Video transcript
- [Voiceover] Hellogrammarians, hello Paige. - [Voiceover] Hi, David. - [Voiceover] So todaywe're gonna tackle this idea of what is a sentence, as we go into this realm of languagethat is called syntax. And syntax is this concept of,basically grammatical order. What this word syntaxliterally means in Greek, is, you know, puttingtogether and arranging, right, so it just means ordering of language. - [Voiceover] So that's,like, what a sentence is. - [Voiceover] That's what a sentence is, it's what a sentence is, it's what the components of a sentence are. And we'll go into all ofthat in much greater detail, but in order to do that, first of all we have to figure out whata sentence actually is. So, the definition that youand I came up with, Paige, is that a sentence is agrammatically complete idea. - [Voiceover] Right. It's a bunch of words thatsay one complete thing. - [Voiceover] So, all sentences have a noun or pronoun component,- [Voiceover] Mmm-hmm. - [Voiceover] Right, and that'swhat we call the subject. And then we have the verbpart, which is the predicate. - [Voiceover] So a sentence has, it has to have like, athing, or a noun or pronoun. - [Voiceover] Sure, that's the subject. - [Voiceover] Yeah, andsomething that it's doing. - [Voiceover] Sure, that's the predicate. - [Voiceover] Yeah.- [Voiceover] Okay. So let's say that we've got this sentence, the great big dog licked my face. Here is our sentence, what is the subject? - [Voiceover] Subjectis the great big dog. - [Voiceover] Alright, and that means that everything that's not the subject is part of the predicate, right? - [Voiceover] Mmm-hmm. - [Voiceover] So, lickedmy face is the predicate. So this is the noun chunk that is performing the action of the sentence. - [Voiceover] You got it, yeah. - [Voiceover] Cool. So, all sentences haveto have this, right? - [Voiceover] Yeah, they have to have a subject and a predicate,these two separate parts. - [Voiceover] So if you said,if you asked a question like, Are you named David? - [Voiceover] Okay, - [Voiceover] If you asked that of me, - [Voiceover] Mmm-hmm, - [Voiceover] Which, go ahead. - [Voiceover] Are you named David? - [Voiceover] I am. Is this a sentence, it's really short. - [Voiceover] It is very short. But, see, "I" is a pronoun,- [Voiceover] Okay, - [Voiceover] So that can be the subject. - [Voiceover] That's our subject. - [Voiceover] And, "am" is a verb. So it has a subject and a predicate. - [Voiceover] So this isthe noun or pronoun part. And this is the actionthat it is performing. Although "am" or "being"isn't really an action, it's more of a linking verb.- [Voiceover] Sure. - [Voiceover] But it's still a verb. - [Voiceover] Okay. - [Voiceover] Okay, so this is, this is the predicate then, for sure. - [Voiceover] Yeah. - [Voiceover] Okay, so Paige. Let's say I dropped a muffin. - [Voiceover] Right, - [Voiceover] And you toldme, pick up that muffin. - [Voiceover] Uh-huh. - [Voiceover] That sentencedoesn't seem to have, just let me write that down. That sentence doesn'tseem to have a subject. I see how all of this is predicate. - [Voiceover] Right, pickup is a verb, and then, - [Voiceover] And thenthe muffin is the thing that's being picked up,like that's all one thing. Where's, what goes in the blue box? - [Voiceover] I see, so whenwe have a sentence like this, where I'm telling you to do something, - [Voiceover] Mmm-hmm, - [Voiceover] Theredoesn't always have to be a subject said out loud. - [Voiceover] Okay. - [Voiceover] This islike an order, right? I'm telling you you haveto pick up that muffin. - [Voiceover] So this is kinda like an invisible, secret subject. - [Voiceover] Right, thesubject really is you. - [Voiceover] Okay, - [Voiceover] You pick up that muffin, but I don't have to say it out loud. - [Voiceover] Because I knowthat you're talking to me. Because I can tell 'causeyou're looking at me, and you're yelling at me about a muffin. - [Voiceover] Yes, I am. - [Voiceover] So, a sentence is a grammatically completeidea or expression. - [Voiceover] Mmm-hmm. - [Voiceover] And it has tohave a noun or pronoun part, which we call the subject,and it has to have a verb and all its baggage part, which is what we call the predicate. And sometimes that subjectcan sort of be implied, or invisible, as in thecommand. "Pick up that muffin!" - [Voiceover] Right.- [Voiceover] Cool. You can learn anything, David out. - [Voiceover] Paige out.
