Diagramming Sentences
Sentence Diagrams
~ One Way of Learning English Grammar ~
The Basics of Sentence Diagramming
~ Sentences 6 - 10 ~
Sentence 6: People should laugh.
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Words like should, would, can, could, may, might, and must are called modal auxiliary verbs. They are diagrammed as part of the verb. |
Sentence 7: Some people are laughing.
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In this sentence, some is an adjective modifying the noun people. In sentence diagrams, modifiers are placed on slanted lines extending down from left to right from the word modified. |
Sentence 8: All people must have been laughing.
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The verb must have been laughing consists of the modal auxiliary verb must and the present-perfect form have been laughing. |
Sentence 9: The smartest people will be laughing.
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The subject of the sentence, people, is modified by the definite article, the, and the adjective smartest. The verb will be laughing is in the future tense. |
Sentence 10: Her friend is an accountant.
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Accountant is a predicate nominative i.e., a noun that follows a linking verb and restates or further identifies the subject. Linking verbs are often forms of the verb to be, such as am, is, are, was, were, will be, has been and had been. |