Question

What is the simple subject in these sentences? I have a quick question. This is really confusing me.

1. At age thirteen, Marshall Taylor won his first amateur bicycle race.

They have Marshall Taylor as the complete subject. So would the simple subject be the same thing to. Or is their one in this sentence.

1. During those years, international and American championship titles were awarded to Taylor.

They marked the complete subject as. International and American championship titles. So would the simple subject be title. If someone could please help and explain how to find it. I would really appreciate it. Thank You.

Answer 1

In the first sentence, "Marshall Taylor" is the simple subject. In the second sentence, "titles" is the simple subject.

Explanation:

First, sentence `1`. Whenever you are finding the simple subject, you can cross out any prepositional phrases to make it easier. The sentence is "At age thirteen, Marshall Taylor won his first amateur bicycle race." Prepositional phrases are modifying phrases that modifies a verb or a noun. They begin with a preposition and end with an object of a preposition. For more about prepositional phrases try using www.grammarly.com/blog/prepositional-phrase/.

Now, let's locate the prepositional phrases in this sentence. "At age thirteen" is the only prepositional phrase in this sentence. To make it easier, we can remove the prepositional phrase from the sentence. Now the sentence is "Marshall Taylor won his first amateur bicycle race."

Simple subjects are the person, place, thing, or idea that the sentence is about. In this sentence, Marshall Taylor is the subject. If you were looking for the complete subject, you would begin at the start of the sentence and end at the last word before the verb. If you want more information on this, go to www.chompchomp.com/terms/subjects.htm

The second sentence you would do the same thing. Our sentence is "During those years, international and American championship titles were awarded to Taylor." Let's start by taking out the prepositional phrases. So we removed "During those years" and "to Taylor". Now our sentence is "International and American championship titles were awarded." "International" and "American" are both adverbs modifying an adjective, "championship", so they can't be the simple subject. "were" is the verb, and the subject has to be before the verb. So the simple subject in this sentence, "titles" would be the simple subject,

If this was confusing or if you have another question about the links or anything in my answer, let me know.

Answer 2

In sentence 1, Marshall Taylor is the simple subject and the complete subject.
In sentence 2, titles is the simple subject. The complete subject is "international and American championship titles", a compound subject joined by the conjunction "and".

Explanation:

The prepositional phrases that begin both sentences can be confusing. The sentences don't change if those phrases are moved to the end of the sentence.
-- Marshall Taylor won his first amateur bicycle race at age thirteen.
-- International and American championship titles were awarded to Taylor during those years.

In sentence 1, the subject and verb are "Marshall Taylor won".
In sentence 2, the subject and verb are "titles were awarded".
-- international and American championship" are adjectives describing the subject noun "titles".