The subject is the word in the sentence that performs the action. The verb is the action.

1. She loves baseball.
2. The cat sleeps all day.
3. We study English every night.

In sentence 1, She performs the action loves. In sentence 2, The cat performs the action sleeps. In sentence 3, We performs the action study.

Subjects are often common nouns (people, places, things). Other parts of speech functioning as nouns can also be subjects:

1. Reading is my favorite pastime.
2. Jogging bores me.

In sentence 1, Reading is an -ing verb functioning as a noun. It is the subject of the verb is. In sentence 2, Jogging is an -ing verb functioning as a noun. It is the subject of the verb bores.

More than one subject can perform the same action:

1. Reading and jogging are popular pastimes.
2. Jack and Jill went up the hill.

Both reading and writing are popular. Both Jack and Jill went. When two or more subjects are joined by and, it is called a compound subject.