[Grammar] What is the subject and predicate in the sentence "the thief was caught"?

[Sahil Dhankhar]

The thief was caught.

Kindly tell me what is "the thief" in the given subject?
As I know that the subject of the sentence is who does the verb and if we stick to this ideology then "the police" is the subject (hidden/inherent subject) of this sentence.

 

[Sahil Dhankhar]

Re: What is the subject and predicate in the sentence "the thief was caught"?

Sir, do you mean that "the thief" in the given sentence is subject of the sentence?

If I write the same sentence as :-
The thief was caught.
The thief was caught by the police.

What are the subject and object in the above two sentences?

Please tell me the simplest and most effective definition of subject and object.

 

[jutfrank]

Re: What is the subject and predicate in the sentence "the thief was caught"?

The thief was caught by the police.

The thief is the subject of the verb was. Subjects and verbs are words in a sentence. (There is no object in this sentence.)

The police is the 'performer' (the agent) of the action represented by the sentence. The thief is the 'receiver' (the patient) of the action.

You must understand the difference between subjects and objects and verbs, which are words that make up sentences, and agents and patients and actions which are real things in the world.

To repeat: verbs have subjects and actions have agents. Usually, performers/agents are grammatical subjects and receivers/patients are grammatical objects, but not always—as is the case in passive sentences. Here's one more example (subjects are shown in blue):

The boy kicked the ball.

The boy is the performer and the ball is the receiver of the action.

The ball was kicked by the boy.

The grammar is different but the facts are the same—the boy is still the performer and the ball is still the receiver.

 

[Sahil Dhankhar]

Re: What is the subject and predicate in the sentence "the thief was caught"?

As you said, "verbs have subjects", what will be the subject of the verb caught ? (I hope that question mark in the previous sentence is correct. )

 

[GoesStation]

Re: What is the subject and predicate in the sentence "the thief was caught"?

As you said, "verbs have subjects", what will be the subject of the verb caught ? (I hope that question mark in the previous sentence is correct. )

The question mark is correct, but the space before it isn't. We never put a space before a question mark or a closing parenthesis ("bracket" in BrE).

 

[emsr2d2]

Re: What is the subject and predicate in the sentence "the thief was caught"?

[STRIKE]Sir,[/STRIKE] Do you mean that ...

Please don't address users here as "Sir". Not only is it overly formal but it also suggests that you assume the person responding is male. That is not always the case.

 

[Sahil Dhankhar]

Re: What is the subject and predicate in the sentence "the thief was caught"?

Is "by the police" an adverbial prepositional phrase?

 

[jutfrank]

Re: What is the subject and predicate in the sentence "the thief was caught"?

Is "by the police" an adverbial prepositional phrase?

It's a preposition phrase, yes, which could be called a 'by-agent'. I don't know if most scholars would want to describe it as adverbial.

 

[Sahil Dhankhar]

Re: What is the subject and predicate in the sentence "the thief was caught"?

Is the concept of by-agent applicable in passive voice ONLY?

 

[jutfrank]

Re: What is the subject and predicate in the sentence "the thief was caught"?

Is the concept of by-agent applicable in passive voice ONLY?

I think so, yes.