Making sentence diagrams may seem complicated at first, but you will quickly master it. Once you understand the basics, diagramming sentences can be like solving a sudoku or a crossword puzzle. That's not a bad way to learn grammar.
Step
Step 1. Find the verb in the sentence
A verb is a word that indicates an action (walking, dancing, singing, running, for example) or indicating a state (being ("am, are, is, was")). Look for the action in the sentence and ask yourself what happened. You will find the verb there.
- Once you find your verb, draw a straight horizontal line, with a vertical line going through the middle. To the right of the vertical line, place the verb.
- Example: "Harry searched for his dog." (Harry is looking for his dog). The word “searched” is a verb because it is a word that denotes action.
- Second example: "Harry was looking for his dog." (Harry was looking for his dog). The word "was looking" is a verb phrase in the "past progressive tense". Both the auxiliary verb 'was' and the main verb 'looking' are in place of the verb in the diagram.
Step 2. Find the subject of your sentence
It will be an object or person performing the action. The subject will be to the left of the vertical line (the verb is already on the right). A good question to ask when searching for a subject is "who did the verb."
From the example above, "Harry was looking for his dog," Harry is the subject because he is the one looking for the dog
Step 3. Find the direct noun if there is one
This will be the person or thing that receives the action. Not all sentences have direct nouns. If your sentence has a direct noun, draw a vertical line after the verb, and place the noun there.
- Using the same example "Harry was looking for his dog," the word "dog" is a direct noun.
- Now, if you have a sentence like "Harry was upset," then there is no direct noun.
- If you have a connecting verb with a complement, draw a diagonal line after the verb, and write the complement there. Connecting verbs connect the subject of the sentence with the complement. Complement is the part of the sentence that comes after the verb to complete the sentence. For example: "Harry looked sad when his dog went missing." (Harry looks sad when his dog goes missing). In this sentence, "looked sad" is a connecting verb and "when his dog went missing" is a complement.
Step 4. Find the article or article ("a, as, the") or possession ("my, your, his, hers" (mine, yours, hers))
You will draw a diagonal line downwards from whatever the article or possession modifies. Your sentence may have both, or one, or none of these types of words.
Example: "Harry's dog left the house." (Harry's dog leaves the house). In this sentence, "Harry's" will be on the diagonal under our subject "dog", because it is a possession word. The sentence also has the article "the" which will be on a diagonal line below "house"
Step 5. Find adjectives
It is a word that describes a noun or pronoun. Place the adjective on the diagonal line under the word that the adjective modifies.
Example: "Harry looked for his black dog." (Harry is looking for his black dog). The word "black" is an adjective, because it describes a dog. So, the word will be placed on a vertical line under "dog" which is the object of this sentence
Step 6. Find the adverb
Adverbs modify verbs and adjectives, as well as other adverbs. In English, adverbs often end in "-ly". A good question to ask yourself when trying to find an adverb is: How? When? Where? How many? Why? You will place the adverb on a vertical line below the word the adverb modifies.
Example: "Harry ran quickly after his dog." (Harry runs quickly after his dog). The word "quickly" modifies "ran" (run) and will therefore be placed on a vertical line under "ran" (run)
Step 7. Look for the prepositional phrase
This is usually a group of words that begins with a preposition and ends with a noun or pronoun. Prepositional phrases do not contain a verb, usually contain adjectives, nouns, and pronouns. You will connect the prepositional phrase on a horizontal line below the word that the preposition modifies.
- Example: "The computer on the chair is yours." (The computer in the chair is yours). The preposition is "on the chair". Once you've omitted that phrase, you'll notice that "computer" is the subject and "is" is the verb.
- Another example: "Harry didn't want to go outside without his sweater." (Harry doesn't want to go outside without his sweater). The prepositional phrase is "without his sweater", which contains the preposition "without" and the noun "sweater".
Step 8. Check if your sentences are compound
Compound sentences have words like "and" or "but". If any part of your sentence is compound, you will connect each compound part with a dotted line and the conjunction that connects them. For example, if you have multiple subjects, draw two lines for the subject and write each subject on a line. Connect the two with a dotted line.
Example: "Harry and his friend searched for Harry's dog." (Harry and his friends are looking for Harry's dog). The word "and" (and) makes this sentence compound and the dotted line will connect "Harry" and "friend". The word "his" will be placed on a diagonal line under "friend"
Step 9. For more complex sentences, connect the independent clause with the bound clause with a dotted line
Chart both of them as you would normally do.
Example: "Harry and his friend went to the supermarket where he found his dog." (Harry and his friend went to the supermarket where he found his dog). The first clause runs from "Harry" to "supermarket" (supermarket) while the second clause runs from "he" (he) to "dog" (dog). Once you've divided the two sentences, you can diagram them both normally. The word "where" (where) will unite the two sentences
Tips
- If you're just learning how to diagram sentences, choose easy sentences to start with. ("The dogs barked." "The black cat meowed."
- Note that these are just the basics of creating sentence diagrams. Remember that grammar is not an exact science!
