Seeking Out the Subject/Verb PairTh

Seeking Out the Subject/Verb Pair
The subject/verb pair is the heart and soul of the sentence. To check your creation,
zero in on the verb. At least one word must express action or a state of being. Next look
for a word that expresses who or what is doing that action or is in that state of being;
that’s the subject. Now for one more, essential step: Check to see that the subject and
verb match. They must go together and make sense (“Mike has been singing,” “Lindsay
suffered,” and so forth). For practice on properly matching subjects and verbs, flip to
Chapter 2.
Some words that look like verbs don’t function as verbs. So you may wrongly identify a
verb. Checking for a match between a subject and a verb eliminates these false verbs
from consideration, because the pairs sound incomplete with false verbs. A couple of
mismatches illustrate my point: “Lindsay watching,” “Mike’s message having been
scrambled.”
You try some. In the blank, write the subject (S)/verb (V) pair. If you find no true pair,
write “incomplete.” (By the way, Duke, who appears several times in the following
sentences, is my grand-dog.)
Q. Mike, with a cholesterol count climbing higher and higher, gave in and fried some
sausages. ______________________________
A. Mike (S)/gave (V), fried (V). Did I catch you with climbing? In the preceding sentence,
climbing isn’t a verb. One clue: cholesterol count climbing sounds incomplete. Just for
comparison, cholesterol count is climbing makes a match. See the difference?
1. Duke, sighing repeatedly and frustrated by her inability to score more than ten points at
the dog show. ______________________________
2. Dogcatcher Charlie fed a chopped steak to Truffle, his favorite entry in the Dog of the
Century contest. ______________________________
3. Duke, my favorite entry, snarfed a bowl of liver treats and woofed for about an hour
afterward. ______________________________
4. Entered in the Toy breed category, Duke is sure to win the Most Likely to Fall Asleep
Standing Up contest. ______________________________
5. Having been tired out by a heavy schedule of eating, chewing, and pooping.
______________________________
6. Duke sleeps profoundly. ______________________________
7. Once, having eaten through the kibble bag and increased the size of her stomach by at
least 50 percent. ______________________________
8. One of the other dogs, biting the vet gently just to make a point about needles and her
preference not to have them. ______________________________
9. The vet is not upset by Duke’s reaction. ______________________________
10. Who would be surprised by a runoff between Truffle and Duke?
______________________________