The subject of a sentence is the person, place, thing, or idea that is doing or being something. You can find the subject of a sentence if you can find the verb. Ask the question, “Who or what ‘verbs’ or ‘verbed’?” and the answer to that question is the subject.
E.g., The horse gallops across the field.
What is the verb? Gallop. Who gallops? The horse. Therefore The horse is the subject.
The subject is a noun, a pronoun or a noun phrase.
The subject in each of these sentences is in italics:
- The cat sat on the mat
- John likes Mary
- She is a vegan
- Yesterday a large green tree frog jumped into the river
- Three men, two women, four kids and a dog went hunting.
- My grandmother’s old house was very small.