predicate rap time are you ready here let s go a predicate is one of the two main parts of a sentence the other being the subject which the predicate modifies for the simple sentence john is yellow john acts as the subject and is yellow acts as the predicate a subsequent description of the subject headed with a verb in current linguistic semantics a predicate is an expression that can be true of something thus the expressions is yellow or is like broccoli are true of those things that are yellow or like broccoli respectively this notion is closely related to the notion of a predicate in formal logic which includes more expressions than the covered one