Cambridge Grammar of English Hardback with cd-rom a comprehensive Guide

subject predicate

We  |  baked some potatoes in the fire.

The subject can be seen as representing a topic (who/what the clause is about – in

this case we) and the predicate can be seen as representing a comment (what is

said about the topic – that we baked some potatoes in the fire). The topic and

comment together constitute a proposition. Clauses combined together as

sentences express various types of relation between propositions.

The clause centres around a verb phrase (in the example above, baked), since it

is the verb phrase which largely determines what else must or may occur in the

clause. A clause most typically consists of a subject (which is a noun phrase), a

verb, and other elements which may or may not be necessary, such as an object

(which is a noun phrase), a predicative complement (most typically an adjective

or noun phrase), or an adjunct (which is typically an adverb phrase or a

prepositional phrase):