The subject and predicate

All the sentence elements except the subject fall into the predicate of the sentence. The subject is the topic of the sentence and the predicate is the comment on the subject. Look at the example below.

Mr Jenner ate cabbage in the garden.
In this example Mr Jenner is the subject, and ate cabbage in the garden is the predicate. Mr Jenner is the topic; and the comment is that he ate cabbage in the garden.

The subject is necessarily a nominal (noun, pronoun, noun phrase or clause).

The verb governs the predicate and determines whether objects, predicatives and adverbials are required, permitted or proscribed. Look at the example below:

My older brother gave Lorna a book yesterday in the garden.
In this example the verb to give requires two objects (direct: a book, indirect Lorna) and permits temporal and locative adverbials (yesterday and in the garden respectively)