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My misfortune has had me fail once more.Why is misfortune the subject?

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

AnonymousWhy is misfortune the subject?

Identify all the nouns in that sentence.

A subject has to be a noun.

How many nouns do you have that can be the subject?

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

There are no nouns (I think). Normally, people would say 'I am misfortunate to have failed'

Bit confused here!

CalifJim · Answer

AnonymousNormally, people would say 'I am misfortunate to have failed'

First of all, it doesn't matter what people would normally say. That's not the sentence you were asked to analyze.

AnonymousThere are no nouns (I think).

There is one noun. misfortune. If you looked it up in a dictionary, you would have seen that. It's important for you to learn to use a dictionary when you have these kinds of questions.

It's the only noun in the sentence, so if the sentence has any subject at all, it has to be that noun.

CJ

Clive · Answer

Here's another way to think about it.

My misfortune has had me fail once more.

Why is misfortune the subject? Because the speaker mainly wants to tell you something about 'misfortune'.

Consider these examples.
Mary likes cheese.
Yesterday Mary cooked dinner.
Mary lives in India.
Mary loves Tom.
In all these examples, I am mainly telling you something about Mary. Mary is the subject of every sentence.

Clive

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