The Parts of a Sentence—Subject and Predicate
A sentence has at least two parts—a subject and a predicate.
The subject is that part which designates what the assertion is about.
The predicate is that part which makes the assertion.
Many students earn their way through college.
It is obvious that Many students designates what the assertion is about, and is therefore the subject. Earn their way through college makes the assertion about Many students, and is, therefore, the predicate.
Although the sentence may contain other elements, although the subject or the predicate or both may be long and complicated, and although the elements making up the subject and the predicate may be variously arranged, nevertheless every normal declarative sentence contains these two parts, and can be divided into these two parts.
Subjects
The fundamental word or element in the subject is a noun, a pronoun, a gerund, an infinitive, or a clause.