Subject

The subject is the part of a sentence or clause that tells you who or what the sentence is about. It typically comes before the verb and controls the verb's form — meaning the verb must agree with the subject in number and person.

How to identify the subject

The subject is usually a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase that performs the action or is described by the predicate.

• She works at a hospital.
• The old bridge collapsed during the storm.
• Running every morning keeps me healthy.

The verb agrees with the subject: She works (singular) vs. They work (plural). This subject-verb agreement is one of the most reliable ways to find the subject.

Self-check trick: Ask "Who or what + verb?" to locate the subject. "Who works at a hospital?" → She. That's your subject.

Types of subjects

• Simple subject — the core noun or pronoun alone: Dogs bark.
• Complete subject — the simple subject plus all its modifiers: The two large dogs next door bark every night.
• Compound subject — two or more subjects joined by a conjunction: Coffee and tea are available.

Tricky cases

Sometimes the grammatical subject isn't the "doer." In passive sentences, the subject receives the action:

• ❌ Thinking the subject must be the doer: "The window" broke itself?
• ✅ The window was broken by a ball. (The window is the subject, but the ball did the breaking.)

English also uses dummy subjects — words like it or there that fill the subject position without carrying real meaning:

• It is difficult to learn French.
• There are three problems with this plan.

In the first example, the "real" subject (the thing that is difficult) is to learn French, but grammatically it holds the subject slot. These are sometimes called expletive subjects.

Why it matters

Getting the subject right is essential for subject-verb agreement, choosing correct pronoun forms (he vs. him), and building clear sentences. Misidentifying the subject is one of the most common sources of grammar errors, especially with longer or inverted sentences.

Practice identifying subjects and building correct sentences with challenges like Basics. Common Questions. and Basics. Pronouns and Possessives..

Questions

Like many other Western European languages, English historically allowed questions to be formed by inverting the positions of verb and subject. Modern English permits this only in the case of a small class of verbs ("special verbs"), consisting of auxiliaries as well as forms of the copula be. To form a question from a sentence which does not have such an auxiliary or copula present, the auxiliary verb do (does, did) needs to be inserted, along with inversion of the word order, to form a question. For example:

• She can dance. → Can she dance? (inversion of subject she and auxiliary can)
• I am sitting here. → Am I sitting here? (inversion of subject I and copula am)
• The milk goes in the fridge. → Does the milk go in the fridge? (no special verb present; do-support required)

The above concerns yes-no questions, but inversion also takes place in the same way after other questions, formed with interrogative words such as where, what, how, etc. An exception applies when the interrogative word is the subject or part of the subject, in which case there is no inversion. For example:

• I go. → Where do I go? (wh-question formed using inversion, with do-support required in this case)
• He goes. → Who goes? (no inversion, because the question word who is the subject)

Note that inversion does not apply in indirect questions: I wonder where he is (not *... where is he). Indirect yes-no questions can be expressed using if or whether as the interrogative word: *Ask them whether/if they saw him*.

Negative questions are formed similarly; however if the verb undergoing inversion has a contraction with not, then it is possible to invert the subject with this contraction as a whole. For example:

• John is going. (affirmative)
• John is not going. / John isn't going. (negative, with and without contraction)
• Isn't John going? / Is John not going? (negative question, with and without contraction respectively)

Tag questions are formed with a special verb and pronoun subject: isn't it?; were there?; am I not?

A1 | Elementary | Beginners

CEFR A1 is the first level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), a widely used standard for measuring language ability. If you're just starting to learn English — or rebuilding from scratch — this is where you begin.

What can an A1 learner do?

At A1, you can handle the most basic, everyday communication. Specifically, you're expected to:

• Understand and use familiar everyday expressions — greetings, simple questions, common signs and instructions.
• Introduce yourself and others — say where you live, talk about people you know, describe things you have.
• Ask and answer simple personal questions — "What's your name?", "Where are you from?", "Do you have a car?"
• Have short conversations — as long as the other person speaks slowly and clearly and is willing to help.

What grammar does A1 cover?

A1 focuses on the building blocks of English grammar. You'll work with:

• Basic verb forms — the present tense of be, have, and do, plus simple regular and irregular verbs
• Simple sentence structure — subject + verb + object word order
• Common determiners and pronouns — a, the, this, my, he, she, it
• Basic prepositions — in, on, at, to, from
• Simple questions — yes/no questions and wh- questions (what, where, who)
• Everyday vocabulary and collocations — phrases that naturally go together, like make breakfast or do homework

How do you know if you're A1?

If you can read a short text like a menu or a bus sign, fill out a simple form with your personal details, and ask someone basic questions in English — you're operating at A1. If most of that still feels challenging, you're in exactly the right place.

Self-check: Try introducing yourself in five sentences — your name, where you're from, what you do, something you like, and one question for the other person. If you can do that (even with mistakes), you're solidly at A1.

What's next?

Once you're comfortable with A1 basics, you'll move toward A2, where sentences get longer, tenses expand, and you start handling more real-world situations.

To start practising, try these challenges: Are you A1/Beginner? Test your English CEFR Level!, "To be" in Present Tense, and Basics. Word Order..

Difficulty: Easy

Easy difficulty. Difficulty levels represent author's opinion about how hard a question or challenge is.