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 Finding Subjects, Finite Verbs, and Complements
Practice Exercise # 2

Directions: 
1. First place parentheses ( ) around every prepositional phrase.
2. Underline every subject once, every finite verb twice, and label complements (PA,PN, IO or DO). [Reminder: A predicate adjective describes the subject; a predicate noun "equals" the subject; an indirect object is someone or thing "to" or "for" whom (or what) the action of the verb is performed. Any other complement has to be a direct object.]
 

The text is:
       One student's prayer: "Now I lay me down to rest, And hope to pass tomorrow's test. If I should die before I wake, that's one less test I have to take."
 
Note: In creating these pages, I cannot create a double underline. I will therefore underline both subjects and finite verbs once, but subjects will be in green; finite verbs in blue.

Sentence #1

Work your way through the text one sentence at a time. The first sentence is:
      One student's prayer: "Now I lay me down to rest, And hope to pass tomorrow's test.
There are no prepositional phrases. [Review this.] So we look for a finite verb or verb phrase, which we find in "lay."
      One student's prayer: "Now I lay me down to rest, And hope to pass tomorrow's test.
To find the subject, we ask "Who or what lay?" The answer is "I."
      One student's prayer: "Now Ilay me down to rest, And hope to pass tomorrow's test.
To find the complement of "lay," we ask "I lay whomor what?" The answer here is "me." To determine the type of the complement:
1. Is it a predicate adjective? No, because "me" does not describe the subject "I."
2. Is it a predicate noun? It is true that "I" and "me" are the same thing ("equal"), but the verb "lay" does not, in any way, imply equality, so it is not a predicate noun.
3. Is it an indirect object? No, the sentence does not mean "I lay 'to' or 'for' me."
4. The only possibility left is direct object.
      One student's prayer: "Now Ilay me (DO) down to rest, And hope to pass tomorrow's test.
We need to check for another finite verb. Although "rest" can be a verb, a finite verb cannot begin with "to," so we ignore "to rest." "Hope," however, functions here as a finite verb.
      One student's prayer: "Now Ilayme (DO) down to rest, And hope to pass tomorrow's test.
To find the subject of "hope," we ask "Who or what hopes?" The answer, in this sentence, is "I," so "hope" and "lay" (which are joined as equal finite verbs by the "and") share the subject and are parts of the same pattern.
     To find the complement of "hope," we need to ask "I hope what?" The answer to that question, in this sentence, is "to pass" or "to pass tomorrow's test." If you are sharp, you will soon recognize the former as an infinite, the latter as an infinitive phrase, even though you are not required to learn infinitives. [This means that if you get it wrong, it will not count against you.] To determine the type of the complement:
1. Is it a predicate adjective? No, because "to pass" does not describe the subject "I."
2. Is it a predicate noun? No, because "to pass" and the subject "I" are not the same thing.
3. Is it an indirect object? No, the sentence does not mean "I hope 'to' or 'for' to pass."
4. The only possibility left is direct object.
[FYI: Note that infinitives can have complements just as finite verbs do. "Test" is the direct object of the infinitive "to pass."]
      One student's prayer: "Now Ilayme (DO) down to rest, And hopeto pass (DO of "hope") tomorrow's test.
There are no more finite verbs in this sentence, so we are finished with it.

Sentence #2

The second sentence is:
If I should die before I wake, that's one less test I have to take."
There are no prepositional phrases. [Review this.] So we look for a finite verb or verb phrase, which we find in "should die."
If I should die before I wake, that's one less test I have to take."
To find the subject of "should die," we ask "Who or what should die?" In this sentence, the answer to that question is "I," so "I" is the subject.
If Ishould die before I wake, that's one less test I have to take."
To find the complement of "should die," we ask "I should die what or whom?" In this sentence, however, nothing answers that question, so there is no complement in this pattern. [Note that it is still an S/V/C pattern -- it just has a zero complement.]
     We need to check for another finite verb, which we find in "wake."
If Ishould die before I wake, that's one less test I have to take."
To find the subject of "wake," we ask "Who or what wakes?" In this sentence, the answer is the "I" that immediately precedes "wake."
If Ishould die before Iwake, that's one less test I have to take."
To find the complement of "wake," we ask "I wake whom or what?" Nothing in this sentence answers that question, so again there is no complement in the pattern.
     We need to check for another finite verb. Note that "that's" means "that is," so the "'s" counts as a finite verb.
If Ishould die before Iwake, that's one less test I have to take."
To find the subject of "is," we ask "Who or what is?" In this sentence, the answer, and thus the subject, is "that."
If Ishould die before Iwake, that's one less test I have to take."
To find the complement of "is," we ask "That is who or what?" The answer, and thus the complement, is "test." To determine the type of the complement:
1. Is it a predicate adjective? No, because "test" does not describe the subject "that."
2. Is it a predicate noun? Yes, because the pattern means "that equals one less test."
If Ishould die before Iwake, that's one less test (PN) I have to take."
Once again we need to check for another finite verb or verb phrase. "Have" fits the bill. People (including grammarians) differ as to whether the finite verb phrase here is "have" or "have to take." Some consider "have" as the finite verb and "to take" as an infinitive functioning as the direct object of "have." To keep it simple, I'll consider the whole thing as the finite verb phrase, but I will accept either answer.
If Ishould die before Iwake, that's one less test (PN) I have to take."
To find the subject of "have to take," we ask "Who or what has to take?" In this sentence, the answer, and thus the subject, is the preceding "I."
If Ishould die before Iwake, that's one less test (PN)Ihave to take."
To find the complement of "have to take," we ask "I have to take what or whom?"  Here we run into a bit of a problem. Some students might want to take the preceding "test" as the answer to that question, but the language will not allow that. The preceding "test" is a predicate noun in the "that is test" pattern, and the language will not allow words or phrases to be complements in two different patterns simultaneously.
     Some people like to imagine that there is a "that " before the "I" ("test that I have to take"), and then they consider the "that" as the complement of "have to take." You can do that if you wish, but it is easier simply to say that there is no complement.
     Since there are no more finite verbs in this sentence, we are finished with it.

 
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