To be a sentence, you need two ingredients: a SUBJECT and a VERB. Mary walked. In a sentence,
the SUBJECT is a DOER. Mary is the doer, and the action is the verb, WALKED. To find a
subject, look at the VERB, and think: WHO or WHAT is DOING the action in that sentence?
Anastasia searched for her lost diamond in the snow. First, find the verb, or the action:
SEARCHED. Now ask, WHO or WHAT did the action of searching? ANASTASIA! You found your subject!
You can have more than one person or thing DOING the action: Jack and Jill went up the
hill. Let’s try the verb test: what is the action word? The action word is WENT. WHO
went? Jack and Jill! They are both the subject, hand in hand, of the sentence.
Subjects that are joined with AND are called COMPOUND SUBJECTS. Here are some other compound
subjects: Hot fudge and vanilla ice cream are the ingredients for my favorite breakfast.
Pepperoni and pineapple make tangy pizza toppings. Sometimes you can have even more things in
a row acting as a compound subject: Peter, Paul and Mary sang well together! In that
sentence, Peter, Paul and Mary ALL sing, so together they make a great SUBJECT of the
Sometimes a subject is NOT in the beginning of the sentence: Napping on the porch, the
family cat snoozed in the hammock. The action is SNOOZED, and the CAT is doing the snoozing,
Sometimes there are a whole group of words that act as a subject: There is a difference
between the complete subject and the simple subject. The chubby, family cat known as Garfield
and beloved by millions, adores lasagna. In that sentence, don’t get confused by the
group of the words in the complete subject: use the verb to find the simple subject. The
“action” in the sentence is ADORES. Who ADORES? Garfield! You found the “simple
subject.”