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Sentence diagramIn pedagogy, a sentence diagram is a pictorial representation of the

grammatical structure of a natural-language sentence. A sentence diagram

is a form of a parse tree.

A simple sentence is shown as

subject verb direct object

for example:

I am

The diagram of a simple sentence begins with a horizontal line called the

base . The subject is written on the left, the predicate on the right,

separated by a vertical bar which extends through the base. The predicate

must contain a verb, and the verb either requires other sentence elements

to complete the predicate, permits them to do so, or precludes them from

doing so. The verb and its object, when present, are separated by a line

that ends at the baseline. If the object is a direct object, the line is vertical.

If the object is a predicate noun or adjective, the line looks like a

backslash, \, sloping toward the subject.

Modifiers

Modifiers of the subject, predicate, or object are placed below the base

line. Adjectives (including articles) and adverbs are placed on slanted lines

below the word they modify. Prepositional phrases are also placed beneath

the word they modify; the preposition goes on a slanted line and the

slanted line leads to a horizontal line on which the object of the prepositionis placed.

Compound subjects, predicates, objects, etc. are drawn as multiple

horizontal lines stacked vertically, joined at each end by a fan of diagonal

lines; the coordinating conjunction goes on a vertical line through the left

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ends of the horizontal lines.

Prepositional phrases

Prepositional phrases consist of two lines: the preposition itself is drawn

 just as an adjective or adverb would, hanging down below the antecedent,

and the complement is drawn on a line protruding horizontally from a point

near the bottom of the line.

Compound sentences

Compound sentences are composed of two or more independent clauses 

connected by one or more coordinating conjunctions or semicolons. Each

clause is diagrammed separately; the verbs of the two clauses are joinedby a dotted line which goes vertically, then horizontally with the conjunction

written on the line, and then vertically again.

Appositives

An appositive is written in parentheses.

Participles and participial phrases

A participle is given the same type of line as an adjective (see Modifiers,

above), except that a small horizontal line branches off the end. The

participle itself is written in a curved manner, so that the verb ending is

written on the small horizontal line.

Any adverbs or prepositional phrases modifying the participle branch off of

the small horizontal line, as if the participle were a noun.

Gerunds and gerund phrases

Gerunds are placed on a "pedestal," which is then on a tower that has an

upside down triangle base and a straight line going up to the pedestal. The

pedestal is two steps, and the gerund should be placed onto it diagonally,

as if it were resting full length on the stairs. The remaining parts of the

gerund phrase follow it on a horizontal line connected to the edge of the "."

Interjections

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An interjection is placed on a floating line separate from the rest of the

sentence diagram. It is only one word.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentence_diagram