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  1. Her best season as a hitter was 1998.
  2. Even the less difficult of the two problems was too hard for Mark.
  3. Even the slowest of those workers finished ahead of the people in my group.

I think the subject of the first one might be 1998 but I'm not sure, but can a year be the subject? It's a thing so why not?

As for the second and the third one, I'm thinking this might be a case of nominal adjective, but again I'm not sure. I'm thinking the subjects might be " the less difficult " and " the slowest ", because maybe they're adjectives functioning as nouns here. I just want someone to either confirm this or correct me if I'm wrong.

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  • You're quite right. It's quite reasonable to say "the less difficult" and "the slowest" are the actual subjects, because all other text associated with those expressions (and coming before the verb) could in principle be discarded. Just as we can discard the adjective mad in The mad dog bit him - where regardless whether it's included or not, most people would say "the subject" there is [The] dog, not The mad dog.
    – FumbleFingers
    Jan 26, 2021 at 17:44
  • Although 1998 is not the subject of sentence 1, it's certainly for a year to be a subject. "1998 was a great year!" is a sentence with 1998 as its subject.
    – Canadian Yankee
    Jan 26, 2021 at 18:11

1 Answer 1

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  1. “Her best season as a hitter” is the subject
  2. “ the less difficult of the two problems” is the subject
  3. “ the slowest of those workers” is the subject

Reason : In grammar, a subject is a word, phrase, or clause that performs the action of or acts upon the verb. In addition to nouns and pronouns, noun clauses also perform the grammatical function of subject. Source : https://parentingpatch.com/using-noun-clauses-as-subjects/

Therefore, the key is finding the verb first, then you can find the subject that acts upon the verb.

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  • Please provide sources backing up your statements.
    – FeliniusRex - gone
    Jan 26, 2021 at 17:52
  • 2
    Here is the source parentingpatch.com/using-noun-clauses-as-subjects
    – VariableTao
    Jan 26, 2021 at 18:01
  • Thanks. I've upvoted your answer.
    – FeliniusRex - gone
    Jan 26, 2021 at 18:59
  • Thank you ! I would take this as the correct answer, but I also welcome any different opinions, since all of us are learners here.
    – VariableTao
    Jan 26, 2021 at 19:12
  • You are welcome. Please let me know if there are any other different answers, so we can learn together.
    – VariableTao
    Jan 26, 2021 at 21:22

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