The subject
You learn to find the subject: who or what does the verb.
How to do the test
- Find the verb.
- Ask who or what does the verb.
- The answer is the subject.
A worked example
Tap the subject. The tall man opened the door.
- Find the verb first: opened.
- Ask who or what opened: the tall man.
- The subject comes before the verb in a statement.
- The tall man is the subject.
More examples
Tap the subject. On Friday, our class visited the museum.
- Find the verb first: visited.
- Ask who or what visited: our class.
- The subject comes before the verb in a statement.
- Our class is the subject.
Tap the subject. Tom and Mia painted the fence.
- Find the verb first: painted.
- Ask who or what painted: Tom and Mia.
- The subject comes before the verb in a statement.
- Tom and Mia is the subject.
Watch out
You tap only the noun, like man, instead of the whole subject the tall man.
The subject is the whole group that answers who or what. Include the describing words that belong to it.
Tips
- The subject is not always the first word. A fronted adverbial can come before it.
Why it works
The subject is the part of the sentence the verb belongs to. If you find the verb first and ask who or what does it, the answer is the whole subject, even when it has several words.