A predicate is the part of a sentence that tells you what the subject does or what the subject is. Every complete sentence has two main parts: the subject (who or what the sentence is about) and the predicate (what's being said about that subject).

Look at this sentence: “The dog barked loudly.” The subject is “the dog,” and everything else, “barked loudly,” is the predicate. It tells you what the dog did. In “My sister is really tall,” the predicate “is really tall” describes what your sister is like.

The predicate always includes a verb (the action or state of being), and it often includes more: objects, descriptions, or other details. In “Marco threw the ball over the fence,” the entire phrase “threw the ball over the fence” is the predicate. All those words work together to complete the thought about what Marco did.

Here's an easy way to find the predicate: first identify who or what the sentence is about (the subject), then everything else that tells you something about that subject is the predicate. Without a predicate, you just have a fragment: “The enormous elephant...” leaves you waiting to hear what the elephant did or what it was like.