In this ESL grammar lesson, students practice identifying the subjects and verbs in various sentences (including gerunds used as subjects).
Understanding how to identify subjects and verbs in sentences is crucial for mastering English grammar. This lesson focuses on helping beginners identify both standard subjects and gerunds as subjects, along with the verbs in sentences.
ESL Grammar: What is a Subject?
The subject of a sentence tells us who or what the sentence is about. It can be a person, place, thing, idea, or a gerund (the -ing form of a verb acting as a noun).
Examples:
- Tom runs fast. (Tom is the subject)
- The dog barks loudly. (The dog is the subject)
- Running is fun. (Running is the gerund subject)
ESL Grammar: What is a Verb?
A verb expresses an action or a state of being. It tells us what the subject is doing or what condition the subject is in.
Examples:
- Tom runs fast. (runs is the action verb)
- The dog barks loudly. (barks is the action verb)
- Running is fun. (is is the linking verb)
ESL Grammar: How to Identify Subjects and Verbs
- Find the verb first: Ask yourself, “What is happening in the sentence?”
- Find the subject: Ask, “Who or what is performing the action or being described?”
The beginner-level grammar lesson below reviews the concepts of subjects and verbs in a clear and simple manner to help young ESL learners to understand this concept. Our series of ESL grammar lessons on subjects and verbs introduce these concepts and reinforce them through helpful and instructive exercises.
This lesson is available for free download, and you can download many more English grammar lessons focusing on all different parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and lots more!) in our comprehensive, beginner-level ESL grammar textbook Great, Great Grammar! (Book 1: Parts of Speech).
