Subject

Disambiguation; school subject and field.

A subject (/ˈsʌbʤekt/) is major clausal element consisting of a phrase (typically a noun phrase) on which a predicate has dependency.

For example, the cat in The cat is purring.

Form

In English, subjects are typically noun phrases (including single-word nouns) or pronouns). Sentences typically consist of a subject followed by a predicate.

Subjects employ the nominative grammatical case. When personal pronouns are used they are typically subject pronouns. Use of object pronouns and reflexive pronouns as subjects occurs but is non-standard.

In the active voice, the subject acts as the agent of the sentence. In the passive voice, the subject acts as the patient.

In English, the subject may be an expressed subject that is included in the text, or an implied subject that is not.

In a longer discourse, as part of theme and rheme, the subject of the sentence forms the topic, with the predicate as the comment.