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Editing 1: Subjects and Verbs Subject -- the person, thing, or idea that the sentence is about. Finding the Subject: 1) To find the sentence's subject, ask yourself, "Who or what is this sentence about?" or "Who or what is doing something in this sentence?" The subject of a sentence will always be either a noun or a pronoun. The subject is underlined in the sentences below: Mary tripped on the stairs. The brakes on my car make a strange noise. She owns three cats. Anxiety is common among college students. 2) The subject of the sentence will also never be in a prepositional phrase. A prepositional phrase is a group of words that begins with a preposition and ends with a noun or pronoun. Some common prepositions are: above before by across behind down along with below during around beside except at between for from in into of off on over through to toward under up upon with without Verb -- explains what that sentence says about the subject, either shows action or links the subject to something that is said about the subject. Finding the Verb: 1) Try putting a pronoun such as I, you, he, she, it, or they in front of the word you think might be the verb. If the word is a verb, the resulting sentence will make sense. 2) Look at what the verb tells us. In the sentences above, the verbs tripped, make, and owns are called action verbs because they show action. The verb in the last sentence, is, is a linking verb because it links (joins) the subject to something that is said about the subject. It connects the subject, anxiety, with an idea about anxiety (it is common among college students). Other linking verbs are: am, are, was, were, look, feel, sound, appear, seem, and become. More about Verbs 1. Sometimes verbs consist of a main verb plus one or more helping verbs, such as be, is, do, have, may, might, will, would, can, could, or should. 2. The verb of a sentence never comes after the word to. 3. A word ending in -ing cannot by itself be the verb of a sentence. It can be a part of the verb, but it needs a helping verb before it. 4. A sentence may have a compound subject -- in other words, more than one subject. Ellen and Amy have started their own business. 5. A sentence may have a compound verb -- in other words, more than one verb. They plan parties for other people and also can provide all the refreshments. 6. A sentence may have both a compound subject and a compound verb. In the last three weeks, Ellen and Amy arranged a wedding reception, catered a dinner, and earned over four hundred dollars. Verbals -- are used to name or describe people, places, and things. There are three kinds of verbals: Verbal Infinitive How Formed To plus a verb Example and Comment The lost child began to cry. Participle Present: verb plus -ing Past: verb plus -ed or irregular form The crying, frightened child could not be comforted. (Participles are used as adjectives to describe a noun; here the adjectives crying and frightened describe the child.) Gerund Verb plus -ing Crying is sometimes very healthy. (Gerunds are used as nouns; here the noun crying is the subject of the sentence.) ©ACW, Mountain View College, 2014