Copyright © 2015 by R.Mira Saraswathi and Vijaya Online Academy.

All
rights reserved worldwide. No part of this publication may be replicated,
redistributed, or given away in any form without the prior written consent
of the author/publisher or the terms relayed to you herein.
Many children find it difficult to understand and appreciate the
nuances of English Grammar. Perhaps, it is due to the fact that
many perceive understanding English Grammar more as a left brain
activity – an activity that involves reading again and again and
perhaps memorizing and recalling for the purpose of scoring grades
in the exams.

However, if there is a way of visualizing of teaching and

understanding of grammar, we can turn a grammar teaching –
learning activity into a right brain activity. It is often said that a
picture speaks a thousand words. Hence, visual grammar will
certainly go a long way in removing the monotony of learning
grammar and make not only teaching grammar but also learning
grammar a pleasure.

With this in mind, I started searching the Internet for some interesting
material and suddenly I came across the phrase Diagramming
Sentences.
As I tried to understand what was being said, I felt that it would be
useful to share this information with children across the world.
Finally the idea took shape and the result is the book that you are
now reading.
How it all started?

During my search, I came across an interesting site on the internet

www.brainpop.com

This being an educational site, it offers many interesting lessons in

different subjects like Science, Social Studies, Mathematics,
English, Arts, Technology etc. Under each subject, there are
several subheadings and on each subheading, there are several
animation movies explaining some basic concepts. Each movie
runs for three to 5 minutes and is followed by a short quiz. When I
asked for the list of movies under English, I was surprised to find a
movie listed under the heading Diagramming Sentences. So out of
curiosity, I clicked on the movie and what followed helped me with
the content for this book.
Prerequisites

A typical student of the 7th or 8th standard is aware of the concept

of a sentence and its subject and predicate. Diagramming Sentence
starts with this basic assumption. As far as possible, step by step
guidance will be given to help the reader understand the basics of
diagramming a sentence.

Since the topic is Diagramming Sentences, the focus is naturally on

sentences and we start with types of sentences.

Types of Sentences

Sentences are classified into three types. They are

1. Simple Sentence

2. Complex Sentence

3. Compound Sentence.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Why this book on Diagramming sentences?
How it all started?
Prerequisites
Introduction
Types of sentences
A complex sentence
The compound sentence
Why teach / learn diagramming sentence
Diagramming Sentences
Simple examples
Practice sentences
The theme of the book is Diagramming Sentences. So it is
important that before I go into the main topic, I must revisit the topic
' Sentences ' and the type of sentences \.

A sentence is a group of words that is complete and conveys

meaning.

For example consider the group of words

" I like Banana " - Here, we have three words " I", " like " and "
bananas ". and the meaning is complete. Hence, " I like bananas "
is an example of a sentence.

A sentence has a minimum 3 components

1. A subject

2. A verb

3. The predicate

When you look at sentence and ask the question ' who ' or ' what '-
the answer to this question gives you the subject.

For example consider the sentence ' I like bananas '

Who likes bananas - the answer is I like bananas - Hence, in this

sentence, the subject is ' I "
The word that describes an action with reference to the subject is
called the ' Verb".

