how do I diagram this sentence?
Practice good driving skillsevery day for about four months before taking the test.
The most basic sentence contains a subject and a verb. We begin to diagram a sentence by drawing a base line beneath the subject and the verb. We separate the two by a vertical line that extends through the base line.
Here is an excellent website that explains how to diagram sentences:
http://members.cox.net/teachro/grammar/diagramming.htm
In your sentence, here are the major parts:
Subject = the understood "you" since the verb is a command and there is no written subject.
Verb = "practice"
Direct object = "skills" (modified by "good driving")
Adverb = "every day"
Prepositional phrases that modify the verb = "for about four months" and "before taking the test." (In that last prepositional phrase the object of the preposition is a gerund ["taking"], and since it's a verb form, it also has its own direct object ["test"].
Very complicated sentence!
Here are other diagram-help websites if the one above doesn't tell you everything you need:
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/diagrams/diagrams.htm
Go through the PowerPoint presentation; there are also further links near the bottom of this page.
http://www.lifestreamcenter.net/DrB/Lessons/TS/diagram.htm
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To diagram a sentence, you can follow the steps below to break down the sentence into its different components:
Step 1: Identify the subject and the predicate.
- Subject: The subject of the sentence is "You."
- Predicate: The predicate of the sentence is "practice good driving skills every day for about four months before taking the test."
Step 2: Identify the verb phrases and their components.
- The main verb phrase in this sentence is "practice."
- The direct object of the verb "practice" is "good driving skills."
- The adverbial phrase modifying "practice" is "every day."
- The prepositional phrase modifying "practice" is "for about four months."
- The subordinate clause modifying "practice" is "before taking the test."
- Break it down further: "taking" is the main verb of the subordinate clause, and "the test" is the noun phrase acting as the direct object of "taking."
Step 3: Draw a horizontal line and place the subject on the left half and the predicate on the right half.
You | practice good driving skills every day for about four months before taking the test.
Step 4: Break down the predicate further based on the verb phrases and their components.
You | practice
| good driving skills
| every day
| for about four months
| before taking the test
Step 5: Break down the noun phrases further.
You | practice
| driving skills
| good
| the test
| every day
| for about four months
| before taking
Step 6: Indicate the relationship between words with lines and arrows.
You --- practice
| |
driving skills
| |
good--- the test
|
every day
|
for about four months
|
before taking
This is a basic diagram of the sentence "Practice good driving skills every day for about four months before taking the test." Remember that sentence diagrams can have varying complexity based on the sentence structure, but this should give you a good starting point.