DBM wrote:
Help! Please help me identifying the Subject and Verb of the following sentence
Long after the dust settles in Iowa — and New Hampshire, and even the 2016 campaign itself — one question will remain: Why, after decades of supporting the liberal and conservative establishments, did the white middle-class abandon them? (A extract from NYT).
How to master S V identification in complex sentences? I have completely studied the rules but still lack the confidence to put them to practice in long sentences. Can you please suggest me a resource where I can get practice and master identification of SV pairs in GMAT type questions?
Dear
DBM,
I'm happy to respond.
First of all, this sentence from the NYT is somewhat colloquial and catchy. It is not an academic sentence. The NYT used to have exceptionally high standards, but in these rough times for newspapers, apparently even the finest are pandering to low tastes in writing.
The sentence begins with a long
adverbial clause, a verb-modifying clause:
Long after the dust settles in Iowa—and New Hampshire, and even the 2016 campaign itself—The word "after" is a subordinate conjunction, which begins a subordinate clause. It's extremely important to recognize
subordinate conjunctions, because they help you distinguish the subordinate clauses from the independent clause.
The word "
long" is an adverb, modifying the clause beginning with "
after."
The word "
after" is a subordinate conjunction that begins a subordinate clause.
The words "
the dust" = subject of the subordinate clause
The word "
settles" = the verb of the subordinate clause
Then the word "in" begins a prepositional phrase that has one object, "Iowa," and then additional objects in parallel between the dashes. The prepositional phrase is also an adverbial phrase, a verb-modifying phrase: it tells us metaphorically "where" the dust settles.
That entire first part of the sentence is a long subordinate clause that is a verb-modifier for the main verb. It answers the question "when?" which is an adverbial question.
Then, we get to the relatively short independent clause, the heart of the sentence:
"
one question will remain"
Main Subject = "
one question"
Main Verb = "
will remain" (future tense)
Then, there's a colon. One use of the colon is to identify an element mentioned in the first half of the sentence. We mentioned "
one question." The part after the colon identifies this question. This question is a complete sentence on its own.
"
Why, after decades of supporting the liberal and conservative establishments, did the white middle-class abandon them?"
The word "
why" is an interrogative adverb, that is, a "question-starting" word
The part set apart in commas are just two prepositional phrases. The words "
after" and "
of" are prepositions, and each begins a prepositional phrase. Notice: like many other words, the word "
after" can be either a preposition or a subordinate conjunction, depending on context. The first preposition phrase is in the simple form of
[preposition] + [noun] = "
after decades"
The second prepositional phrase is trickier, because the object is not a simple noun: the object is a
gerund phrase. The gerund "
supporting" has a long direct object, "
the liberal and conservative establishments."
This pair of prepositional phrases form another adverbial phrase, a verb-modifying phrase, that answers the question "when?"
After the commas, we get to the heart of the question:
did the white middle-class abandon themThe main subject of the question "
the white middle-class"
The main verb of the question: "
did . . . abandon"---auxiliary verb at the beginning of the clause, as is typical in a question.
Direct object: "
them" (Pronoun whose antecedent = "
the liberal and conservative establishments")
My friend, it is not enough to study just nouns and verb. You need to be able to recognize different types of clauses, as well as gerunds,
infinitives, and
participles. Perhaps most difficult is that virtually any structure can be
nested inside another structure.
I would say that many students find that when they purchase
Magoosh and watch all the SC video lessons, they have a much better idea of how sentences fit together. That's what I would recommend. Here's a sample lesson:
Substantive ClausesDoes all this make sense?
Mike
close
19 Dec 2011, 20:42
