 Write it right in English, topic, sentence, subjects, basic sentence structure. One of the biggest problems students have in writing, English, is basic sentence structure. This video deals with some common mistakes students make when constructing sentences. The heart of an English sentence is the subject-verb relationship. The other sentence elements are built around this. In English, all sentences need a subject and verb. Without them, the sentence will die. In this video, we'll focus on just one side of the heart, the subject. Other videos will talk about the verb. Why are subjects so important? Well, let's see what happens when there is no subject in the sentence. What if I say, not here, Shanghai? Huh? What does that mean? How about, not here, in Shanghai? What? Not here. Go to Shanghai. Who? Not here. Went to Shanghai. That is unclear. In some languages, that's okay, but in English, it is confusing. In English, sentences need subjects. Who or what are you talking about? In English, you need to identify the subject. For example, Mr. Chun went to Shanghai. Now we know who you're talking about. Subjects can take many forms, depending on whether you're talking about yourself or your own ideas, that's called first person, to another person, that's second person, about another person, that's third person, or about a thing, process, idea, etc. We'll start with the third one. Identifying subjects. Let's go back to the previous example. Mr. Chun is not here. Went to Shanghai. Something's missing. It's not 100% clear. Who went to Shanghai? Mr. Chun is not here. He went to Shanghai. What we have done is we've identified the subject, Mr. Chun, and then we refer to the same person by using this subject in the next sentence, he. So with subjects we first identify by name, Mr. Chun, then later in other sentences we can refer to them with a pronoun subject, in this case, he. When you're talking about someone or something or some things, this is called the third person. Now it can be singular, for example, she, he, or it, or it can be plural, they. You can name the person or object, Mr. Chun, the boy, or the boy's plural, or it can be an object or an idea or something else, a plane, a plan, the plans. What about other subjects? It's easy to talk about other people or things, but what if we want to put ourselves into the conversation? Another subject is I. This is the first person. Let's go back to the previous example. Mr. Chun is not here. Went to Shanghai. It's not clear here who went to Shanghai. Well, we could say Mr. Chun is not here. I went to Shanghai to see him. So we're changing the subject. In this case, I'm telling about my experience. I could also say Mr. Chun is not here. I think he is still in Shanghai. In this case, I'm giving my opinion. When I talk about my own experience or my ideas, I use the first person, I. Now what if I combine myself with someone else? Then we use the pronoun we. Now we can have some different meanings. For example, it can mean you and I or it can mean they and I, a lot of other people and I. Or it can mean just one other person in I, she and I or he and I. Let me explain a little bit more about that. Let's go back to the first example. Mr. Chun is not here. We went to Shanghai to see him. In this case, I'm telling about our experience. That means another person and I went to Shanghai. But we're not including you, the listener, in that situation. Let's look at the second example. Mr. Chun is not here. We should go to Shanghai to visit him. In this case, I am including you, the listener. This is what we call we inclusive. It's kind of like saying, let's go to Shanghai. You join me or us. What about using you as a subject? For example, Mr. Chun is not here. You can see him in Shanghai. Or Mr. Chun is not here. Go to Shanghai. You can see him there. When we're talking to someone, we use the second person. Now in English, you can refer to one other person or many other people that you're talking to. Now when you're using you as the subject, you don't always have to repeat. You, you, you. Sometimes you can just say something like this. Go to Shanghai. That's what we call the imperative sentence. The subject, you, is not spoken. But it is understood to be you. You go to Shanghai or go to Shanghai. I'm talking to you, even though I don't say you. What about other types of subjects? What if we want to talk about an activity? We change the verb into its ing form. For example, going to Shanghai is a lot of fun. The subject here is going. It's an activity or an action. Sometimes we might say, to go to Shanghai is my dream. That's not as common. It's more common to put a noun at the beginning. For example, my dream is to go to Shanghai. What about dummy subjects? A dummy subject holds the place of the subject, but it is not the real topic of the sentence. It's like a crash test dummy that holds the position of a person but is not a real person. Dummies are sometimes used to test cars in accidents so we don't have to use real people. Let's look at some examples of dummy subjects. For example, it is raining in Shanghai. The subject is it. Is raining is the verb. The word it is simply a grammatical subject. It doesn't really mean anything. It just functions as a subject. It holds the place of a subject. The real topic is rain or raining, but it can't be both the subject and the verb so we use the dummy subject it at the beginning of the sentence. Here's another example. It is nice to live in Shanghai. It holds the place of the subject. The topic is nice, but that's an adjective and an adjective can't be the subject of the sentence so we need to use the subject it, followed by is or a word like is. What's the difference between a dummy subject and a regular subject when we use the word it? Let's look at some examples. Number one, it is important for us to stop in Shanghai. This is using a dummy subject. It doesn't really refer to anything. Sentence number two, Shanghai is a great place. It is my favorite city. In this case, it refers back to Shanghai. So this is a regular subject because it refers back to an object or another subject. Are there other dummy subjects? Yes, there are. I just used one. For example, there are a lot of people in Shanghai. There is some great food in Shanghai. The meaning of this sentence is, great food exists in Shanghai. The topic, of course, is food, but since it comes later in the sentence, we use another subject, a dummy subject, at the beginning of the sentence. The dummy subject is there is, usually followed by something like there is or seems or another verb of, a form of the verb be. Here's a review of sentence subjects. Wish sentences require a subject and a verb. Subjects can take many forms. First person telling our own experiences or ideas. Second person talking directly to the listener. Third person talking about someone or something or some things. Forms or activities, mostly verb plus ing forms are used in the subjects, in these cases. And last, dummy subjects. The most common types are it and there, followed by is or are or some other form of be. I hope that was helpful. If you liked the video, please give us a thumbs up in the comments section below. And don't forget to subscribe to our channel. To see more videos like this, click on the link above. Or check out our websites for more free English learning resources, eslgold.com and freeenglishstudy.com.