The Roadrunner's Guide to English: Subject Identification
Attribution
The practice exercises on this page were developed by Dr. Mary Nielsen, Dean of the Dalton State College School of Liberal Arts.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Subject Identification - Practice 1
Subject Identification Practice 1
Finding the Subject
- The subject of the sentence usually answers the following question: Who or what is this sentence about?
- The subject is typically a noun (person, place, animal, or thing) or a pronoun (e.g., I, he, she, we, you, they).
- The subject may be a gerund (ing form a a verb: running, swimming, studying).
- The subject may be an infinitive (to form of a verb: to run, to swim, to study).
- A sentence may have two or more subjects (compound subjects).
- There and here are never the subjects of sentences.
Underline the subjects in the following sentences.
- Today's weather forecast is for partly cloudy skies with temperatures in the upper 80s.
- A stray thunderstorm is possible through the early evening.
- There has not been any rain in weeks.
- The sound of rain would be like music to my ears.
- Tropical depression Barry brought five inches of rain to Melbourne, Florida.
- According to the WeatherChannel.com, the United States has the largest number of tornadoes worldwide.
- The tornado warning for Leon County was cancelled just moments ago.
- We will not need to go to the basement after all.
- Cleaning the basement and emptying the garbage are my youngest brother's chores.
- Here are Tom and Rita.
- Surfing is dangerous during a tropical depression.
- To see a tornado form was the tornado hunter's strongest desire.
- I do not share that desire.
- Feeling exhausted, Laura lay down on the floor under the ceiling fan.
- To lose weight requires tremendous effort and willpower.
Subject Identification - Practice 2
Finding the Subject
- The subject of the sentence usually answers the following question: Who or what is this sentence about?
- The subject is typically a noun (person, place, animal, or thing) or a pronoun (e.g., I, he, she, we, you, they).
- The subject may be a gerund (ing form a a verb: running, swimming, studying).
- The subject may be an infinitive (to form of a verb: to run, to swim, to study).
- A sentence may have two or more subjects (compound subjects).
- There and here are never the subjects of sentences.
Underline the subjects in the following sentences.
- For five homeless teenagers, surfing became a way to enjoy life, at least for a week, at Playalinda Beach.
- However, next week, an upcoming launch of the space shuttle will close the beach.
- Reading enables children to experience places beyond their reach.
- All too frequently, your cover letter and resume can keep you from getting a job.
- According to Kate Lorenz, there are ten ways to ruin a resume.
- Writing in first person and using passive language are particularly troublesome.
- Failing to proofread can also be fatal.
- You should avoid flashy formatting and tiny font sizes.
- To teach eighth graders requires enormous energy.
- Quitting work early, Laura stopped at Kroger to buy something to cook for dinner.
- The Writing Lab is a great place to prepare for final exams.
- To succeed in college, you should attend every class session and read all assigned material.
- Laughter is the best medicine.
- To err is human.
- To forgive is beyond her abilities or desires.