1. DIAGRAMMING SENTENCES

2. DIAGRAMMING SENTENCES
Diagramming sentences provides a way of picturing the structure of a sentence. By placing the various parts of a sentence in relation to the basic subject-verb relationship, we can see how the parts fit together and how the meaning of a sentence branches out. Most students who work at diagramming sentences derive a clearer understanding of how sentences work — as well as satisfaction in the pictorial rendering of sentence structure.

3. Subjects and Verbs Sentence example: The teacher talked.
We begin with a straight line:
The subject of a sentence is placed first:
teacher
Then another line after the subject followed by the verb:
teacher talked

4. We are also going to label each part of the sentence.
(S) for subject, (LV) for Linking Verb and (AV) for Action Verb
S AV
teacher talked

5. Compound Subjects and Verbs

6. Alex and David laughed. Cathy smiled and laughed.

7. Prepositional phrases
Prepositional phrases go below the subject and verb line. Put them where they occur in the sentence.

8. Practice: Diagram the following sentences on the left side of your notebook. Remember to cross out Prepositional phrases (mentally) before finding the subject and verb. Label each subject (S) and verbs either (LV) for linking verb or (AV) for action verb.
The girl with the brown hair is in my Algebra class.
My teacher likes her because she is helpful.
Sometimes she laughs at my jokes and talks very loud to her friends.
Janet and Joe don’t like the class.
The look very unhappy most of the time.
The teacher helps them with their work after school.
My dog and cat sleep and play all day.