Demo, Basic constituents, Exercise 1

Click on the subject. While doing so, try to form a hypothesis about the usual position of the subject in English sentences.
Subject

The subject is one of the central constituents of English sentences: together with the verb, it represents the minimum of a declarative sentence. Subjects are usually realised as noun phrases and are only optional in imperative and non-finite structures. They often (but by no means always) express an agent.

  1. Florian has found out that English is not always as easy as it seems.

  2. That keeps bothering him.

  3. The language contains a number of hidden traps.

  4. Its relatively fixed word order is something Florian can't seem to get the hang of.

  5. The many exceptions to SVO and the intricate rules of information structure are like a linguistic maze to him.

  6. Florian's favourite uncle, who holds a doctorate in English linguistics, has recommended trying out a new online course called Flaw and Order.