Nucleus of the Subject and the Predicate

In sentences with two members or bimembres there is a subject (the person who performs the action) and a predicate (which describes the action performed by the subject). This implies that the subject responds to the question who and the predicate to the question what. Both the subject and the predicate of a sentence have an essential word, that is, a core.

The core of the subject

The fundamental element of the subject of a sentence is its nucleus. In other words, the core is the most important on any subject.

In the sentence "Isabel dances", if we ask the question who, the answer is Isabel and she becomes the nucleus of the subject of the sentence. Obviously, the word dance constitutes the predicate of the sentence.

It should be noted that the subject of a sentence is the person, the animal or the thing that performs the action of the verb. Thus, in the sentence "My dog ​​is seven years old", the subject is formed by My dog ​​and, therefore, its nucleus is the word dog.

In the sentence "My brother's neighbors have prepared a farewell for him," the subject is my brother's neighbors and the core is the word neighbors. In any case, the core of the subject is always a noun.

Keep in mind that the subject is sometimes omitted. Thus, in the sentence "he did not do it", the subject does not appear explicitly, but logically the subject is the personal pronoun he. To know what the nucleus of the subject has to be in these cases, it is necessary to look for the personal pronoun that agrees with the form verbal of the predicate core.

The core of the predicate

People, animals or things perform actions, which are expressed through a type of words, verbs. In this way, in every sentence the core of the predicate is always a verb. In the sentence "La selection won the championship ", the core of the subject is the word selection and the core of the predicate is the word won.

The predicate is a syntactic function that is performed by a verb or by a verbal group. In this sense, a verbal periphrase can act as the nucleus of the predicate (for example, in the sentence "My friend is arriving" the core of the predicate is arriving, as it is the verb form principal).

It is convenient to first identify the core of the predicate

In parsing it is useful to first establish what the core of the predicate is. This way, it is easier to find out which is the subject that performs the action.

In the sentence "My friend takes care of the plants" the action that is carried out is to take care of the plants and when We have identified the nucleus of the action, it is possible to ask the question who (who takes care of the plants? my friend).

Photos: Fotolia - Konstantin Yuganov / XY