I'm horribly confused - question for proper teachers

[boothling]

I'm supposed to teach a class tomorrow. My first ever. Unfortunately, I've never studied grammar and I've suddenly found myself in hell.

I'm having trouble with the following:

1) Baseball is the national sport of the United States.
2) The national sport of the United States is baseball.

In (1), baseball is the subject, right? But in (2), is baseball still the subject? Or is the subject now the national sport of the United States?

What's the object? Is there an object? If so, is it direct or indirect? Why?

Luckily I'm not supposed to be explaining any of this tomorrow, but I do need to get it clear in my head. Obviously.

Help!

[mykwyner]

1. Baseball is the subject.

2. Sport is the subject.

There is no direct object because there is no transitive action verb like give or put.

[boothling]

Thankyou.

So am I right in thinking that in (1), national sport of the United States is a predicative nominative? How does the adjective fit in?

And what is the United States in example (2), if it's not part of the subject?

They really ought to have covered this stuff in school.

[Ouisch]

In (1), "national" is an adjective. It describes "sport." If the sentence said simply "Baseball is a sport in the United States," then "sport" would be a predicative nominative. But since it says "the national sport", I would call it a predicate adjective.

In (2), "the United States" is the object of the preposition "of."



Speaking of baseball, congrats to my hometown Detroit Tigers for making it to the World Series!

[MikeNewYork]

Originally Posted by Ouisch

In (1), "national" is an adjective. It describes "sport." If the sentence said simply "Baseball is a sport in the United States," then "sport" would be a predicative nominative. But since it says "the national sport", I would call it a predicate adjective.

In (2), "the United States" is the object of the preposition "of."



Speaking of baseball, congrats to my hometown Detroit Tigers for making it to the World Series!

I have to disagree with part of that. The phrase "the national sport" is a noun, not an adjective, even though "national" is an "adjective".

Congratulations to the Tigers, but I hope the Mets will be coming.

[MikeNewYork]

Originally Posted by boothling

I'm supposed to teach a class tomorrow. My first ever. Unfortunately, I've never studied grammar and I've suddenly found myself in hell.

I'm having trouble with the following:

1) Baseball is the national sport of the United States.
2) The national sport of the United States is baseball.

In (1), baseball is the subject, right? But in (2), is baseball still the subject? Or is the subject now the national sport of the United States?

What's the object? Is there an object? If so, is it direct or indirect? Why?

Luckily I'm not supposed to be explaining any of this tomorrow, but I do need to get it clear in my head. Obviously.

Help!

1.
Baseball - noun, subject
is - linking verb
sport - noun, predicate nominative (modified by the article "the" and the adjective "national")
of the United States - adjectival prepositional phrase modifying "sport".

2.

sport - noun subject (modified by "the" and "national")
of the United States - (see above)
is linking verb
baseball - noun, predicate nominative

[boothling]

Thanks to all, and especially MikeNewYork - that breakdown is very clear.

[MikeNewYork]

Originally Posted by boothling

Thanks to all, and especially MikeNewYork - that breakdown is very clear.

You're very welcome.

How did the class go?