Subjects and Predicates

The simple subject can be what the sentence is about or it can be what is doing the action in the sentence. The simple predicate tells you what the subject is doing.

Example: Teachers teach.

"Teachers" are what the sentence is about,so that it is the simple subject, and "teach" is what they are doing,so that "teach"would be the simple predicate.
When simple subject is said it means that it is just the subject, but when you say simple you mean that it is not complete. A complete subject is the subject and all its modifies. By modifiers it is meant that sometimes you will have a compound subject.

Example: Joey and Billy were going to the movies.

Joey and Billy are the subjects or the compound subject and "going" is what they are doing. Some sentences get even more complicated. Some sentences have a compound predicate.

Example: Joey went running and skipping home after the movie.

Joey was the subject and running and skipping was what he was doing, which means that it was the compound predicate. One thing about compound subjects is that you can have any number of subjects.

Example: Joey, Billy, and Sam went skating together.

Joey, Billy, and Sam were all part of the compound subject. The same goes for the compound predicate, you can have any number of things that the subject(s) is doing.


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