Predicate Nominative– Nouns and Worksheets

Our predicate nominative worksheets have example sentences. Use a diagram to show where the English parts of speech fit in longer sentences. See the worksheets at the bottom of this page.

Let’s Explain Predicate Complements First

To study the predicate nominative it is good to know that there are three predicate complements:

1. Predicate noun, 
2. Predicate pronoun, 
3. And the predicate adjective. 

If you consider that both nouns and pronouns are in the nominative case, there are only two predicate complements the nominative and the adjective. The one names and the other describes. It is simply a matter of naming the function of the words and what the words do in a sentence.

The predicate nominative is the English case for a noun (name word) or pronoun (replaces a name word) that completes the meaning of a verb. From this we see that the predicate noun and the predicate pronoun are in the nominative case since they are nouns that name or rename the subject (which is the nominative).

Nominative means naming, as with a presidential nomination or an award nomination. Frequently, grammar terms mean the same as they mean in other fields so this makes them easier to remember.

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Predicates: Verbs of Being or State

Hint: Many predicates use the verbs “is” or “are”. In this case you can replace the word with the equal sign “=“ to understand this concept.

Those of us in higher levels will also rejoice to recognize definitions in this formula!

• What is a square? 
• A square is a right quadrilateral with equal sides.

Do you see that the verb "is" can be replaced with an equal sign in this definition?

Verbs of state need a completion: either a restatement or definition of the subject or an adjective or description of the subject. These are actually verb complements not subject complements.

The predicate is not complete, "A square is..."

The completion is the predicate noun or predicate adjective. It is easy to remember the spelling if  you remember that the base word is "complete", so the word uses an "e" instead of an "i". 

Predicate verbs that require a complement are verbs of state with these examples:

List of Predicate Verbs of State or Being

Predicate Nominative Case

Nominative Case – The nominative case is the sense that shows a noun or pronoun is the subject or predicate complement of a verb and is found by its position or use in the sentence. There are three cases: nominative case, objective case, possessive case.

Nouns - A noun is a name for a person or thing: girl, Maria, highway. A noun is used as a subject (nominative case) or an object in sentence construction.

The Subject sits on the first place on a diagram and the predicate nominative sits behind the simple predicate, the verb. See our diagram worksheets and charts here.

Objective Case – The objective case is the sense that shows that a noun or pronoun is an object of some other word; object of a preposition, direct object, indirect object and is found by its position or use in the sentence. There are three cases: nominative case, objective case, possessive case.

Possessive Case – The possessive case is the sense that shows that a noun or pronoun has the quality of ownership, or possession, and can be an adjective case which means that it frequently changes a noun to an adjective. This is her best work. The pronoun "her" describes the quality of ownership related to the word "work". A possessive noun is usually formed with an apostrophe + s (‘s).

What Is A Predicate Nominative?

1. A predicate noun is a noun (name word) that completes the meaning of a verb and is therefore in the predicate nominative case.
2. A predicate pronoun is a pronoun (replaces a name word) that completes the meaning of the predicate verb and is therefore in the predicate nominative case.

What Is A Predicate Adjective?

1. A predicate adjective is a predicate word or phrase that states a quality of the subject.

Predicate Nominative Worksheets

Each of these PDFs have three pages with examples of predicate nominative sentences.

See our many noun, pronoun and sentence worksheets:

1. Noun Worksheets
2. Pronoun Worksheets
3. Adjective Worksheets
4. Object Complements