Terms Related to Sentences in General
Sentence
A sentence is a group of words expressing a complete thought. A complete simple
sentence must include both a subject and a
predicate (which is comprised of or includes a verb ). For example:
"Jesus wept." (John 11:35) 'Jesus', a name of a person, is a noun and is the
subject of this short sentence. (He is obviously the one about which something
is being said or asserted.) 'Wept' is the verb and, by itself, comprises the
predicate of the sentence. Another example: "Those who worship Him must worship
in spirit and truth" (John 4:24b) The subject (about which something is being
said) is 'those who worship Him'. The predicate, comprising both the verb 'must
worship' and its related words, is 'must worship in spirit and truth.'
Subject
The subject of a sentence is a word or a group of words about which something
can be said or asserted. It must be a noun or a group of words functioning as a
. substantive.
Substantive A substantive is a noun or pronoun , or any word functioning like a noun.. This could include such items like an adjective, participle, or infinitive used as the subject or a direct object of the sentence. A substantive may be one word or a group of words.
Adjective
An adjective is a word that modifies or describes a noun or a pronoun (or any type of substantive).
Participle
A participle is considered a "verbal adjective". It is often a word that ends with an "-ing" in English (such as "speaking," "having," or "seeing"). It can be used as an adjective, in that it can modify a noun (or substitute as a noun), or it can be used as an adverb and further explain or define the action of a verb.
Infinitive
The Greek infinitive is the form of the verb that is
usually translated into English with the word "to" attached to it, often used to
complement another verb. It can be used to function as a noun and is therefore
referred to as a "verbal noun".
For instance, "For to me to live is Christ" (Phil 1:21). In this
sentence, the words "to live" are an infinitive in Greek and are functioning as
the subject of the sentence (a noun).
Pronouns are words that take the place of a noun in order to avoid awkward repetitions. For example: "he", "she", "myself", "yours". Greek pronouns are used very much like English pronouns. There are many different kinds of pronouns that will be defined later. Greek pronouns are declined just like the corresponding noun that they replace.
Predicate
The predicate of a sentence is the part of the sentence that makes the assertion
about the subject. The main part of the predicate is a finite verb (which must
be present). The predicate can be a verb alone, or a verb and other words
related to it. Any part of the sentence which is not a part of the subject is
part of the predicate. The verb in a sentence may include an "unexpressed"
subject. In this kind of sentence, a subject is not explicitly stated but is
implied by the verb. For example: "Repent and be baptized for the kingdom of the
heavens has drawn near." The subject of the compound verb "repent" and "be
baptized" is obviously the ones to whom this sentenced is addressed. It implies,
"You repent and be baptized".
Noun
A noun is a word that denotes a person, place,
thing, or idea. A noun is also referred to as a
substantive. Besides all the common nouns, such as "man", "son", "truth",
"word", etc., there are also proper nouns, which are names of particular people
(e.g. Jesus Christ, Paul), of particular places (e.g. Ephesus, Rome), or of
particular things (e.g. Passover, Jews). Proper nouns are usually capitalized.
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