Identifying a sentence's subject

Identifying a sentence's subject can sometimes be challenging. For example, in the sentence "During winter, snow falls," someone could believe that the subject is winter. However, while "winter" creates a context for interpreting the rest of the sentence, it is not the sentence's subject. The subject is "snow."

One way to identify a sentence's subject is by seeking it verbs. One definition of a verb defines verbs as "words that tell us what a subject does or is. The Macmillan Dictionary for Children defines a verb as "a word that describes an action, condition, or experience."

Fortunately, the sample sentence "During winter, snow falls" contains only one verb, "falls." The next task is to find what is falling: snow. That's the subject.

Sometimes, it's necessary to refer to some additional words besides the verb to locate the subject. In the sentence, "Sue is short," the task is to find who "is short," while in the sentence "Sally has the hiccups," the task is to identify who has the hiccups.