WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.258 --> 00:00:03.166 According to traditional grammar, 2 00:00:03.166 --> 00:00:06.584 in the sentence "The old grey mare was put out to pasture", 3 00:00:06.584 --> 00:00:09.059 what would be considered the predicate? 4 00:00:09.059 --> 00:00:10.894 So the first thing we need to understand here 5 00:00:10.894 --> 00:00:14.211 are the two terms subject and predicate. 6 00:00:14.211 --> 00:00:16.517 Obviously every sentence has one of each. 7 00:00:16.517 --> 00:00:19.012 The subject being the main noun phrase of the sentence, 8 00:00:19.012 --> 00:00:20.444 and the predicate which we're looking at here, 9 00:00:20.444 --> 00:00:22.910 is the main verb phrase. 10 00:00:22.910 --> 00:00:25.791 And the important part of that definition is verb phrase, 11 00:00:25.791 --> 00:00:28.313 so it's not necessarily just the verb itself, 12 00:00:28.313 --> 00:00:29.596 the main verb in the sentence, 13 00:00:29.596 --> 00:00:31.190 but it can also have additional words 14 00:00:31.190 --> 00:00:33.571 glommed on to it, if all those words 15 00:00:33.571 --> 00:00:38.003 are helping to modify or define that verb in some way. 16 00:00:38.003 --> 00:00:41.043 So luckily our multiple choice answers here 17 00:00:41.043 --> 00:00:43.133 make it pretty easy to narrow it down, 18 00:00:43.133 --> 00:00:44.933 as long as we know that predicate means 19 00:00:44.933 --> 00:00:48.403 the main verb phrase, because A, "pasture", 20 00:00:48.403 --> 00:00:50.823 for one thing, it's a noun. 21 00:00:50.823 --> 00:00:54.973 And it's also part of the predicate here, 22 00:00:54.973 --> 00:00:56.686 the verb phrase that we're looking at. 23 00:00:56.686 --> 00:00:59.103 But as itself, just the word "pasture", 24 00:00:59.103 --> 00:01:01.523 it's not gonna work as it's not even a verb to start with. 25 00:01:01.523 --> 00:01:05.242 "Was put out to pasture", so the key thing to identify here 26 00:01:05.242 --> 00:01:07.753 is that the main verb in the sentence, 27 00:01:07.753 --> 00:01:10.936 the predicate, so the main word of the predicate is "was", 28 00:01:10.936 --> 00:01:13.491 that's the verb, that's the main verb of the sentence. 29 00:01:13.491 --> 00:01:15.363 And "put out to pasture" added on to it 30 00:01:15.363 --> 00:01:19.809 helps to modify, helps to define or clarify that verb. 31 00:01:19.809 --> 00:01:22.783 So that's looking like our best choice for the predicate. 32 00:01:22.783 --> 00:01:24.833 Looking at the other choices, we have "mare". 33 00:01:24.833 --> 00:01:26.852 Again, a noun word, so already we should be able 34 00:01:26.852 --> 00:01:29.103 to eliminate it as a potential predicate. 35 00:01:29.103 --> 00:01:33.413 And then "the old grey mare", which is the full noun phrase, 36 00:01:33.413 --> 00:01:35.263 that would be the subject of the sentence. 37 00:01:35.263 --> 00:01:37.522 So in this case we get "mare" is the main noun, 38 00:01:37.522 --> 00:01:40.182 but then we get some more additional information 39 00:01:40.182 --> 00:01:43.262 about that mare, with "the", the article, 40 00:01:43.262 --> 00:01:45.263 "old, and "grey", being two adjectives 41 00:01:45.263 --> 00:01:46.952 that help to define that noun. 42 00:01:46.952 --> 00:01:48.543 So because we're looking for predicate here, 43 00:01:48.543 --> 00:01:51.063 our correct answer here is going to be B.