Questions tagged [subjects]
Questions about determining the subject of a sentence or clause
455
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Why is the subject omitted in sentences like "Thought you'd never ask"?
"Thought you'd never ask" is "I thought you'd never ask" with "I" omitted.
"Hope this helps" is "I hope this helps" with "I" omitted.
In English grammar, normally every sentence should have a subject,...
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"I and someone", "me and someone" or "I and someone we" [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
When do I use “I” instead of “me?”
A friend of mine asked me for advice about an e-mail he was writing. There was a sentence like this:
I and my ...
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19
votes
1
answer
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Which is correct: "you and I" or "you and me"?
I was told the correct usage is for example:
"My wife and me" but I hear often "I and my wife" or "my wife and I".
Google gives 34M results for "My wife and I" ...
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votes
2
answers
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Is the signature of a letter a subject or an object?
I want to sign a letter jokingly not by name, but by a personal pronoun. Is the signature a subject or an object? I feel like using object pronoun (me) sounds better, but why? The signature looks more ...
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What happened first: "ye"/"you" merging to "you", or "thou"/"thee" falling out of common use?
Simple subject "I":
I went.
Replacing it with "me":
Me went.
That sounds strikingly wrong. We use it for fake "caveman talk".
However, there was a time when it worked like this:
1st person ...
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15
votes
3
answers
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Where is the subject in "as was traditional for unmarried women"?
My senior English teacher was a tad bit confused where the subject for was is in this sentence:
As was traditional for unmarried women, Jane lived at home her entire life.
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votes
1
answer
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How do I determine subject and subject complement in "A side-effect is the spread of commercialese to other domains."?
Consider this example:
Commercialese is an instrument of art,
designed to enrich and invigorate our
language—surely you will all agree
with this—, and we should encourage newcomers to learn ...
12
votes
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answers
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Which is correct: "If it were I" or "If it were me"?
I'm fairly sure it's the former, but it sounds even more stilted than the usual cases in which "I" is less common, but more correct.
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What's the Subject in: 'And up here in the corner is me'
If two people are looking at a photo, and one of them pointing out the different people says:
And up here in the corner is me.
... what is the Subject of the sentence?
The phrase up here in the ...
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votes
3
answers
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"A guy whose job is to" vs "a guy whose job it is to"?
I've been hearing the phrase "whose job it is to" quite often lately. Consider these two sentences:
We have a guy whose job is to clean windows.
We have a guy whose job it is to clean ...
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votes
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there + semantic verb
What semantic verbs are used with there besides the verb to be?
I'm looking for the cases when there is used as a formal subject.
For example in:
There came a knock
There comes a point in life
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7
votes
1
answer
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Why can't "any" be used as subject in negative sentences, while "no" can?
Why is it that any cannot be used as subject in negative sentences, while no can?
An example pair of sentences might be:
No children came.
Any children didn't come.
Please note that the following ...
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votes
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answers
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Does modifying a collective noun with a number make the subject plural?
The word dozen is a collective noun, i.e., singular when we think of them as groups and plural when we think of the individuals acting within the whole. So we might say:
Talking about eggs: "A ...
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What is the predicate in "Is he happy?"
In most theories of grammar, sentences can be broken into smaller chunks called phrases and these phrases can be broken into smaller chunks, smaller phrases still. So in the sentence:
He is happy.
...
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votes
3
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What is a better way to write: only three people signed up: you, me and "thehulk66"
It is better to write this:
Only three people signed up: you, Jim,
and I.
than this:
Only three people signed up: you, me,
and Jim.
Because "I" is a subject and not an object.
But what if ...
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7
votes
1
answer
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Is it acceptable to omit "I" when it's the subject? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Is it acceptable to begin a declarative sentence with “Am”?
Is it correct English to omit I from the beginning of a sentence when it's clearly implied?
For example...
How ...
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7
votes
3
answers
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Verb-Subject Order
Is it optional to front the verb in sentences like the one below when an adverbial precedes?
In the film, appear two more girls who think that Dallas is quite rude.
I have already checked the ...
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7
votes
4
answers
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In the sentence "It is she", which is the subject?
If she is the subject, what is then the function of it? If it is the subject, then shouldn't the sentence be It is her since she is a subject pronoun? Thanks!
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votes
2
answers
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Different subjects for the word "drive"
She drives well on a highway.
This sentence makes sense to me, but so does the next one:
This car drives well on a highway.
I'm not sure why. The car can't drive on its own but second sentence ...
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6
votes
2
answers
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views
"What questions [is/are] your data team hoping to answer?"
Over at stats.stackexchange we are having a minor kerfuffle over whether a title is using incorrect grammar. It has been edited and re-edited several times. It would be great to get some arbitration ...
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6
votes
4
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Can a pronoun functioning as Object also be a Subject?
I want him to call me tomorrow.
In this sentence we see:
I, subject; want, verb; him, object.
What is the subject of to call? Him? But him is the object of the verb want. Is this a correct ...
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6
votes
2
answers
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'As can be seen ...' <--- Can English have a tensed clause without a Subject?
Considering the rule that every finite clause in English must always have a subject, I was wondering what the subject of the first clause in this sentence is:
As can be seen from the figures, the ...
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6
votes
2
answers
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'One out of three people thinks' or 'one out of three people think'? [duplicate]
Could someone please explain to me which of these sentences is correct and why?
Only one out of three respondents (29%) thinks otherwise.
Only one out of three respondents (29%) think ...
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5
votes
4
answers
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Help Fixing Yoda-like Sentence Structure? [closed]
I'm a native American English speaker and have noticed something in my speech/writing that I don't really understand. I've noticed my speech sounds "Yoda-ish" and have been trying to figure ...
