The label predicate refers to that part of the sentence which is not the subject. The predicate contains the verb. Study the following examples.

Subject Predicate
My sister Is a teacher.
Alice Put the meat in the fridge.
She Often performs at public events.

In a question, the predicate may be discontinuous, or it may precede the subject. In the following examples, the bracketed portion is the predicate.

(Who were) you (talking to?)
(Never have) I (seen such a mess.)

Predicate complement

A predicate complement is a phrase that immediately follows a copular verb. A copular verb is a verb like be, turn, taste, grow, seem and become.

Janet is a diplomat. (Here the predicate complement is the phrase ‘a diplomat’.)
She turned red with anger. (Here the predicate complement is ‘red with anger’.)

A predicate complement can be a noun phrase, an adjective phrase or a prepositional phrase.

Predicate nominal

A noun phrase which is used as a predicate complement. An example is ‘a diplomat’ in Janet is a diplomat.


A label applied to a linguistic unit which appears inside a predicate. For example, the adjective red is in predicative position in the sentence ‘My favorite color is red’.