Predicate in grammar

You may need to see Predict - predicate, where there are notes on how to pronounce the word. This page is on the use of the noun predicate, a technical term in grammar.

Traditional grammar began its analysis of the sentence with a binary division into Subject and predicate. "This division ... has more to do with the statement as a logical category than with the structural facts of grammar" (Quirk, 1985). Modern grammarians pay little attention to the concept of the predicate. Nevertheless, you will often find it referred to in writings about grammar. AWE does not use the term much - although you may want to see the related term predicative, which is used of adjectives.

The binary division above was into two principal constituents of the basic sentence, or clause. The Subject defines what the sentence is 'about'; it lays down the topic, or field, about which the sentence gives information. Everything else in the sentence is the predicate. The predicate must contain a verb; beyond that, it may contain none, one or more complements and none, one or more adverbials.