The first thing to do when interpreting English sentences for highly selective university entrance examinations is to ignore all modifiers and determine the subject (S) and verb (V) of the sentence. The more modifiers there are, the harder it becomes to see this structure.
Basic Rules
Steps for finding SV:
① Read from the beginning and use the first noun that appears as a tentative subject candidate.
② Check whether a prepositional phrase, relative clause, participial phrase, or appositive phrase follows that noun. If one does, “put it in parentheses as a modifier and skip over it.”
③ After putting it in parentheses, look for the next predicate verb (finite verb). This will be the V of the entire sentence.
④ Once you find V, the entire noun phrase before it is S.
Typical patterns with long subjects:
- Subject + prepositional phrase “The number of students who applied for the scholarship has doubled.”
- Subject + relative clause “Companies that fail to adapt to new technology often struggle to survive.”
- Gerund or to-infinitive as subject “Learning a foreign language at a young age offers several cognitive benefits.”
- That-clause as subject “That the experiment succeeded surprised even the researchers themselves.”
(The number of students who applied for the scholarship) has doubled since last year. (The number of students who applied for the scholarship has doubled since last year.) ← S=The number...scholarship / V=has doubled
(Companies that fail to adapt to new technology) often struggle to survive. (Companies that cannot adapt to new technology often have difficulty surviving.) ← S=Companies...technology / V=struggle
(That the experiment succeeded) surprised even the researchers themselves. (The fact that the experiment succeeded surprised even the researchers themselves.) ← S=That...succeeded / V=surprised
※ Everything inside ( ) is one noun phrase functioning as the subject
Points to Note
① Be careful with verbs inside the subject: who applied / that fail to adapt / that succeeded are verbs in relative clauses or subordinate clauses inside the subject, not the V of the entire sentence. Mistaking one of these for the V of the whole sentence is the most common serious error.
② Pay attention to agreement in expressions showing quantity: The number of ~ is singular (has, is), while A number of ~ is plural (have, are). This is important knowledge connected with finding SV.
③ In a sentence with a long subject, it is also useful to check whether there is a comma or an insertion immediately before V. When a verb follows a long subject, the writer may place a comma to make the sentence easier to read (even though it is technically unnecessary).
④ When you are not used to this, it is effective to practice by actually putting modifier phrases in parentheses with a pencil and visualizing them. Even during the actual examination, do not skip this step before translating an underlined section.
- Put modifiers in parentheses and skip over them to grasp the S-V structure first
- Do not mistake a verb in a subordinate clause inside the subject for the V of the entire sentence
- The number of is singular, while A number of is plural, so their verbs agree differently
- Gerunds, to-infinitives, and that-clauses can also be subjects
- With long subjects, visualize them by putting them in parentheses with a pencil
Practice
- Identify the S and V in the following sentence: The fact that so few people voted in the election concerns many political analysts.
- Extract the entire subject from the following sentence: Studying abroad for even a short period can change how students view their own culture.
- Explain the difference in verb agreement between The number of and A number of.