The part of a clause that the verb agrees with — usually who or what performs the action.
In precise terms
A grammatical relation, identified in a given language by properties such as verb agreement, case marking, position, and behaviour under coordination. It is not defined by meaning: subjects need not be agents.
An example
Der Brief wurde gestern geschrieben.
The letter was written yesterday.
What is going on here
'Der Brief' is the subject — it is nominative and the verb agrees with it — but it performs no action; it is what the writing was done to. This is why 'subject' has to be defined grammatically rather than as 'the doer'.
Why this matters when you are learning a language
Verb agreement, case selection and word order all key off the subject. Misidentifying it produces errors that ripple through the whole clause.
Across languages
Many languages routinely omit the subject when it is recoverable — Spanish, Italian, Japanese and Turkish all do. Some languages organise their grammar around a different pivot altogether: in ergative alignment, the subject of an intransitive clause patterns with the object of a transitive one.
Related terms
- ObjectBeginner — The part of a clause that the action is done to.
- VerbBeginner — A word for an action, event or state — what is happening.
- AgreementIntermediate — When one word changes form to match another — a verb matching its subject, an adjective matching its noun.
- ErgativityAdvanced — A case system where the doer of a transitive action gets a special marking that intransitive subjects do not.
- Morphosyntactic alignmentAdvanced — How a language groups the subject of an intransitive verb with either the subject or the object of a transitive one.
- CopulaBeginner — An overt grammatical element that supports some clauses with a nonverbal predicate.
Where to go next
- Language guides — See grammatical and lexical categories used in context.
- Terminology quiz — Test the terms on this page.