Question

Separate the following sentence into Subject and Predicate – The boy stood on the burning deck.
A) Subject: stood on the burning deck. Predicate: The boy.
B) Subject: The boy. Predicate: stood on the burning deck.
C) Subject: The boy stood on the. Predicate: burning deck.
D) Subject: on the burning deck. Predicate: The boy stood.

Answer 1

Hint: A sentence is defined as a group of words that makes complete sense. A sentence has two parts – the Subject and the Predicate. The naming part of a sentence is commonly called the Subject. The telling part of a sentence is commonly called the Predicate.

Complete answer:
The Subject part of a sentence must contain a Noun or a Pronoun and the Predicate part of a sentence must contain or start with a Verb. Here, the Noun is ‘The boy’. The Verb ‘stood’ onwards describes what the Noun (boy) is doing.

Let us analyze the given options:
Option A) Subject: stood on the burning deck. Predicate: The boy. – is an incorrect answer.
As here, the subject is ‘stood on the burning deck’ which starts with a verb and the predicate is ‘The boy’ which is the noun, the option is the wrong answer.
Option B) Subject: The boy. Predicate: stood on the burning deck. – is the correct answer.
As here, the subject is ‘The boy’ and the predicate starts from the verb to where the sentence ends, the option is the right answer.
Option C) Subject: The boy stood on the. Predicate: burning deck. – is an incorrect answer. As here, the subject is ‘The boy stood on the’ which is incomplete and does not make any sense, and the predicate is ‘burning deck’ which is a phrase, the option is the wrong answer.
Option D) Subject: on the burning deck. Predicate: The boy stood. – is an incorrect answer. As here, the subject is ‘on the burning deck’ which starts with a preposition and the predicate is ‘The boy stood’ which is a combination of a noun and a verb, the option is the wrong answer.

Therefore the correct answer is option ‘B’.

Note: Sometimes the subject may be in the middle of the sentence or at the end, as in the following sentences:
- How have the mighty fallen!
- After dinner came the dance.
- Beyond the valley was a row of hills.
- Gone are all those golden dreams.