Grammar NotesHonors English 9

Sentence: a group of words that contains a subject and its predicate, and makes a complete thought.◦ To say anything clearly, we must say two things: what

we are talking about (subject) and what we are saying about it (predicate).

Each thought must have these two parts: One Two subject predicate what we’re talking about what we’re saying

about it

A fragment is an incomplete thought.

The simple subject of the sentence is the noun or subject pronoun that the sentence is about.

The complete subject includes the simple subject and all of its modifiers.

  Compound subject: a double subject:

more than one noun or pronoun used as a double subject of the same clause

Predicate: the verb and other words that are about the subject

  Simple predicate = the verb.   Complete predicate = everything that is said

about the subject.   Compound predicate: the subject takes more

than one verb as its predicate.  

Direct Object – a noun or object pronoun that receives the action of the action verb. DO◦ It answers this question: What is the “thing” the

Subject “Verbs”?◦ Action verbs are called transitive if there is a direct

object.◦ S AV DO ◦ We walked the dog.

 ◦ Action verbs are called intransitive if there is no direct

object. S AV adverb We walked slowly.

  Only object pronouns (e.g., him, her, us)may be direct

objects.

Indirect Object – ◦ a noun or object pronoun ◦ indirectly affected by the action verb◦ located between the action verb and the direct object.

S AV IO DO You gave me nothing.

NOTE: If there is an indirect object, there MUST be a direct object.

The indirect object is an alternative to using a prepositional phrase.

S AV DO (prep phrase) You gave nothing to me.

In your composition notebook, write 5 sentences using your current vocabulary words. Be sure that each includes an ACTION VERB.

For each sentence, label the subject (s), the simple predicate (v) and, if included, the direct object (DO) and indirect object (IO). ◦ Remember, not all sentences have direct objects.◦ You will only have an indirect object if there is

also a direct object. ◦ Not every sentence with a direct object has an

indirect object as well.