What is Subject?

O subject composes the so-called essential term of prayer. It receives this classification because of its importance for the utterance, although, even if contradictory, there may be clauses without a subject. When they appear in prayer, they are called determined, when they are hidden, they are classified as indeterminate.

O subject it can be formed by one or two cores. In the first case, it is classified as simple subject; in the second, how compound. the core of subject (most important part) can be represented by a noun pronoun (name substitute), substantive (word that names the beings) or noun word (although not substantive, in the context in question it is classified as such). Follow the examples:

  1. O boy arrived late. (Core: noun)

  2. He ate all the noodles. (Nucleus: noun pronoun)

  3. O sing of birds is a gift from God. (Core: noun word)

  4. THE faith and the confidence they must be unshakable. (Core: noun + noun)

In the verb agreement syntax, the subject it needs to be in harmony with the verb, so, in example 4, the verb “should” is in the 3rd person plural, since the subject is formed by two nuclei, classified as

compound subject.

Sometimes, the subject is eliminated because it is easily recognized by the verbal ending, and is therefore classified as deinential. Some grammars still classify it as hidden, as it does not appear explicitly in the sentence, however, understand it as a desinencial it makes learning easier, since it is enough to analyze the verb and it will “tell” who the subject is. See some examples:

  1. We left in a hurry.

  2. I ate a lot of polenta yesterday.

The verbal ending, that is, the morpheme (smallest unit with meaning) that indicates the number and the person, demonstrates that subject 1 is “we”, while subject 2 is “I”. This becomes logical if another pronoun or even noun is used; at the time, it makes no sense, therefore, the only possibility is the one that the verb defines, that is, 1st person plural and 1st person singular, respectively.

When the subject does not appear in the sentence, or because it cannot be determined, or because you do not want to determine it, it is classified as indeterminate, being thus classified in two situations:

I. When there is no express subject and the verb is in the 3rd person plural.

They bought jabuticaba.

II. When the intransitive, indirect transitive or linking verb appears next to the particle "if" - in this case, classified as subject indeterminacy index. The verb does not suffer inflection, remaining in the 3rd person singular.

Some sentences will not have a subject and are therefore classified as subjectless prayers. In order to receive this classification, prayers must have the following characteristics:

  1. Verb indicating phenomenon of nature:

It thundered all night.

  1. Verb to have used in the sense of existing:

There were demonstrations throughout Brazil.

  1. Verb do, be and be indicating elapsed time or phenomenon of nature:

It's been 11 years since I got married.

Is cold.

It's early.


By Mayra Pavan
Graduated in Letters

Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/o-que-e/portugues/o-que-e-sujeito.htm

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