Examples


Example 1

The powerful wizard turned my little brother into a parakeet.

If your little brother is anything like our little brother, then he probably had it coming, and you owe that wizard a gift basket or something. Here, wizard and all of the adjectives that describe him (the and powerful) form the complete subject.

Example 2

Cleaning the gutters is a terrible way to spend a Saturday night.

Sometimes the complete subject of a sentence is a group of words used as a noun, as is the case in this example. Here, the gerund phrase "cleaning out the gutters"is the subject. A gerund is an -ing verb when it's used as a noun. Talk about productive.

Example 3

Emile hates split pea soup.

Who doesn't? It looks like boogers and its name sounds like a bodily function. In this sentence, our hero—Emile—is the complete subject because there aren't any additional words that describe him.