Diagramming Compound Subjects and Verbs in Sentences

Kristi loves pizza Now that you know how to locate and diagram the subject, verb, and direct object in a sentence, you are ready to move on to compound subjects and compound verbs within a sentence. First, let’s review a basic sentence again. (subject) (verb) (direct object) Now, here is a sentence with a compound subject. (more than one subject) Kristi and Ally love pizza. In this sentence, both Kristi and Ally are the subject as they are the ones who are doing the action (loving pizza).

love love pizza pizza This is how you begin diagramming the sentence. Kristi and Ally love pizza. First, set up the diagramming of your verb and direct object. (What?) Now, see how the compound subject is added to the diagram. Kristi (What?) Ally and Notice how the diagram shows how both names are the subject.

will stop Wind Dogs deliveries furniture Let’s try a few more compound subjects. cats rain Dogs and catscandestroyfurniture. nor and candestroy Wind nor rainwillstopdeliveries. Remember to still draw your vertical line through the horizontal line to separate your subjects from the verb.

Now that you are beginning to get the hang of compound subjects, let’s move on to compound verbs. Shoppersgrabbed and clutcheditems. First, set up the diagramming of your subject and compound verbs. grabbed Shoppers clutched and Now you just need to add your direct object that states what the shoppers clutched. It’s easy! grabbed items Shoppers clutched and

Let’s try a few more sentences with compound verbs. Teenswill complainandwhine. Notice that there is no direct object. complain Teens will whine and This next sentence does contain a direct object. Recall that a direct object receives the action of a transitive verb. Just as Brady needs a receiver to catch the ball, so, too, does a transitive verb need a direct object (the receiver) to answer either What? or Who? In a sentence. Playersmustparticipate and attendpractices. What must they participate in and attend? Practices! That is the direct object. (always a noun or pronoun)

participate must practices Players attend and Let’s try an imperative sentence with a compound verb. Show and direct me. Show and direct are the transitive verbs, and me is telling WHO is being shown and directed, so me is our direct object. What is our subject? show me (You) direct and Subject in parentheses (You) is always the subject in an imperative sentence.

Keep in mind that sentences are rarely this basic in their structure. Interesting sentences contain modifiers such as adjectives and adverbs, as well as phrases and clauses. Under the protection of darkness, the stealthy coyote silently moves towards his innocent prey . This sentence has prepositional phrases, adjectives, and an adverb in addition to the subject and verb. For now, we will not be diagramming such sentences, but see if you can simply pick out the subject and verb and whether or not there is a direct object coyote moves

Now, hopefully, you are ready to locate and diagram subjects, verbs/verb phrases, and direct objects within sentences. Try to remember these helpful strategies: Aim to find your verb/verb phrase first. It may be an action verb or simply a verb of “being” such as can be. Ask yourself who or what is doing the action. This will be your subject. “Theycollected…” Ask yourself if someone (Who?) or something (What?) is receiving the action. What did they collect? They collected donations. Donations is your direct object as this answers What?

Diagramming Compound Subjects and Verbs in Sentences