Question

What is a complete subject, simple subject, and a verb?

Answer 1

Hint: This question is about different parts of a sentence. There are two basic parts to a sentence, “The Subject” and “The Predicate”. The subject is the person, place or thing that is performing the action of the sentence, i.e., it is that part of the sentence which describes about whom the sentence is. The predicate is what action is being performed by the subject, i.e., it describes what the subject is doing.

Complete answer:
The question has three parts and each part requires a particular and definitive answer. The first and second part asks about the subject, and the last part asks about the verb. To answer this question, make note of what the different parts of sentences are and what their relationship with each other is. Also keep in mind the fact that subject is usually a noun, i.e., naming words whereas, verbs are action words.
With all this explanation, we can answer the given question and to do so, let’s take an example of a sentence and break it apart as follows:

Example: A very thin old man was sitting under the tree.

Complete Subject: A complete subject is the main noun of the sentence along with some other words that quantify or qualify that particular noun. In simple terms, a complete subject is a collection of the main noun and other words which shows some quality of the noun along with it. In the sentence, the man which is a noun and his qualities, i.e., very thin and old forms the “Complete subject.”

Simple Subject: A simple subject is only the main noun of the subject without the modifiers, i.e., it is just the name of the person, place or thing that performed the action. In the sentence, the main noun, “Man” is the “Simple Subject”.

Verb: A verb is a word that describes the action performed by the subject of the sentence. In other words, those words of a sentence which tells us what the subject does are called “Verbs”. In the sentence, the man was “Sitting”, i.e., the action he was doing was sitting, hence it is the verb of the sentence.

Note: Following are various rules of verbs:
- Use a singular verb when "or" or "nor" connects two or more singular nouns or pronouns.
- A singular verb is used with noncount nouns.
- When there is only one subject and multiple verbs in a sentence, all of the verbs must agree with the subject.