DIAGRAMMING SENTENCES:
A sentence diagram is a picture of how the parts of a sentence fit together and how the words in a sentence are related.
Subjects and Verbs--
The sentence diagram begins with a HORIZONTAL line intersected by a short
VERTICAL line that divides the complete subject from the complete predicate.
EXAMPLE Flowers bloom.
Understood Subjects
EXAMPLE Drive!
Flowers
(you) bloom
Drive
Nouns of Direct Address
EXAMPLE Drive, Dad. Dad
(you) Drive
Sentences Beginning with There
EX: There is hope. There hope is
Compound Subjects
EX: Carmen and Basil were fishing.
Compound Verbs
EX: They stopped and ate.
Carmen
Basil
They and and were fishing stopped ate

Exercise 1:
1. Coaches and players jumped and cheered.
2. Go!
3. Rain poured.
4. There was love.
5. Teachers and students learned.
ADJECTIVES and ADVERBS
Both adjectives and adverbs are written on slanted lines connected to the words they modify.
EX: The crazy smartboard seldom works.
--When an adverb modifies an adjective or an adverb, it is placed on a line connected to the word it modifies.
EX: This very awesome picture almost never falls.
Exercise: Soon Sherry and her sister will graduate and will move.
The boy and girl players studied long and very hard.
Direct Objects—
A direct object is placed after the verb on the same horizontal line as the simple subject and the verb. A vertical line separates the direct object from the verb.
She wrote the book.
Compound Direct Objects—
She wrote books and songs.

Indirect Objects—The indirect object is diagrammed on a horizontal line beneath the verb.
She wrote him a book.
Compound Indirect Objects—
Shelly wrote Justin and Mike a song.
PRACTICE EXERCISES 2:
1.
I like coffee.
2.
I like coffee and books.
3.
Blake bought mom a purse.
4.
Tracy bought her sister and brother fresh brownies.
5.
Dad thought the library was closed.
6.
The trucker and the red van avoided the tragic accident.
PHRASES
1.
Prepositional Phrases—The preposition is placed on a slanting line leading down from the word that the phrase modifies. The object of the preposition is placed on a horizontal line connected to the slanting line.
EX:// Around the sun and beyond the planets orbit many comets.
2.
Participles and Participial Phrases—(diagrammed as follows)
Ex:// He saw her waving.

3.
Gerunds and Gerund Phrases—(diagrammed as follows)
Ex://Exercising regularly with friends is definitely a good plan for developing healthy habits.
4.
Infinitives and Infinitive Phrases—used as modifiers are diagrammed in the same way as prepositional phrases.
Ex:// My friend helped me find my dog. (infinitive clause with subject me and with to omitted)
5.
Appositives and Appositive Phrases—place the appositive in parenthesis after the word it identifies or describes.
Ex:// Seamus travelled to Kilkenny, a town in Ireland.
PRACTICE SENTENCES 3:
1.
Upright and elaborate, the letters of Erica’s signature might suggest independence.
2.
By raising their lower lid, birds can close their eyes for sleep.
3.
Located on the sides of the head, the eyes of many birds provide peripheral vision.
4.
To blink and moisten the eyes, birds have a third eyelid.
5.
Birds turn their heads instead of moving their eyes.

DEPENDENT CLAUSES:
Adjective Clauses—An adjective clause is joined to the word it modifies by a broken line leading from the modified word to the relative pronoun.
Ex://Those dark clouds, which brought the rain, were thunderheads.
Adverb Clauses—Place the subordinating conjunction that introduces the adverb clause on a broken line leading from the verb in the adverb clause to the word the clause modifies.
Ex://If you visit Texas, you should see the Alamo.
Noun Clauses—Often begin with the word that, what, who, or which.
These words may have a function within the dependent clause or may simply connect the clause to the rest of the sentence. How a noun is diagrammed depends on how it is used in the sentence and whether or not is it introductory and has a grammatical function in the noun clause.
Ex://What he did surprised us.
Exercise 4:
1.
The dress that she liked best was too expensive.
2.
This is the new music video that I like best.
3.
After I had proofread my paper, I input the corrections.
4.
What you do affects your health.
5.
We really thought that he was the thief.

SENTENCES CLASSIFIED BY STRUCTURE
Simple Sentences—
The Grand Canyon is a National Treasure. (One independent clause.)
Compound Sentences—If a compound sentence has a semicolon and no conjunction, a straight broken line joins the two verbs.
Ex:// Svetlana Savitskaya made history in the 1980’s; she was the first
Russian female spacewalker.
If the clauses of a compound sentence are joined by a semicolon and a conjunctive adverb, place the adverb on a slanting line below the verb it modifies.
EX:// Juan runs daily before sunrise; therefore, he can hope to win the big race.
Complex Sentences—
Ex: Jaime Escalante always believed that his students could do well in
Math.
Compound-Complex Sentences—
The garage that Joe cleaned was a mess, but he changed the look.
EXERCISES 5:
1.
I am exploring the United States.
2.
Cities in Kentucky and Tennessee are named for wars.
3.
Originally, they wanted to ride bikes all the way, but they decided to take the train instead.
4.
Ray looked forward to seeing his cousins; Joe was eager to play with his uncle’s band.
5.
Uncle James played in a country music band; however, Joe preferred rock music.

6.
Cora waited for the right moment to ask Kareem to the banquet, and he promptly accepted, adding that he had been planning to ask her.