5 Sentence elements 1 Each phrase plays a part in the clause or sentence. Here are some examples.
Subject
The flight
Subject
The weather
My father
Subject
I
Two stewards
The aircraft
We
Verb
is leaving
Verb
is
was
Verb
was reading
served
left
must book
Adverbial
shortly.
Complement
very good.
a pilot.
Object
a newspaper.
lunch.
London
the tickets
Adverbial
at three o'clock.
next week.
2 These are the elements of an English sentence and the kinds of phrase that we can use for each element.
Subject - the person, place, or thing that does what the verb describes (noun phrase): the flight, I, two stewards
Verb - type of word or phrase that shows an action or a state (verb phrase): is, served, must book
Object - a noun, pronoun, or phrase that is affected in a direct way by the action of a verb (noun phrase): a newspaper, lunch
Complement - a word or phrase after a verb that tells you about the subject (adjective phrase): very good
(noun phrase): a pilot
Adverbial - a word or group of words used as an adverb (adverb phrase): shortly
(prepositional phrase): at three o'clock
(noun phrase): next week
NOTE
The verb is central to the sentence and we use the word “verb” for both the sentence element – “The verb follows the subject” - and for the word class – “Leave is a verb.”