Subjects and Predicates.?

Question

Okay so... I was just wondering whether or not helper verbs (is am were do does did etc.) are included in either the complete subject or the complete predicate.

For example... "Can you guess Maritza's favorite fabulous creature?"

I found the answer... "Maritza's favorite fabulous creature" would be the complete subject...

and the complete predicate would be "Can you guess"

Am I right? Anyways back to the point...

Would "can" be included as the complete predicate if it is a helper verb?

Thank you!

Answer 1

In the sentence, "Can you guess Maritza's favorite fabulous creature?" the subject is you. One of the ways of asking a question in English is to place the subject between the helping verb and the main verb. To determine the subject and predicate, you must restate the sentence as a declarative, and think: You can guess Maritza's favorite fabulous creatures. The complete subject is "you"; the complete predicate is "can guess Maritza's fave fab creatures." The complete predicate contains not only the verb(helping and main) but also direct and indirect objects, prepositional phrases, etc., collectively known as "completers." I hope this helps and answers your initial question about helping verbs.

Answer 2

Your analysis of the sentence is right. The predicate of a sentence is the complete verb, including auxiliaries, and also whatever it takes to complete the verb, like an object or complement. A sentence is said to have faulty predication, even if it's technically grammatical, if the subject can't logically do the verb or the verb can't logically be done to the object.