Grammar Breakdown: Finding the Simple Subject in a Puzzle Sentence

Sentence: "How can we put a difficult puzzle piece together with some pieces missing?"

Simple Subject: we

Why?

• Subject: The person/thing performing the action (or being described).
• Complete Subject: "we" (in this interrogative structure, the subject follows the auxiliary verb "can").
• Simple Subject: The core noun/pronoun without modifiers. Here, it's just the pronoun we.

Sentence Structure Breakdown

• Auxiliary Verb: can
• Subject: we
• Main Verb: put
• Direct Object: a difficult puzzle piece
• Adverbial Phrase: together with some pieces missing

The predicate ("can put a difficult puzzle piece together...") tells us what we are doing. The missing pieces are a circumstance, not the actor.