1. Ask "Who?" or "What?"
* Example: "The cat chased the mouse."
* Ask: "Who chased the mouse?" Answer: "The cat." (The cat is the subject.)
2. Look for the Noun or Pronoun Doing the Action
* Example: "She wrote a letter."
* "She" is the pronoun performing the action of "wrote."
3. Ignore Phrases and Clauses
* Example: "The dog, barking loudly, ran after the ball."
* Focus on the core: "The dog ran after the ball."
* "The dog" is the subject.
4. Watch Out for Inverted Sentences
* Inverted sentences place the verb before the subject.
* Example: "There goes the train."
* "The train" is the subject, even though it comes after the verb.
5. Be Aware of "Dummy Subjects"
* Example: "It is raining."
* "It" is a dummy subject, holding the place of the real subject ("the rain").
Key Points:
* The subject is the noun or pronoun that performs the action of the verb.
* The subject usually comes before the verb in a sentence.
* Subjects can be simple (a single word) or compound (two or more words joined by conjunctions).