Identifying Sentence Parts
Verbs
1. Rats and spiders came at his call.
2. Dr. Van Helsing's notebook mentions early his suspicions of the count.
3. Someone could have met the carriage at the crossroads.
4. Dracula has been "alive" for centuries.
5. Will he need more than one coffin in London?
[Be careful of questions. One way we know them to be questions is that their word order differs from that of statements. To locate the verb of any question, turn it into a statement, for the verb follows the subject in statements.]
6. The police officer should have taken the warning more seriously.
7. The wolves have been howling all evening.
8. The inmates and the warden seemed dead.
9. Jonathan Harker has vowed to hunt the monster to its lair.
10. Mina will have finished her seance by the time we return.
[Be careful here. Only the verb of the MAIN clause is wanted. There are two clauses--an independent clause and a dependent one.]
11. Those teeth have often sunk into soft throats in the moonlight.
[Be careful to include only the verbs. Adverbs can refer to time but do not change form to indicate past, present, and future.]
12. The garlic has been making the room too stuffy for Lucy's mother.
13. Will she remove the cross along with the garlic?
14. Lucy may walk in her sleep.
15. Those boxes of earth are his most precious possession.
16. We must destroy thirty coffins before sundown.
17. Van Helsing and Harker have cornered the count.
18. Both 122 West Hill St. and 540 Chestnut Avenue have been cleansed.
19. This evening and tomorrow morning worry me.