bhikkhu1991  +  577227 Fri, 17 Oct 08 01:12 PM   Hello, Yesterday dawn until the daybreak this morning (Thursday, October 16, 2008) was a festival day.   Could you please tell me whether I can use the underlined phrase or part of it as a subject?   I hope to hear from you soon.   Thank you.     With best wishes. bhikkhu1991 Joined on Mon, Mar 31 2008 Full Member 116

	Huevos  +  577232 Fri, 17 Oct 08 01:40 PM  Yes the underlined part is the subject. bhikkhu1991 “Yesterday dawn until the daybreak this morning (Thursday, October 16, 2008) was a festival day. From yesterday at dawn until this morning at daybreak (Thursday, October 16, 2008) was a festival.” By the way what is the date related to as you are mentioning two days, yesterday and today. Huevos Joined on Tue, Mar 25 2008 Regular Member 626 British Native Dates

	bhikkhu1991  +  577503 Sat, 18 Oct 08 09:11 AM Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Hello Huevos and others,     Please note the date and the festival are examples. I greatly appreciate Huevos’ response: From yesterday at dawn until this morning at daybreak (Thursday, October 16, 2008) was a festival.   However, I would like to know whether the underlined phrase is a noun phrase. If it is a noun phrase, please tell me which ones are noun, prepositions and modifiers. Am I right to say only a noun, noun phrase and pronoun are allowable as subjects? I hope to hear from you soon. Thank you.   Best wishes. bhikkhu1991 Dates, Prepositions, Nouns, Pronouns, Noun Phrases

	bhikkhu1991  +  578230 Mon, 20 Oct 08 12:19 PM Hello Huevos,     I regret to tell you that I should follow the subject-inversion in “Guide to Grammar and Writing” which allows the underlined part as a predicate instead of a subject suggested by you: (http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/subjects.htm#inversion) Thus, I should treat the following underlined part as a predicate: From yesterday at dawn until this morning at daybreak (Thursday, October 16, 2008) was a festival.   However, I hope that you will provide your source saying prepositional phrases are allowable as subjects.   Anyway, I would like to thank you for suggesting the new phrase.     Thank you.   Best wishes.   bhikkhu1991 Grammar, Predicates