Examples of Complete Subjects

Every complete sentence has a subject and a predicate. The subject tells us who or what the sentence is about. The predicate tells us what the subject does or is. This page focuses on the complete subject, which is the simple subject together with all the words that describe or modify it.

What Is a Complete Subject?

A complete subject includes:

• the main noun or pronoun (the simple subject), and
• every modifier attached to it, such as articles, adjectives (including indefinite adjectives like many or several), prepositional phrases and relative clauses.

In the sentence The tired, elderly man trudged down the street, the complete subject is The tired, elderly man. The predicate is trudged down the street.

Simple Subject vs. Complete Subject

The simple subject is only the core word or words. The complete subject adds everything that modifies it.

If there are no modifiers, the simple and complete subject are the same: Birds sing.

Examples of Complete Subjects

In each sentence below, the complete subject is in bold and the simple subject is in brackets.

1. The tired, elderly man trudged down the street. [man]
2. My youngest brother plays the violin. [brother]
3. The red candies at the end of the shelf are my favorite. [candies]
4. Many colorful balloons and streamers decorated the party. [balloons, streamers]
5. Joshua’s road bike needs a new tire. [bike]
6. The very noisy dogs next door barked all night. [dogs]
7. Her friends who live on Main Street are stopping by tonight. [friends]
8. The old wooden bridge over the river collapsed in the storm. [bridge]
9. A small group of students waited outside. [group]
10. Our neighbor’s new puppy chewed the sofa. [puppy]

Notice that prepositional phrases such as at the end of the shelf or over the river belong to the complete subject when they modify the noun, even though the noun inside them is not the simple subject.

How to Identify a Complete Subject

1. Find the verb. In The old wooden bridge over the river collapsed, the verb is collapsed.
2. Ask “who or what” before the verb. Who or what collapsed? The bridge. That is the simple subject.
3. Add all the modifiers. Which bridge? The old wooden bridge over the river. That is the complete subject.
4. Check the rest. Whatever remains (collapsed in the storm) is the predicate.

A useful test is to replace the complete subject with a single pronoun. It collapsed in the storm works, which shows that you captured the whole subject.

Trickier Cases

Compound subjects. Two or more simple subjects joined by and or or: My sister and her best friend left early. The complete subject includes both.

Questions. The subject often comes after the first verb: Did the new teacher arrive? Turn it into a statement (The new teacher did arrive) to see the subject.

Sentences beginning with there. In There are three books on the shelf, the real subject is three books, not there (see impersonal pronoun examples).

Commands. In Close the door, the subject you is understood and not written.

Long openers. An introductory phrase is not part of the subject: After the long meeting, the tired committee members went home.

Complete Sentences Examples

A complete sentence has a subject, a predicate, and expresses a complete thought. Here are ten:

1. The cat slept.
2. Rain fell all afternoon.
3. My grandmother bakes bread every Sunday.
4. The students in the back row finished early.
5. A cold wind blew across the empty field.
6. We walked home.
7. The bakery on the corner closes at six.
8. Her sister’s blue bicycle stood against the wall.
9. Nobody answered the phone.
10. The children were singing in the garden.

Missing either part makes a fragment, such as The students in the back row (no predicate) or Finished early (no subject). Our sentence correction exercises include fragment practice, and the guide to because sentences shows a very common source of fragments.

Practice and Answers

Write the complete subject of each sentence.

1. The loud music from the party kept us awake.
2. Several students from my class won prizes.
3. Did your older brother call?
4. My aunt and uncle live in Spain.
5. The book that I borrowed was fascinating.

Answers:

1. The loud music from the party
2. Several students from my class
3. your older brother
4. My aunt and uncle
5. The book that I borrowed

If you set off extra information within a subject with commas, such as My aunt, a retired doctor, lives in Spain, the commas mark an interrupter. See interrupting words and phrases for how these work. The complete subject there is My aunt, a retired doctor.