I. DECLARATIVE SENTENCES. SUBJECT AND PREDICATE
1. The purpose of English Grammar is to set forth the laws and customs governing the use of the English language. We study grammar in order that we may express our thoughts correctly.
A group of words, sometimes few, sometimes many, that completely expresses a thought is called a sentence. In speech one sentence is set off from another by a slight pause. On the written or printed page sentences are separated from each other by a slight space, while the first word of every sentence begins with a capital letter, and the last word is followed by some sort of terminal mark.
Most sentences are made to state, or declare, something, and hence are called declarative sentences. The following are declarative sentences:—
Molly danced up and down with delight.
My grandfather’s desk had the best light in the room.
2. Declarative sentences consist of two distinct parts. One part names the person, place, or thing which the sentence tells something about. This part is called the subject. The other part is the telling part. It is called the predicate.
In the first example Molly is the subject, because it names the person about whom something is told. Danced up and down with delight is the predicate, because it tells something about Molly.
What is the subject in the second example? the predicate? How do you know? What terminal mark follows a declarative sentence?
Summary.—A sentence is a group of words that completely expresses a thought.
A declarative sentence is one that states, or declares, something.
A declarative sentence is always followed by a period.
The subject of a sentence is the part which names that about which something is said.
The predicate of a sentence is the part which says something about the subject.
Exercise 1.—Tell why each of the following sentences is declarative. Select the subject, and tell why it is the subject. Select the predicate, and tell why it is the predicate. Tell all this in good language. Write it about one of the sentences, and be sure to underline the words that should be printed in italics. (See § 2.) Remember that all the words in the sentence belong either in the subject or in the predicate.
1. The village street was as quiet as the fields.
2. The great crashes of deep bass notes sent little thrills down our backs.
3. The cat could not find anything to eat except a thin, dried-up old mole.
4. Little gray-eyed Caroline went to live with her Aunt Fogg.
5. The traveler, being quite faint for lack of food, helped himself to the leg of a roast chicken.
6. Four is the right number for a pie.
7. A young girl of wonderful beauty lay asleep on the bed.
8. Mary shut the parlor door with a great slam.
9. Beauty, full of surprise but very happy, permitted the prince to lead her to his palace.
10. The magic song still rose from the vines outside the chamber window.
11. We cats are confined entirely to the society of each other.
12. The glassy water was sparkling with stars.
13. Locusts devoured the green things of the valley.
14. Not a living soul was to be seen.
15. My little half-starved cat grew white and plump and pretty.
Exercise 2.—Find five interesting declarative sentences in a story book. Write them with the subject underlined.
Exercise 3.—Write a fitting predicate for each of the following subjects:—
1. A boy with a fish pole
2. Abraham Lincoln
3. My last dime
4. The man on the ice wagon
5. Our old white rooster
6. Not a girl in the class
7. The battered old musket
8. The haymakers
9. The miner’s cabin
10. Moving picture shows