Gretchen, Can your students find the subject in a simple sentence? Can they find two subjects in a sentence with two clauses? It seems that the way to differentiate a conjoined set of two sentences from a sentence with a compound verb or compound predicate would be to look to see how many subjects there are. Also, you could have them test to see if they can rewrite the sentence, repeating the subject (for sentences with compound verbs). I have a trick for finding subjects in simple sentences (one-clause sentences). It works best with short sentences, and they have to be declaratives. I think I got this from Noguchi's book. Have the students construct a tag: The children bought candy at the store. The children bought candy at the store, didn't they? (tag) The pronoun in the tag ('they') refers to the subject of the base sentence. I have my students rephrase the base sentence, using the pronoun in the tag: They bought candy at the store. Whatever string of words 'they' replaces is the complete subject: The children. This is a tad complicated, but once they get the hang of it, it works well for my students. I'd be interested to know if this will work with younger students. Best, Johanna ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Johanna Rubba Assistant Professor, Linguistics English Department, California Polytechnic State University One Grand Avenue • San Luis Obispo, CA 93407 Tel. (805)-756-2184 • Fax: (805)-756-6374 • Dept. Phone. 756-259 • E-mail: [log in to unmask] • Home page: http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/