ShmoopTube

Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.

Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos


4th Grade Videos 155 videos

ELA 4: How Words Can Help
1205 Views

Sticks and stones, right? Well...only sometimes. It's a good idea to make sure your words aren't going to hurt others. Let's look at some ways to d...

ELA 4: Debating Like a Champ
744 Views

Learn to debate like a champ. It's way better than debating like a chimp. That just takes mudslinging to a whole new level.

ELA 4: Types of Biographies
277 Views

Today we'll learn about biographies and autobiographies. And no, the second one has nothing to do with the lives of cars. 

See All

ELA 4: Complete Sentences 775 Views


Share It!


Description:

In this lesson we'll subject you to some verbs and predicates. Each one is a necessary part of a complete breakfas—er...sentence.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:04

[Dino and Coop singing]

00:13

Vest. Called. In. Alligator. A. An. Is. An. Investigator.

00:20

Words without structure just sort of float about without meaning. The only way to have [Words floating]

00:24

them make any sense is to arrange them into sentences.

00:27

“An alligator in a vest is called an investigator.” [Alligator crawls out of a pond]

00:30

Sentences don't have to be as goofy as that

00:33

one though. They can be serious, too. They can be short, or they can be long. Complex,

00:43

or simple.

00:44

But two things that a sentence always needs: a subject and a verb. [Coop discussing sentence requirements]

00:48

In other words, you need a thing, the subject, to do something, the verb.

00:53

“She sleeps.” That's a complete sentence. Why? [Girl sleeping on a sofa]

00:58

Because there's the subject, the thing – in this case, “she” - and the verb or something

01:02

it does – in this case, sleeps.

01:05

The subject, she, sleeps, the verb. Easy, peasy. The English language is not always quite so simple, however.

01:11

Which is probably for the best, because speaking in two-word sentences all the time

01:15

would make communication take forever. [Door opens and boy appears]

01:18

The very simple sentence “Diane dances.” works, because Diane is the subject and dances

01:23

is the verb, but we could make it a whole lot longer and more descriptive too: “Our friend Diane dances

01:28

in a giant banana suit every morning.” [Diane dancing in a banana suit]

01:30

Here, Diane is still the simple subject, but there's also what we call a complete subject,

01:38

and that is “our friend Diane.”

01:40

it just adds another layer of description to our simple subject...And as the case for going outside in Chicago in January...layers are important! [Man walking in the snow]

01:47

As for the verb, well it's still “dances,” and we can also call this the simple predicate.

01:53

The predicate is part of the sentence that tells us something about

01:57

the subject.

01:58

So while the word “dances” is the simple predicate because it tells us that Diane dances, [Diane dancing in banana costume]

02:03

the complete predicate is actually “dances in a giant banana suit every morning” because

02:08

that tells us even more.

02:10

A complete sentence has to always have a subject – the thing that the sentence is about – and

02:15

a predicate – the part of the sentence that tells us about the subject. [Coop discussing the predicate]

02:19

This probably makes a whole lot of sense to you – because hey, forming sentences is something

02:22

we do every day – right after we finish our morning bananas.

Related Videos

ELA 4: How Words Can Help
1205 Views

Sticks and stones, right? Well...only sometimes. It's a good idea to make sure your words aren't going to hurt others. Let's look at some ways to d...

ELA 4: Debating Like a Champ
744 Views

Learn to debate like a champ. It's way better than debating like a chimp. That just takes mudslinging to a whole new level.

ELA 4: Types of Biographies
277 Views

Today we'll learn about biographies and autobiographies. And no, the second one has nothing to do with the lives of cars. 

ELA 4: Word Choice
222 Views

Choosing words carefully is important. You may end up vexing the assemblage of citizens you're conversing with...or you might even just plain bore...

ELA Drills, Beginner: Point of View 2
110 Views

ELA Drills, Beginner: Point of View 2. Identify what sort of narration is being used and which character's thoughts or feelings are being revealed.