Subject & Object

Look at this sentence:

• Kylielost her keys.

There are three main parts to this sentence:

1.     The main verb is “lost”.

2.     “Kylie” is the subject of the verb, that is, the ‘doer’ of the action.

3.     “Her keys” is the object of the verb, that is, the thing to which the action of the verb is done.

In a longer sentence the subject and object may not be as conspicuous but you can always find them by looking for the ‘doer’ of the action and the ‘recipient’ of the action. For example:

My friend Mike, who always amazes me with his extravagant purchases, bought a $500 golden pen yesterday.

The ‘doer’ of the action is Mike (the subject), the action itself is ‘bought’ (the main verb) and the ‘recipient’, i.e. the thing to which the action is done is ‘pen’ (the object).

The object can be either a thing or a person, e.g. in the sentence ‘She married Bill’, ‘Bill’ is the object.