Participants
Who or what is involved?
Betekenis
Participants are the people and things involved in what we say, including animals, places, and ideas. They may act, have something happen to them, or simply be described. Languages name them with nouns or pronouns, but some do not require a separate word for every participant. Unlike Doer or cause, this block includes everyone and everything involved, not just what makes an event happen.
Zo herken je het
Look for who or what is named, referred to by a pronoun, or understood from the situation.
In de taal die je leert
English usually names a participant with a noun, a name, or a pronoun such as she. A noun can have other words with it, as in my old bike; together these words form a noun phrase. When a participant is the subject, English normally expresses it even when the listener knows who is meant.
My new neighbor works at the library.
Several words together name one participant.
She has a small dog.
She refers to a person already identified.
Your plan sounds good.
An idea can be a participant too.
Learners whose language allows understood subjects to stay unspoken may leave out words such as I or she in complete statements. Learners whose language uses singular nouns without articles more freely may omit a/an where English needs it.