subject and predicate

Question

4) Max wrote the letter. 5) The letter was written by Max. What is the subject in above sentence??

Philip · Accepted Answer

4) Max
5) letter
Welcome to the Forums! Normally, we ask students to offer their "guess" in questions like this. Try to do that next time.

Fivejedjon · Answer

There are two sentences.

'Max' is the subject in #4, (the) letter in #5.

Nits777 · Answer

Yes sir u r correct however why does the subject changes, I mean
using the Who or WHAT in 5 ) I can make a question Who wrote a letter ?
and the answer would be "Max" -- so that becomes the Subject
But if I make a question using What was written by Max, then the answers is "Letter" - which becomes the subject. So I am confused???

Philip · Answer

nits777 Yes sir u r correct however why does the subject changes, I mean using the Who or WHAT in 5 ) I can make a question Who wrote a letter ?and the answer would be "Max" -- so that becomes the SubjectBut if I make a question using What was written by Max, then the answers is "Letter" - which becomes the subject. So I am confused???

You are dealing with two types of verb forms: the active voice and the passive voice. In the active, the subject does the action; in the passive, the subject receives the action. Your confusion lies in accepting a one-word answer. If your complete answer to "what was written by Mark?", is "a letter was written by Mark" - then you have the passive voice in both the question and the answer.

Nits777 · Answer

Thanks Philip

AlpheccaStars · Answer

nits777 Yes sir u r correct however why does the subject changes, I mean using the Who or WHAT in 5 ) I can make a question Who wrote a letter ?and the answer would be "Max" -- so that becomes the SubjectBut if I make a question using What was written by Max, then the answers is "Letter" - which becomes the subject. So I am confused???

Please do not post here in texting style. "u" and "r" are not proper English words.

You are confused by the grammatical subject in a sentence and semantic "doer" and "receiver" of the action of the verb.
They are not the same.

English has a word order of "Subject-Object-Verb." This is the grammatical structure of the language.

So in active voice sentences, the "doer" is the grammatical subject. And in passive voice sentences, the "receiver" is the grammatical subject.

The letter was sent yesterday. (The Subject is letter. This is passive voice.)
My father sent the letter yesterday. (The subject is father. This is active voice.)

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