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What's the subject of "There is my biscuit!" ? And how about "There is one biscuit left"?
What's the subject, grammatically speaking, of these sentences?
There is my biscuit!
My biscuit is there!
There is one biscuit left.
I don't really know how to analyze these. The following ...
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answers
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Can an imperative sentence have a subject?
Can an imperative sentence have a subject?
This is a followup to this comment.
User Schmuddi asserted that:
English imperative sentences are subjectless.
but did not cite any source or authority.
I ...
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votes
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answers
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What's the best way to find the subject in a sentence?
What's the best way to find the subject in a sentence?
How do you define a subject?
I am especially curious about such cases, in which the subject seems to be represented by more than one word:
The ...
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Can I front an adverbial phrase like "high among the clouds"?
While writing a fantasy narration I created this sentence:
High among the clouds a castle floated.
My American friend tells me it sounds bad to a native ear. I think he sees a problem with the ...
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5
votes
3
answers
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Confusing rule about subject-verb agreement
I am currently working through "The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation" by Jane Straus. In the section on subject-verb agreement the author describes a rule for sentences that begin with "there" or "...
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votes
4
answers
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Does saying "he uses" imply volition?
A recent L.A. Times brief mentioned that the horse California Chrome's qualification for a race was in question because "he uses nasal strips." The phrasing caught my eye because, to me, saying "he ...
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S-V agreement: It is not clear what is/are meant by A and B
In the following sentence, the verb “are” strikes me as odd.
In paragraph 6, it is not clear what are meant by “the front unit” and “the central element”.
It seems that “. . . it is not clear ...
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What is the simple subject in "Is that my bike"?
Is that my bike?
I'm not sure if the simple subject is that or bike.
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1
answer
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Object vs Subject?
Consider the following sentence:
"Even during the simple occurrence of him and me standing next to each other makes me notice that he's taller than me."
Is him and me correct? Should it be he and ...
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"Years of experience that keeps us safe." vs "Years of experience that keep us safe."
If you've ever seen Mythbusters, you know that all episodes contain at least one safety disclaimer. Having recently rewatched several episodes, I've noticed that some disclaimers have Adam saying, "...
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What's the matter?
A (1). What’s wrong? A (2). What’s the matter?
B. The internet doesn’t work.
In A (1), ‘what’ is beyond doubt a subject. But in A (2), Which is the subject: ‘what’ or ‘the matter’? ...
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Can prepositional phrases be subject complements?
I’m an ESL teacher without much formal training (at this stage). I have however Googled grammar questions many times and been redirected here, so this time I'm actually posting. I’m trying to explain ...
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subject of the sentence: Whether or not to bomb Syria is the pertinent question
My son (12 years old) had some homework and was asked to find the subject of the sentence: Whether or not to bomb Syria is the pertinent question.
The complete subject seems to be: Whether or not to ...
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votes
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answers
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What is the subject of the following sentence?
Food allergies are adverse reactions to an otherwise harmless food or food component that involves an abnormal response of the body's immune system to specific protein(s) in foods.
This is a ...
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Should I use "her" or "she"?
In the blank below:
Everyone likes you but _____.
Should I use "her" or "she"?
I think both of them are okay. If "her" is used, I'll perceive the sentence as "Everyone likes you, but everyone does ...
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votes
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answers
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How do I make "X is the thing I wanted to win" unambiguous?
When I say, StackExchange is the website I wanted to win (in an implied context of best website award), it sounds like I wanted to win (own) StackExchange, whereas I'm trying to imply that I wanted ...
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Are you comfortable with who(m) he is?
Are you comfortable with him? (correct)
Are you comfortable with whom he is? (??)
You're comfortable with whom he is. (??)
Are you comfortable with who he is? (??)
You're comfortable with whom?...
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"Me knowing that he was... " Is "me" the subject?
"That was it," he told me. "Laughing at me behind their faces, about a
woman. Me knowing that he was up there, and them knowing I knew that
if I busted in and dragged him out and bashed his head ...
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Is there no subject in a sentence like "Under the tree is a dog"?
I was trying to find out sentences without a subject, only object, and I came across
this
where the poster gives following sentences as an example
Under the tree is a dog.
Next to the park stands ...
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votes
4
answers
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"Tools are a sound investment that result in..." or "...that results in..."?
If I am using the sentence, "Tools are a sound investment that result(s) in significant gains in productivity.", do I use result or results? I'm unsure if the verb "result(s)" is acting on the noun "...
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votes
2
answers
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"Whomever" as both object and subject
I put together a document with my findings in order to help whomever keeps working on this.
I understand that "whomever" should be used as an object, whereas "whoever" as a ...
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When whoever vs. whomever fails the he/him test [duplicate]
The following example fails the he/him test for whoever/whomever:
Please give the key to whoever needs to open that cabinet.
Give the key to him or he? Give the key to him.
However, when asking ...
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3
answers
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English Subject-auxiliary inversion
In normal declarative English sentences, let's call them 'canonical' sentences, the verb comes after the subject.
Bob is walking the Great Wall of China.
Bob likes elephants.
But in other types of ...
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2
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why differences in Object vs Subject
We have different pronouns to express objects vs subjects:
he vs him
who vs whom
etc.
What's the point? What extra information is communicated by expressing object vs subject?
Shouldn't it be ...
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Is there a name for the type of shorthand sentence that excludes yourself as the subject? e.g., "Going to the park."
See this all the time. Doing it right now. Leaving out the "I am" piece of the sentence. Does this have a name?
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Is “am” ever proper English without an “I” somewhere before or after it? [duplicate]
For a long time, I have been convinced that the use of the word am without the word I either before or after it is incorrect. For instance, saying Am going all by itself.
However, I recently ran a ...
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