When I was in elementary school I learned how to diagram sentences. I thought it was fun, a sort of puzzle that appealed to my sense of order. I was positive no one did such things now and the art would be lost. Just to be sure, I googled it and discovered in 0.47 seconds about 343,000 results. There are plenty of examples online to remind one of those glorious days of parts of speech. I examined them and wondered how on earth I was able to create such diagrams, especially at that tender age.
I found several good examples on wikiHow at https://www.wikihow.com/Diagram-Sentences. They were preceded by an introduction to some of the parts of speech, you know, nouns like “dog,” pronouns like “you,” verbs like “swim,” adjectives like “big,” adverbs like “smoothly,” participles like “flying,’ conjunctions like “and,” prepositions like “on,” and articles like “an.” At one time I could spot these and assign them the correct part of speech with confidence. Today not so sure.
I probably didn’t realize it at the time of study, but I’m now positive that the big takeaway from all the diagramming we did was an understanding of the parts of speech and the various jobs each type is given in the written word. I hope diagramming is still taught. If anyone knows, I’d be interested in hearing.
Here’s an example taken from the aforementioned website. I can’t draw it properly with the blogging tools available to me (at least the ones I understand) so I’ll do my best to describe it. Maybe it will bring back memories. The sentence we’ll diagram is:
The green vegetables are always disgusting, and I hate them.
This should not be interpreted as an indication of my personal dining preferences. Notice the conjunction “and.” In this case it’s separating what are two distinct sentences. For each we have to find the subject, the verb, and the object of the verb if any. Those three words are “I,” “hate,” and “them,” respectively, for the second sentence. The subject and verb for the first sentence are “vegetables” and “are,” and there is no object. But there is something about the vegetables that tells more. They are “disgusting,” and that word is known as a predicate adjective. I know, it’s confusing and I wouldn’t sound so smart if I didn’t have that website. So you put these three words for each sentence on a straight line with a vertical line separating the subject and verb and either a vertical (for an object) or a slanted (for a predicate adjective) line separating the verb and the third word. It would look something like this:
Vegetables | are \ disgusting
and
I | hate | them
Unfortunately the rest of it is undrawable so here’s hoping this description is clear. There’s a dotted line snaking from “are” to “hate” that takes a horizontal jag so “and” is sitting on top of it. Now what about those other words? Well, “The” and “green” modify “vegetables” and “always” modifies “disgusting.” That’s indicated by two lines slanted left to right under “vegetables” with “The” on the first one and “green” on the second. A third such line under “disgusting” contains “always” on it. And there you have it. Of course, the process can be much more complicated, but this is the basic idea.
So was my diagramming experience a plus or a minus for my writing attempts? As always, nothing is clear cut. Certainly, understanding parts of speech and their usage is valuable. The danger is the establishment of rules for a well-constructed sentence. People don’t speak according to these rules, so I’ve had to learn to ignore them when it suits my purpose, either when it comes to conversation or the establishment of some image I want readers to “see.”
Good. Bad. It doesn’t matter. At the risk of incurring derision, I have to say diagramming sentences is fun!
I found several good examples on wikiHow at https://www.wikihow.com/Diagram-Sentences. They were preceded by an introduction to some of the parts of speech, you know, nouns like “dog,” pronouns like “you,” verbs like “swim,” adjectives like “big,” adverbs like “smoothly,” participles like “flying,’ conjunctions like “and,” prepositions like “on,” and articles like “an.” At one time I could spot these and assign them the correct part of speech with confidence. Today not so sure.
I probably didn’t realize it at the time of study, but I’m now positive that the big takeaway from all the diagramming we did was an understanding of the parts of speech and the various jobs each type is given in the written word. I hope diagramming is still taught. If anyone knows, I’d be interested in hearing.
Here’s an example taken from the aforementioned website. I can’t draw it properly with the blogging tools available to me (at least the ones I understand) so I’ll do my best to describe it. Maybe it will bring back memories. The sentence we’ll diagram is:
The green vegetables are always disgusting, and I hate them.
This should not be interpreted as an indication of my personal dining preferences. Notice the conjunction “and.” In this case it’s separating what are two distinct sentences. For each we have to find the subject, the verb, and the object of the verb if any. Those three words are “I,” “hate,” and “them,” respectively, for the second sentence. The subject and verb for the first sentence are “vegetables” and “are,” and there is no object. But there is something about the vegetables that tells more. They are “disgusting,” and that word is known as a predicate adjective. I know, it’s confusing and I wouldn’t sound so smart if I didn’t have that website. So you put these three words for each sentence on a straight line with a vertical line separating the subject and verb and either a vertical (for an object) or a slanted (for a predicate adjective) line separating the verb and the third word. It would look something like this:
Vegetables | are \ disgusting
and
I | hate | them
Unfortunately the rest of it is undrawable so here’s hoping this description is clear. There’s a dotted line snaking from “are” to “hate” that takes a horizontal jag so “and” is sitting on top of it. Now what about those other words? Well, “The” and “green” modify “vegetables” and “always” modifies “disgusting.” That’s indicated by two lines slanted left to right under “vegetables” with “The” on the first one and “green” on the second. A third such line under “disgusting” contains “always” on it. And there you have it. Of course, the process can be much more complicated, but this is the basic idea.
So was my diagramming experience a plus or a minus for my writing attempts? As always, nothing is clear cut. Certainly, understanding parts of speech and their usage is valuable. The danger is the establishment of rules for a well-constructed sentence. People don’t speak according to these rules, so I’ve had to learn to ignore them when it suits my purpose, either when it comes to conversation or the establishment of some image I want readers to “see.”
Good. Bad. It doesn’t matter. At the risk of incurring derision, I have to say diagramming sentences is fun!
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