Meaning & use
grammatical subject
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Meaning
nouncountabletechnical
The noun or pronoun in a clause that the verb agrees with, usually coming before the verb in English.
Grammar: Countable: a sentence has one grammatical subject per clause.
Patterns
- the grammatical subject of something
In the sentence The dog chased the cat, the grammatical subject is the dog.
In a passive sentence, the grammatical subject receives the action.
The verb must agree with its grammatical subject in number.
Word forms
| plural | grammatical subjects |
|---|
Common combinations
- identify the grammatical subject
- Students must identify the grammatical subject in each clause.
- the grammatical subject of the sentence
- The grammatical subject of the sentence is plural.
- agree with the grammatical subject
- The verb must agree with the grammatical subject.
- a dummy grammatical subject
- It in It is raining is a dummy grammatical subject.
- compound grammatical subject
- Tom and Anna is a compound grammatical subject.
Synonyms and how they differ
- subject
- Subject is the shorter everyday form, but it can also mean a topic or school course, which grammatical subject avoids.
- agent
- Agent is the doer of an action, and it can differ from the grammatical subject, as in a passive sentence.
- topic
- Topic is what a sentence is about, while the grammatical subject is defined by verb agreement and position.
Opposites
Word family
- grammar noun
- the rules for forming words and sentences
- grammatical adjective
- following the rules of grammar
- grammatically adverb
- in a way that follows grammar rules
- subject noun
- in grammar, the word the verb agrees with
Commonly confused: grammatical subject or logical subject?
grammatical subject vs logical subject
The logical subject is the real doer of an action, which in a passive sentence differs from the grammatical subject.
Practice
In the sentence "The cake was eaten by the children", the grammatical subject is ____.
Choose one answer.
The cake comes before the verb and controls its agreement. The children perform the action but are not the grammatical subject.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “grammatical subject”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.