isn't the simple subject of the sentence "The pack of wolves ran through the woods,"the word pack?

Question

One of the Mr. Button worksheets says wolves is the simple subject, and my granddaughter's teacher said I was wrong in saying the simple subject is pack. Has something changed in our English language, or is the worksheet wrong?

Answer 1

The simple subject is the noun (person place or idea) that can have modifiers (such as adjectives, relative clauses, and prepositional phrases) or determiners (such as demonstratives, possessive determiners, and quantifiers). Your sentence is an example of a quantifier (pack) that describes the simple subject (wolves). It's easy to confuse, since "of" wolves may sound like a prepositional phrase; however, pack is a quantifier of wolves. The subjects that perform the action in this sentence (run) are the wolves.

For example: The sack of potatoes fell on the floor.

"Sack" is the quantifier of potatoes. The potatoes fell. The sack provides the context (quantity) of the subject (potatoes) that performs the action in the sentence.