Sentence Diagramming• Every sentence, no matter what, has a verb phrase

(VP) and noun phrase (NP).– Ex: Sam jumped. Sam (NP) jumped (VP).

• As sentences become more complicated, more parts are added. For example:– Elloise likes pink ponies.– Elloise (NP-N) likes (VP-V) pink ponies (VP-NP-det-adj,

NP-N-ponies).

• Please see the next two slides for examples. The last slide is a glossary.

Diagramming simple sentences:

A sentence will always have a NP and a VP.

A VP will consist of a V + NP, V+Adj. or Adv Phrase, V+PP, V, or a V+S.

A NP will consist of a N, N+A, NP+S, N + PP, PP

Diagramming sentences with

clauses.

Clauses are merely independent and dependent clauses. When you have a sentence with a clause, then that clause will have a “mini” sentence inside of it (refer to the right side of the diagram). A NP can have a PP, N, A + N, S, etc. inside of it. You have to determine which sentence parts are modifying what and where.

Glossary• S=sentence• NP=noun phrase• VP=verb phrase• PP=prepositional phrase• Adj.P=adjective phrase• Adv.P=adverb phrase• Adj= adjective, adv=adverb, det.=determiner,

a=article, n=noun, v=verb, p=preposition, pro=pronoun, d.o.=direct object, ind.o.=indirect object., etc.