Subject and Predicate

all his books

Step 1: This is a sentence where the subject comes at the end — called an inverted sentence. Step 2: Ask: what is this sentence about? It is about 'all his books'. Step 3: 'On the table' tells us where the books were — it is extra information, not the subject. Step 4: 'lay on the table' is the predicate (what the books did). Step 5: The complete subject is 'all his books' — we should not cut it short to just 'his books' because 'all' is part of the subject too.

Who

Step 1: This is a question sentence. Step 2: Ask: what or who is the sentence about? It asks about 'Who' — the person who brought the flowers. Step 3: 'Who' is doing the action of bringing, so 'Who' is the subject. Step 4: 'brought these beautiful flowers' is the predicate — it tells what was done. Step 5: The subject is not 'you (understood)' — that rule applies only to command sentences, not question sentences.

Subject: My ambition | Predicate: is to become a heart surgeon

Step 1: The subject is the complete noun phrase — 'My ambition'. 'My' describes 'ambition', so both words are part of the subject. Step 2: Cutting the subject to just 'ambition' is wrong because 'My' is an important part of the subject. Step 3: The predicate is everything that says something about 'My ambition' — which is 'is to become a heart surgeon'. Step 4: The verb 'is' must be part of the predicate, not the subject. Step 5: So the correct split is: Subject = 'My ambition', Predicate = 'is to become a heart surgeon'.

is chess

Step 1: First, find the subject — what is this sentence about? It is about 'These children's favourite indoor game'. Step 2: The subject is the entire phrase 'These children's favourite indoor game'. Step 3: The predicate is what is said about the subject. Here, it says 'is chess'. Step 4: The predicate always includes the verb — 'is' is the verb here, and 'chess' tells us what it is. Step 5: So the predicate is 'is chess'. 'chess' alone is not the predicate because it does not include the verb.