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# subject

«subject» in Mova's school dictionary: **Something you learn at school, such as maths, English or…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a subject, subjects); verb (subject, subjects, subjected, subjecting — subject to); adjective (subject to)

### meaning for a pupil

1) Something you learn at school, such as maths, English or science. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/subject/#m1)

2) What something is about: "the subject of the story" or the topic of a talk. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/subject/#m2)

3) In grammar, the subject is the person or thing that does the action of the verb: in "The dog barks", "the dog" is the subject. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/subject/#m3)

4) A person ruled by a king or queen. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/subject/#m4)

5) "Subject to" means likely to be affected by, or depending on: "subject to change". [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/subject/#m5)

### sense in the lessons

In school, subjects are the different lessons on the timetable. In grammar lessons, every sentence has a subject and a verb, and the verb must agree with the subject. In art, the subject of a painting is what it shows. In emails, the subject line tells what the message is about. Phrases: favourite subject, change the subject, subject line, subject and verb, subject to change.

### examples

- My favourite subject is art. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/subject/#x1)
- Let's change the subject. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/subject/#x2)
- In "Tom kicked the ball", Tom is the subject. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/subject/#x3)
- The subject of the poem is the sea. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/subject/#x4)
- The king spoke to his subjects. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/subject/#x5)
- Write a clear subject line in your email. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/subject/#x6)
- Times are subject to change because of the weather. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/subject/#x7)
- There dwell the Sea King and his subjects. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/subject/#x8)

### note

Noun stress: SUB-ject; verb stress: sub-JECT ("They were subjected to rain"). Countable: one subject, two subjects. Grammar trap: the verb agrees with the subject: "The dogs bark", "The dog barks". The subject is not always the first word: "Yesterday, my sister won." — "my sister" is the subject.

### In the corpora

- [Alice asks what happens when they get back to the start, and the March Hare quickly changes the subject.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/14-alice-a-mad-tea-party-2/4/)
- [The Mole, who knows it's bad manners to talk about trouble ahead, changes the subject.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/26-willows-ch1-part2-the-river-and-the-wild-wood/7/)
- [In a command, the subject «you» is understood, so «Stop.» is a complete sentence.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/26-sentences-capital-letters-full-stops-and-the-four-types/29/)
- [After a fronted adverbial, the rest must still be a complete sentence with its own subject and verb.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/29-fronted-adverbials/16/)
- [The relative pronoun can often be left out when it is not the subject of the clause: «the book I read».](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/30-relative-clauses/21/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «subject» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/subject/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.