SAT® · Reading and Writing: Form, Structure, and Sense — Verbs and Verbals
The Sentence With No Main Verb at All
A sentence needs one finite verb tied directly to its main subject. If every verb you see belongs to a describing clause instead, the main subject is left with no verb and the sentence is broken.
A long sentence can hold several verb-looking words and still have zero main verb. That happens because verbs inside relative clauses (the ones starting with which, who, that) or participial phrases (starting with -ing or -ed forms, or set off by commas) are busy doing a different job: describing the subject, not completing it. They're finite verbs, but they're finite for their own small clause, not for the sentence's main subject. The main subject is still waiting for its own verb, and if none ever shows up, the sentence collapses into a very long, very fancy noun phrase with no predicate.
To audit a sentence, find the main subject first, then physically cross out every chunk set off by commas, or introduced by which, who, that, or an -ing/-ed word acting like an adjective. Whatever verb is left standing, attached directly to that main subject, is the one that has to carry the sentence. If you cross out every descriptive chunk and find no verb left over, the sentence is missing its predicate and needs one inserted. This is also why answer choices that repeat a tense already used inside a subordinate clause are traps: that tense is already spoken for.
The flip side matters too: sometimes a sentence does have a solid main verb, but the subject sitting right next to it actually belongs to a nearby clause, not to that verb. Watch where a comma or relative pronoun starts and ends, because a verb can be real and finite and still be attached to the wrong noun if you misread the boundary.
Key terms
- finite verb
- A verb form marked for tense and a subject, able to stand as the main verb of a clause.
- main clause
- The clause that can stand alone as a full sentence, built around the main subject and its own finite verb.
- subordinate clause
- A clause, often starting with which, who, or that, that adds information but cannot stand alone as a sentence.
- predicate
- The verb and everything attached to it that completes what the subject is or does.
- participial phrase
- A descriptive phrase built from an -ing or -ed verb form, acting like an adjective rather than the main verb.
Watch it explained
- How it worksHow do you audit a long sentence for exactly one finite verb attached to the main subject?
- Common mistakeWhy doesn't a verb tucked inside a relative clause count as the main clause's predicate?
- Worked exampleWalk me through auditing 'The archive, which holds letters that scholars have studied for decades, in Boston'.
- Going furtherWhat happens when a sentence does own a main verb but its subject belongs to a different clause?
Check yourself
End of topic.