Subjects are typically noun phrases or pronouns. (see [Parts of Speach](figs-partsofspeech)) In the examples above, "the boy" is a noun phrase that has the noun "boy," and "he" is a pronoun.
When the sentence is a command, in many languages it does not have a subject pronoun. People understand that the subject is "you."
The predicate is the part of a sentence that tells something about the subject. It usually has a verb. (See: [Verbs](figs-verbs)) In the sentences below, the subjects are "the man" and "he." The predicates are underlined and the verbs are in bold.
The compound sentence below contains the two sentences above. In English, compound sentences are joined with a conjunction such as "and," "but," or "or."
Sentences can also have clauses and other phrases. Clauses are like sentences because they have a subject and a predicate, but they do not normally occur by themselves. Here are some examples of clauses. The subjects are in bold, and the predicates are underlined.
Sentences can have many clauses, and so they can become long and complex. But each sentence has to have at least one **independent clause**, that is, a clause that can be a sentence all by itself. The other clauses that cannot be sentences by themselves are called the **dependent clauses**. Dependent clauses depend on the independent clause to complete their meaning. The dependent clauses are underlined in the sentences below.
In some languages, clauses can be used with a noun that is part of a sentence. These are called **relative clauses**.
In the sentence below, "the corn that was ready" is part of the predicate of the whole sentence. The relative clause "that was ready" is used with the noun "corn" to tell which corn she picked.
In the sentence below "her mother, who was very annoyed" is part of the predicate of the whole sentence. The relative clause "who was very annoyed" is used with the noun "mother" to tell how her mother felt when she did not get any corn.
* Languages have different orders for the parts of a sentence. (See: //add Information Structure page//)
* Some languages do not have relative clauses, or they use them in a limited way. (see [Distinguishing versus Informing or Reminding](figs-distinguish))
See in Reader
