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Sentences
He is the subject.
Taught is the action verb.
Yikes!
What if my sentence
has extra words! What
would I do then?
It's quite simple. If your
extra word is describing the
subject (most likely it is an
adjective, or an article like
the, a, or an), then you
attach it on to the subject
with a diagonal line under
the noun it modifies.
Here is an
example.
The teacher taught.
teacher taught
Correct
She sang.
She sang
Incorrect
The teacher taught.
teacher taught
Correct
The teacher taught.
teacher taught
Incorrect
What happens if I
have more than one
subject?
Compound subjects
are given equal
treatment. (One must
be fair, you know!). So
compound subjects are
treated like this:
Mrs. Holt and Mr.
McCall teach.
Mrs. Holt
teach
Mr. McCall and
Did you notice that the line separating
the verb from the subjects did not
intersect the two diagonal lines!
If the sentence has a
compound subject, the
vertical line separating
the subjects and the verb
never intersects the
diagonal lines which join
the sentence line.
this
and
Did you notice that the line
separating the verb from the
subjects did not intersect the
two diagonal lines!
not this
and
Did you notice that the line
separating the verb from the
subjects should not intersect
the two diagonal lines!
What happens if
I have more than
one predicate?
Compound predicates
also are given equal
treatment. (It's that being
fair thing again!)
Compound predicates are
treated like this:
Mrs. Holt and Mr. McCall
demonstrated and taught.
Mrs. Holt demonstrated
and
and
Mr. McCall taught
Did you notice that the line separating
the verbs from the subjects did not
intersect the four diagonal lines!
Here are some simple
sentences for you to
diagram.
Write each sentence as it
appears on the screen. Leave
enough space between
sentence in order to diagram
them on the same sheet of
paper. This will be displayed
only once!
1. School
started.
2. Mrs.
Holt
taught.
3. We
listened
intently.
4. Mrs.
Cassity
watched.
5. She
smiled.
6. Tom and
Diane
played.
7. She
sings and
dances.
8. The
dedicated class
practiced.
9. The
bell rang.
10. The girls
and the boys
jumped and
cheered.
Diagraming
Sentences
Correct!
Mrs. Holt teaches
bad English.
Mrs. Holt teaches English
Incorrect!
The little boy won a huge
trophy.
boy won trophy
Compound
subjects can have
adjectives as well.
Here are some
examples:
The little tan cat and the big
brown dog chased the rabbit.
cat
and chased rabbit
dog
Here are some not so
simple sentences for you
to diagram.
Let’s see if
we can add a
few adverbs.
Athletes train hard.
Athletes train
Very good athletes
train hard.
Athletes train
Very good athletes
train extremely hard.
Athletes train
1. The
orange bus
stopped.
2. Two large
dogs chased
a tiny kitten.
3. Our History
teacher gave
an extremely
hard test.
4. The white
cow gives
chocolate
milk.
5. Sherri and
I read the
same boring
book.
6. Tom read
every chapter
carefully.
7. I read a
book and a
magazine
article.
8. The
dedicated class
practiced
verbs.
9. The bell rang
slowly and
stopped
suddenly.
10. The whole
class and the
teacher laughed
and giggled.
Diagraming
Sentences