My Grammar and I (Or Should That Be 'Me'?): Old-School Ways to Sharpen Your English

Subject
Verb
Object
Simple
Simon
met
a
pieman
Mary
had
a little
lamb
Little Bo
Peep
has
lost
her
sheep
Another useful piece of terminology here is the predicate . This is the verb and
the object (or indirect object, or anything else that isn’t the subject) considered
together. So, in the above examples, met a pieman, had a little lamb and has lost
her sheep are all predicates. So are sat on a wall, jumped over the moon, sat on a
tuffet and went up the hill to fetch a pail of water . Who would have thought that
nursery rhymes could prove so useful?
‘Proper words in proper places make the true definition of a style.’
J
ONATHAN SWIFT
, Letter to a Young Clergyman
*
‘I have the words already. What I am seeking is the perfect order of words
in the sentence. You can see for yourself how many different ways they
might be arranged.’