Page 24 - Just Enough English Grammar Illustrated Book

In this example, the noun pool is the thing about which
something is said. The verb opens tells what is happening
to the subject.

Ben swims and The pool opens are two examples illustrating
the smallest type of sentence: a subject and a verb. Both
sentences make a statement with the subject followed by the
verb.

Finding and recognizing the subject in a sentence is an essential
skill to develop. More details about sentence structure follow as
we explain more about the different uses of nouns.

Here is another important rule to remember:

A sentence must have both a subject and a verb,
and it must express a complete thought.

1.9 Simple and Compound Subjects

A sentence may have two or more nouns used as subjects and
two or more verbs.

Complete Sentence

Example: Ben swims.

Simple Subject Verb

In the sentence Ben swims, Ben performs the action. Ben is a
singular noun. When just one noun is used as the subject, we
call the subject a simple subject. The noun can be either singular
or plural.

When a sentence has two or more nouns
used as subjects that are joined by “and,”
it has a compound subject.

Example: Hamburgers and hot dogs are popular.

Compound Subject
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