What is a Predicate?

What is a predicate? Well, a predicate, along with a subject of a sentence, makes the sentence whole.

The subject of a sentence tells who is going to do the action of the sentence and the predicate tells what that action is going to be. Take a look at this first sentence. The friends hike frequently. The subject of this sentence is friends. So what is the verb of this sentence? Well, since the subject tells us who is going to do the action and the predicate tells us what that action is going to be then it only makes sense here that the verb is going to be what the friends will be doing. Well, the friends here will be hiking so hike is the verb so put two lines under it to show that it’s the verb. So here friends is the subject so friends is going to be the people doing the action in this sentence and the predicate tell us what that action is going to be.

This next sentence says that the friends have been hiking. Here again, friends is the subject so what is the verb here? Well, you look at hiking right here. You know that’s a verb with have and been are also verbs as well. Have and been are what we call helping verbs cause they’re helping hiking right here. So friends says – the subject here says that friends is going to be doing the action and the predicate tells what that action is going to be. Alright, this third sentence says that the friends hike and camp. Friends again is the subject. So friends is going to be the people doing the action in this sentence. Well, what’s the predicate here? Well, you know hike is a verb but camp is also a verb. So here you have two verbs because the friends are going to be doing more than one thing.

So remember when looking at a predicate just remember that a predicate is what completes the sentence. The subject tells who or what is going to be doing the action and the predicate tells what that action is.