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272.

The Predicate of a sentence may be a Verb (as in canis currit, the dog runs), or it may consist of some form of sum and a Noun or Adjective which describes or defines the subject (as in Caesar consul erat, Caesar was consul).

Such a noun or adjective is called a Predicate Noun or Adjective, and the verb sum is called the Copula (i.e. the connective).

Thus in the example given, Caesar is the subject, consul the predicate noun, and erat the copula (see § 283).