Archive for September, 2011

Predicate

September 22nd, 2011 in Improve English

The label predicate refers to that part of the sentence which is not the subject. The predicate contains the verb. Study the following examples.

Subject Predicate
My sister Is a teacher.
Alice Put the meat in the fridge.
She Often performs at public events.

In a question, the predicate may be discontinuous, or it may precede the subject. In the following examples, the bracketed portion is the predicate.

(Who were) you (talking to?)
(Never have) I (seen such a mess.)

Predicate complement

A predicate complement is a phrase that immediately follows a copular verb. A copular verb is a verb like be, turn, taste, grow, seem and become.

Janet is a diplomat. (Here the predicate complement is the phrase ‘a diplomat’.)
She turned red with anger. (Here the predicate complement is ‘red with anger’.)

A predicate complement can be a noun phrase, an adjective phrase or a prepositional phrase.

Predicate nominal

A noun phrase which is used as a predicate complement. An example is ‘a diplomat’ in Janet is a diplomat.

Predicative

A label applied to a linguistic unit which appears inside a predicate. For example, the adjective red is in predicative position in the sentence ‘My favorite color is red’.