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Linguistics & Grammar vocabulary · Clauses and Sentences

Predicate

Meaning in linguistics & grammar, with examples

/ˈpredɪkət/nounCommon term

In linguistics & grammar, predicate means: The part of a clause that says something about the subject; it contains the verb and everything that follows it, such as 'missed the bus' in 'Emre missed the bus'.

In Turkish: yüklem

How it is used

Used in traditional grammar, linguistics and logic. Be careful: in Turkish school grammar yüklem is usually just the verb or main element at the end of the sentence, while an English predicate also includes objects and adverbials.

Example sentences

  1. Divide each sentence into subject and predicate with a vertical line.

  2. In 'The new library opens next Monday', the predicate is 'opens next Monday'.

Common collocations

  • subject and predicate
  • predicate adjective
  • simple predicate
  • compound predicate
  • subjectThe part of a clause that usually names who or what does the action or is described, and that the verb agrees with, such as 'my sister' in 'My sister works here'.
  • objectA noun phrase or pronoun that receives the action of a verb or follows a preposition, such as 'the email' in 'She sent the email'.
  • verbA word that shows an action, event or state, such as run, become or know; in English it changes its form to show tense and agreement.
  • clauseA group of words that contains a subject and a verb and forms a sentence or part of a sentence, such as 'because it was raining'.

More terms: Clauses and Sentences

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