When we talk about the subject in a sentence or phrase, it refers to the person, animal, or thing that is performing a verb or action. Or also to whom something is said as an adjective.
A subject must meet certain conditions to be a subject, a nominal group or phrase or a tonic pronoun that can be personal, demonstrative, indefinite, possessive or numeral, among others. The number of the person must agree with the verb (that is, if it is singular or plural).
A short and clear example:
María dances, in this case María is the subject because she is the one who performs the action (verb) of dancing.
The bed is green. In this case the subject is the bed, which we are saying is green.
There are certain tactics to be able to recognize the subject, ask yourself who or who perform a certain action after listening or reading a sentence, the answer to these questions will be the subject. (It doesn’t always work, we’ll see why later, but it’s a good guide)
The Pérez family eats a lot. Ask yourself the question according to this sentence: who eats a lot?, the answer is La familia Pérez, therefore the subject is La Familia Pérez.
It must be taken into account that in the Spanish language it is not necessary to express the subject because it is understood who is being talked about, but the fact of not enunciating it does not mean that it does not exist. This type of phrase or sentence is said to have an omitted or elided subject, that is, it is implicit in the sentence. You can also ask yourself the question.
He fell backwards. Who fell backwards? The answer is he, so even if it is not in the sentence the subject is he.
They practiced sports. Who practiced sports? The answer is they, so even if it is not explicit in the sentence, they is the subject.
What do you need to recognize the subject?
Interest in the grammar of the Spanish language.
Instructions to recognize the subject
Identifying the subject with the question method is the traditional way that we were always taught, but it doesn’t always work. For example, I like pizza. People mistakenly say that the subject is I like it, or me. We will explain how to identify these types of phrases. For that we will use this method.
- Find the verb in the sentence.
- Locate the subject.
- Now we will change the number of the verb, that is, if it is in the plural we will put it singular and vice versa, without changing the persons, that is, I, you, he, we, you, they. Only the verb, so the sentence does not make sense.
- Mauricio bought some socks. Change the number of the verb, that is, pass it from the singular to the plural, you would have the sentence as follows: “Mauricio bought some socks”, you will see that this sentence does not make sense. If you change it to they bought some socks it would look good, therefore Mauricio is the subject because he is the one that agrees with the verb in number.
- In other words, ask yourself which words did you have to change to make the sentence correct after changing the verb? You had to trade Mauricio for them. Therefore Mauricio is the subject.
- You can do the same exercise with an omitted subject. They ate pasta yesterday. If you identify the verb and change its number, it would be ate pasta yesterday. The only possible subject would be him. Therefore they are the subject.
The previous example “Mauricio bought some socks” would have also worked for you with the question method, but now let’s take this sentence: I like pizza.
- If you ask who, I would give you a not very logical sentence: who likes pizza? And surely you would change it for who likes pizza? And you would think the answer is me. What could lead you to the confusion of thinking that “to me” is the subject or me. Remember that the subject has some characteristics to be named like this and therefore, “to me” is not a nominal group and “me” if it is a pronoun but it is not tonic, it is unstressed. Do the exercise of changing the verb.
I like pizzas, is the phrase that will not make sense.
I like pizzas this phrase makes sense when pluralized. - As you can see, the group of words that changes with the verb to make sense is the pizza or the pizzas. So the subject is pizza, this word meets the conditions of the subject, it is a noun and it is a nominal group.
Tips to recognize the subject
- Remember that the subject can be anywhere in the sentence, not just at the beginning.
- When you see that by changing the verb and the subject the sentence is not pretty, do it for something that sounds better to you.
- According to what we have just seen, asking the questions who or who is a trick that does not always work, unless you are very clear about the functions of the verb.