What Are the Object and Subject of a Sentence?

Think back to some of the most recognizable lines from Hollywood films. Often, brevity increases impact. The line “Nobody puts Baby in a corner” (Patrick Swayze making hearts flutter in the 1987 romance Dirty Dancing) is a clear example of basic sentence structure, with a subject (“Nobody”), a verb (“puts”), and an object (“Baby”). Subjects and objects are two essential parts of sentences, but sometimes, they can be tricky to identify.

Every complete sentence must have a subject. The subject is the person, place, or thing performing the action, and it is almost always a noun or a pronoun. Even when the order of the words doesn’t fall into a straightforward pattern with the subject at the beginning, it’s there. For instance, “Here’s Johnny!” (from the 1980 adaptation of The Shining) is a complete sentence because it includes a subject (“Johnny”) and a verb (the contraction of “is”); “here” is an adverb. Occasionally, the subject can be a different part of speech, such as a gerund (a verb acting as a noun that ends in “-ing”) or an infinitive (“to” + a verb). For example: “Swimming is an excellent cardio exercise” uses “swimming” as the subject.

Of course, not all sentence constructions are as simple as a noun plus a verb. That’s where the object adds clarification or depth to a sentence. The object is a noun or pronoun affected by the verb’s action. For example, in Apollo 13‘s “Houston, we have a problem,” the subject is “we,” the object is “problem,” and “Houston” is a vocative (a direct address). “Problem” is the thing being acted upon by the verb.

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Subjects can also be implied. Consider an example from 1977’s Star Wars: A New Hope: “Use the Force.” The subject is an implied “you,” making “the Force” the object of the verb “use.” Implied subjects can be challenging to identify but are common nonetheless. When in doubt about whether a noun is functioning as a subject or an object, consider how it interacts with the verb. If it performs the action, it’s the subject, but if it receives the action, it’s the object.