Sentences #1

All sentences have a subject and a predicate. The "subject" is who or what the sentence is about.

Aidan.....

The predicate refers to what is said about the subject. ... what the subject IS or DID.

.....ran.

The very simplest sentences consist of a noun and a verb only.

Aidan ran.

The most complicated sentences still fall into a basic pattern.

Looking fearfully over his shoulder, gasping, "Cody!", Aidan ran as quickly as he could with his oversized boots, taking off through the gathering dusk, throwing the cooler behind him as he went, hearing the clunk of it landing on the driveway along with Brendan's call of "It's OK, Aidan!" and Dad's reassuring voice from the lighted doorway in front of him, "Come on, you're almost here!"

Here's a diagram showing how a simple sentence is diagrammed. Diagramming is a visual way to show how sentences are put together grammatically.

Here is a Quia quiz on finding the simple subject or predicate. Try it.

Try this quiz -- finding which one is a sentence. (If you need help with the difference between "fragments" or phrases and "complete sentences", look here)