Question

Underline the subject in the following sentence:
Ninety-five per cent of an individual’s life is determined by his birth and death.
a. Ninety-five per cent
b. Ninety-five per cent of an individual’s life
c. his birth and death
d. is determined by his birth and death

Answer 1

Hint: Read the given sentence and understand what it wants to convey. Point out whom/what the sentence is about and what it tells about it. Choose the option which consists of the topic on which the sentence talks about.

Complete answer: A subject of a sentence is what the sentence is about while the predicate is something being told about the subject. Usually, the predicate starts from the verb of the sentence. The first verb in the sentence is “is” since it is a helping verb. Thus, the subject of the sentence will be till the word before “is”.
(a) Ninety-five per cent- If we look at “ninety-five per cent” in the sentence, it can be understood that it is incomplete because the question arises ninety-five per cent of what? Another way is to see the predicate “is determined by his birth and death”. What is determined by his birth and death? If we answer “Ninety-five per cent”, it is an incomplete answer.
(b) Ninety-five per cent of an individual’s life- Applying the same reasoning as in the above sentence, answering the question, “What is determined by his birth and death?” with “Ninety-five per cent of an individual’s life” is a complete answer and makes sense. Thus, this is the subject of the sentence.
(c) his birth and death- This is a part of the predicate because the predicate talks about the subject. “his birth and death” gives us more information about the subject “Ninety-five per cent of an individual’s life”.
d) is determined by his birth and death- On asking the question “What is the sentence talking about?”, we can see that the answer is “Ninety-five per cent of an individual’s life”. We know that a predicate tells us more about the subject so the “is determined by his birth and death” is telling us more about the “Ninety-five per cent of an individual’s life”. So it is the predicate and not the subject.
The correct option is option (b).

Note: The predicate of the sentence contains the verb of the sentence. The subject does not contain the verb so never include the verb in the subject. Keep in mind to look for all verbs including helping verbs and not just simple verbs.