Whatever words that go with the verb i a sentence is known as a

predicate.
Types of sentences
Sentences are broadly classified as
· A simple sentence
· A complex sentence
· A compound sentence
A simple sentence is a complete sentence by itself and has one
subject and one verb.
If a given sentence has 2 or more verbs and equal number of
subjects, it is either a complex sentence or a compound sentence.
Some examples of a simp0le sentence:
1. Ravi plays football
2. Ram is reading a book
3. Sit down!
4. it's not right
5. Reading books is my hobby
6. Walking is good for health.
The first sentence is ' Ravi plays football '
Who plays football? - Ravi plays football - Thus ' Ravi ' is the
subject.
The action associated with the subject is ' plays '
What does Ravi do? - Ravi plays football
So the verb in the sentence is ' plays '.
' plays football ' is the predicate.
Since there is only one subject, one verb and one predicate and the
meaning is complete, this is an example of a simple sentence.
A complex sentence
A complex sentence is a combination of two or more clauses of
which one is an independent clause and others are dependent
clauses. The independent .clause is also known as a main clause
and the dependent clause is known as a subordinate clause.
A clause is a group of words that contains a verb (and usually other
components too). A clause may form part of a sentence or it may be
a complete sentence in itself .
As it was hot, I stayed indoors.
This sentence has two clauses.
As it was hot - is a clause as defined above but the meaning is not
complete and it depends on another clause so that it becomes
meaningful. Hence this is a subordinate clause or a dependent
clause.
I stayed indoors is the second clause and is a sentence by itself
because the meaning is complete. It does not depend on any other
clause to complete its meaning and hence is known as the main
clause or the independent clause.
As the sentence contains one dependent clause and one
independent clause, it is an example of a complex sentence.
Every sentence must contain a main clause.
A subordinate clause depends on the main clause for its meaning.
Together with a main clause, a subordinate clause forms part of a
complex sentence.
More examples on complex sentences
1. I returned the wallet as it was defective.
2. As it was raining, I took out the umbrella.
3. The child was crying as it was hungry.
The compound sentence
A compound sentence consists of two or more independent clauses
connected by one of the terms ' and ' , ' or ' , which are know as
coordinators.
There are six coordinators in the English Language:
The connectives that are commonly used in English Language are
· For
· And
· Nor
· But
· Or
· Yet
A coordinator connects two main clauses in a sentence.
Examples of compound sentence:
I like coffee but I don't like tea.
You can read a book or you can go for a walk.
It was a costly book yet I purchased a copy.
He has a cot yet he prefers to sleep on the floor.
Why teach / learn diagramming sentence
Diagramming sentences is a tool that helps you to understand
sentences as a whole and not in fragments.
Diagramming sentences help you to understand how the different
parts of the sentence interact.
The focus is not just on the parts but also on their functions within
the sentence.
For example, consider the sentence ' In the market place Ram sells
vegetables '
The sentence contains more than one noun and a student may
identify all the nouns but may have difficulty in identifying the
subject. Diagramming the sentence, helps in identifying the subject
easily.
When you practice diagramming a sentence, you develop an eye
for breaking down a sentence and that helps in using the
appropriate word.
Consider this example
' After correcting the paper the professor applauded Mary, Krishna
and ( me / I ) for our performance in the exam '.
The difficulty here is whether one should use the word ' me ' or ' I '.
When diagramming sentences is used, it breaks down the sentence
to ' The professor applauded ( me / I ) ' and at this stage it is easy to
understand that the correct choice would be ' me ' and not ' I '.
Brief History - How it all began?

If we have to thank anyone for this wonderful idea of diagramming

sentences, the credit must go to an American named Stephen
Watkins Clark who started the work in early 19th Century. In 1847,
he first published the idea of drawing some kind of a map to show a
sentence's physiology. However, the idea failed to take off because
the idea involved using of somewhat clumsy bubbles to develop the
map. Here's an example, applied to a typically worthy sentence (the
diagram comes courtesy of Google
Books):
However, two other Americans , Alonzo Reed and Brainerd Kellogg,
created a more appealing version 30 years later. They used lines
instead of bubbles. :

For a long time, the idea of diagramming sentences flourished in the

United States but in the 1970s, the idea was condemned as a waste
of time. However, the idea still persits in many schools and has also
spread far beyond the United States

The Kellog and Reed diagramming system is the method that helps
you to visualize the grammar part in the sentence. It focusses the
attention of the learner to look at and understand what every single
word in a sentence is doing. The method is to simply put each word
in a slot on a diagramming chart. The two main components are

1. A long horizontal line

2. A bisecting vertical line.

The horizontal line holds the subject, the verb, the objects and the
complements
The bisecting vertical line separates the subject from the predicate.

If any other vertical line or a diagonal line is used, all of them stop
on reaching the base of the horizontal line.

Diagramming sentences is a way to visualize how the different parts

of a sentence fit together. The subject of a clause goes in one slot,
the verb in another, and so on. Words that modify another word are
attached to the word they modify. The method we use to attach
them indicates what the relationship is between them.

Sentence Diagramming Forms

· Base Line

· A bisecting vertical line

· Lower Diagonal

· Upper Diagonal

· Horizontal line

· Vertical line

· Dashed line

· Stair - Step

· Triangle

·
The basic diagram consists of a base line (horizontal line) and a
bisecting vertical line (shwon in red).
If the diagonal is above the base line, it is known as the upper
diagonal and if it is placed below the base line, it is known as the
lower diagonal.
Other forms used in constructing Diagramming Sentences
Diagramming sentences becomes easy if the following steps are followed
in that order.

1. The first step is to mark up the sentence.

· As you read a sentence, put the prepositional phrase inside a

parentheses.

· If the given sentence has more clauses, mark up each clause

separately.

2. Find the verb and pot it on the right side of the bisecting vertical line.

3. Find the subject and put it on the left of the bisecting vertical line.

At this point, you may be tempted to ask ' Why find the verb and then the
subject '. In general, a given sentence has more nouns than verbs ( if at
all ). So once you identify the verb,
Diagram for a simple sentence with a simple subject
(noun or pronoun) and simple predicate (verb):
 Diagram for a simple sentence with adjectives or adverbs:

Diagram for a simple sentence with prepositional phrases (adjective or

adverb):
Diagram for a simple sentence with a compound subject:
Diagram for a simple sentence with compound verbs
Practice sentences

Rewrite the following sentences using diagramming sentences:

1. I am reading.

2. They are singing

3. It is raining

4. I like fruits

5. He hates cinemas

6. Sit down

7. Drink this.

8. He likes chocolate