Finals Handout 1

DIAGRAMMING SENTENCES

Basic Rules
1. Identify the sentence elements.
2. Place the subject, verb and direct object together and underline them.
3. Separate the subject from the verb with a vertical line that crosses the underline.
4. Separate the DO from the verb with a vertical line that does not cross the underline.
5. Keep adjectives and articles with the noun they modify, and place them on separate diagonal lines
touching the word they modify.

Examples:

1. Monkeys eat.

2. Monkeys eat bananas.

3. The fat monkeys eat yellow bananas.

DRILL EXERCISES. Circle the noun in each sentence. Then diagram the sentence.
a. Pigs sleep.
b. Ms. Alice Cummins interrupted.
c. Dr. Lee has been calling.
d. Hurry!
e. Toby wrote.
6. Indirect Objects are connected to the verb by a slanted line with TO or FOR that becomes a line parallel
to the underline with the indirect objects.

The monkeys offer the bananas to the gorillas.

7. With linking verb, the second subject or predicate nominative is written on the line with subject and
verb. The predicate nominative is separated from the verb by a slanted line that does not cross the
underline.

Monkeys are goofy animals.

8. For command statements, the subject YOU is included in parenthesis.

Dance!

BOARD EXERCISES. Diagram the following
sentences on the board.
1. She gave her book to her friend.
2. The teacher explained the lesson to the
students.
3. He bought a gift for his sister.
4. They sent a letter to their grandparents.
5. The company provided training for its
employees.
6. The flowers in the garden are beautiful.
7. My sister is a doctor.
8. The movie was entertaining.
9. The cat became a great companion.
10. The bookshelf looks sturdy.
ADVANCED RULES

1. Adverbs are written on a slanted line that connects to the verb.

Monkeys happily eat bananas.

2. Compound subjects, objects, or verbs are written with branching lines. The branches are connected
with a dotted line with the conjunction written on it.

Monkey love bananas and gorillas.

Vana and Jason shrieked excitedly and ran inside.

3. Prepositional phrase connect to the verb with the preposition written on a slanted line and the noun of
the prepositional phrase written on a line parallel to the underline.

Monkeys live in the jungle.

4. Complementary infinitives are written on a stem above the underlines. The DO of the infinitive is written
on a new underline parallel to the original underline. The stem is separated from the main verb by a
vertical line that does not cross the underline.

Monkeys ought to eat more vegetables.

REMEMBER:

1. Identify the sentence elements before beginning.

2. Make sure that descriptive words connect to the words they are describing.
3. Indirect object and prepositional phrase connect to the verb.
4. After a linking verb, there is a slanted line that does not cross the underline to connect the two
subjects.

MORE PRACTICE ITEMS

1. Loud thunder rumbled threateningly.

2. Extremely loud thunder rumbled rather threateningly.

3. Very pesky weeds grow everywhere!

4. My remarkably talkative sister phones often.

5. Then lightning suddenly flashed.