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 Finding Subjects, Finite Verbs, and Complements
Practice Exercise # 1

Directions: 
1. First place parentheses ( ) around every prepositional phrase.
2. Underline every subject once, every finite verb twice, and label complements (PA,PN, IO or DO). [Reminder: A predicate adjective describes the subject; a predicate noun "equals" the subject; an indirect object is someone or thing "to" or "for" whom (or what) the action of the verb is performed. Any other complement has to be a direct object.]
 

The text is:
      A Sunday school teacher asked her little children, as they were on their way to church service, "And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?" One bright little girl replied, "Because people are sleeping."
 
Note: In creating these pages, I cannot create a double underline. I will therefore underline both subjects and finite verbs once, but subjects will be in green; finite verbs in blue.

Sentence #1

Work your way through the text one sentence at a time. The first sentence is:
      A Sunday school teacher asked her little children, as they were on their way to church service, "And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?" 
Identify all the prepositional phrases: [Review this.]
      A Sunday school teacher asked her little children, as they were (on their way) (to church service), "And why is it necessary to be quiet (in church)?" 
Identify a finite verb or verb phrase:
      A Sunday school teacher asked her little children, as they were (on their way) (to church service), "And why is it necessary to be quiet (in church)?" 
Next find the subject of that verb by asking "Who or what asked?" The answer is "teacher."
      A Sunday school teacherasked her little children, as they were (on their way) (to church service), "And why is it necessary to be quiet (in church)?" 
     Next find the complement of the verb by asking "The teacher asked whom or what?" This sentence presents two answers to that questiom. The first is "children." To determine the type of this complement:
1. Is it a predicate adjective? "Children" does not describe the subject ("teacher"), so it cannot be a predicate adjective.
2. Is it a predicate noun? "Children" and the subject ("teacher") do not refer to the same thing, they are not "equal," so the complement cannot be a predicate noun.
3. Is it an indirect object? The sentence means that the teacher asked a question  "to" the children, so "children" is an indirect object.
     If you have not studied clauses yet, I will expect the second complement to give you a problem. If we ask "The teacher asked the children what?", the answer is "And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?" That is a clause, and if you have not yet been studying them, you cannot be expected to know that. Although I would not expect you to label it, you should be able to determine how that clause functions-- what type of complement is it? To determine the type of this complement:
1. Is it a predicate adjective? "And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?" does not describe the subject ("teacher"), so it cannot be a predicate adjective.
2. Is it a predicate noun? "And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?" and the subject ("teacher") do not refer to the same thing, they are not "equal," so the complement cannot be a predicate noun.
3. Is it an indirect object? The sentence does not mean that the teacher asked the children  "to" of "for" "And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?", so "And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?" is not an indirect object.
4. Thus this complement has to be a direct object, the only option left.
      A Sunday school teacherasked her little children(IO), as they were (on their way) (to church service), "And why is it necessary to be quiet (in church)?"
     We need to check to see if there are any more finite verbs. "Were" is always a finite verb, so we need to underline it twice.
Am, are, is, was, and were are always finite verbs.
      A Sunday school teacherasked her little children (IO), as they were (on their way) (to church service), "And why is it necessary to be quiet (in church)?"
Next find the subject of "were" by asking "Who or what were?" The answer here is "they."
      A Sunday school teacherasked her little children (IO), as theywere (on their way) (to church service), "And why is it necessary to be quiet (in church)?"
Find the complement of "were" by asking "They were who or what?" In this sentence, "on their way" tells where they were, but not what they were. Thus nothing answers the quesiton -- there is no complement.
     With that pattern done, we need to check for another finite verb or verb phrase, and we find one in "is."
      A Sunday school teacherasked her little children (IO), as theywere (on their way) (to church service), "And why is it necessary to be quiet (in church)?"
     Find the subject of "is" by asking "Who or what is?" The word that answers that question in this sentence is "it." [Yes, a subject can come after the verb.]
      A Sunday school teacherasked her little children (IO), as theywere (on their way) (to church service), "And why isit necessary to be quiet (in church)?"
     Find the complement of "it is" by asking "It is whom or what?"  The answer to that question is "necessary." To determine the type of this complement:
1. Is it a predicate adjective? "Necessary" is an adjective, and it modifies the subject "it," so "necessary" is a predicate adjective.
      A Sunday school teacherasked her little children (IO), as theywere (on their way) (to church service), "And why isitnecessary (PA) to be quiet (in church)?"
Check to see if there are any more finite verbs. Because a finite verb cannot begin with "to," "to be" is not finite. Thus there are no more finite verbs, and we are finished with this sentence.

Sentence #2

The second sentence is:
      One bright little girl replied, "Because people are sleeping."
Identify all the prepositional phrases. There are none, so look for a finite verb or verb phrase.
      One bright little girl replied, "Because people are sleeping."
Find the subject of "replied" by asking "Who or what replied?" The answer, of course, is "girl."
      One bright little girlreplied, "Because people are sleeping."
Find the complement of "replied" by asking "The girl replied what?" 
     As in the first sentence, here too there is no single word that answers the question. Thus you are not expected to be able to identify the complement here.
     Check to see if there is another finite verb. "Are" is always finite, and here it forms part of the finite verb phrase "are sleeping."
      One bright little girlreplied, "Because people are sleeping."
Find the subject of "are sleeping by asking "Who or what are sleeping?" The amswer here is "people."
      One bright little girlreplied, "Because peopleare sleeping."
Check for the complement of "people are sleeping," by asking "People are sleeping whom or what?" Because that question does not make any sense here, there is no complement. And, since there are no other finite verbs in this sentence, we are finished with it.

 
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