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The Language of Grammar: Authentic Sentences #3

Being able to classify and diagram the work of William Shakespeare is considered a sign of mastery, not least because he is the foremost master of the English language himself. Everything about his writing often seems highly complex at first, but with a little mental muscle we can break his verses down into their core parts just as we would with any other sentence.

Doing this in the classroom has an amazing effect. Students may need a little help getting started on one of his verses, but they soon figure out the sentence pattern with all its modifiers and create an elaborate diagram connecting each word.

Even better, doing this demystifies what Shakespeare is saying. From figurative language to humor, it pretty much all makes sense in the end.

PRACTICE SENTENCES

In this series on the language of grammar, we already covered William Shakespeare’s connection to Queen Elizabeth. In contrast to that earlier post which was written to practice participles, this post will work with Shakespeare’s own words as yet another example of authentic language.

There is, of course, much to choose from, so I like selecting verses from one of his plays that we already study in Literature. Here are the classifications and diagrams from the “Tomorrow Speech” in Macbeth. Though it consists of ten verses, it is only four sentences.

“The way to dusty death” is part of a prepositional phrase in which “on” is inferred. I have used an “x” as a placeholder for it.
There is no verb in this sentence, but we can infer Shakespeare to have meant, “Go out, out brief candle.” Once again, I used an “x” as a placeholder for the missing word.
“Player” is an appositive of “shadow,” so we place them on the same line separated by a comma.
I treated “full of” as a compound preposition. Another option is to separate them and use “full” as an adjective, but I don’t think that works as well.

The meaning of Macbeth’s speech is readily apparent after classifying and diagramming it: life is pointless. Don’t worry; my class spends ample time discussing this message, and we always disagree with Macbeth.

And yet we also realize that this sentiment is fairly common in the world. None, however, have expressed it with the same poignancy as Shakespeare.

Therein lies another important lesson. Shakespeare could have just had Macbeth say, “Life is pointless!”

Instead, he used ten whole verses of poetic genius to turn one of the saddest thoughts imaginable into a work of art. His words seem more than words. They are feelings so real we can almost touch them. At the same time, however, we recoil from their horror. Rather than live the life of a morose idiot strutting and fretting toward death, Shakespeare has actually called us to live a true and meaningful life.

Now that’s a powerful use of language, not to mention an interesting Grammar lesson.

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The Language of Grammar: Authentic Sentences #2

Today we will classify and diagram some of Queen Elizabeth’s most famous quotes. Though we have covered her story quite extensively in this series on the language of grammar, it has not always been glowing. It is only fitting, then, to give Elizabeth a chance to speak for herself. After all, it was her words more than her actions that won the hearts of her people.

Before we begin, let’s recap what we have covered about her so far and match it up with our grammar lessons.

First, we looked at her ascent to the throne of England in connection to learning pattern six. Then, we covered some basic background on her rule when we learned pattern seven.

We continued her story through three lessons on verbals. For infinitives we considered her relationship with Saint Edmund Campion. For participles, we examined her patronage of William Shakespeare. For gerunds, we reviewed her leadership role in defeating the Spanish Armada.

PRACTICE SENTENCES

Now it’s time to look at what Queen Elizabeth said during her lifetime. That will give us a window into how she perceived herself and how she wanted to be perceived by others. It will also give us more practice with authentic language, or words spoken in their natural context. 

We have looked at a lot of these elements already, so let’s focus on the appositive phrase “and a king of England.” It is an appositive because it is restating the idea of “king” in a different way. We stack “and” on a dotted horizontal line because it is an expletive, meaning it does not really have a function or add meaning to the sentence.
This is a rather complicated diagram. Let’s focus on the phrase “more anxious than my country.” Whenever we see a comparison of the degree of something, we have to break down the inferred words in that comparison. In this case, we can understand the sentence to be saying, ‘There is nothing about which I am more anxious than I am anxious about my country.” Then, we draw the diagram with all of the inferred words marked by an “x.”
Notice that “but” is not a conjunction here. It is an adverb that means “only.”
“We pay for love” modifies “price.” It answers the question, “What kind of price?”
“Whose” is an adjective modifying “those.” It answers the question, “Which of those?” The answer is, “Those whose faith and silence you have not already tested.” Notice that “faith and silence” are compound direct objects even though they come at the beginning of the adjective clause.
Notice that “cannot” is a verb here as opposed to “can not,” which is a verb plus an adverb. The difference is that “cannot” means something is impossible whereas “can not” means something may or may not be possible.

This last quote is my favorite because of its political genius. With her characteristic eloquence, Queen Elizabeth aligns her rule with the Will of God and presents herself as His humble servant. This would have been a particularly important message to convey in light of England’s split with the Catholic Church. Without the pope to sanction her rule, she needed God to do so Himself.

But her cleverness does not stop there. In praising the gratitude of her people, she is actually applauding herself and implicitly stating that the people should be thankful she is queen.  

Now let’s focus on that last word for a moment: queen. Elizabeth knew that she was ruling in a man’s world. She felt the threat of rebellion at many points in her rule and knew she needed to present herself in a way that would make her appear not merely as strong as a king but even stronger.

At the same time, she needed to retain her femininity and make herself lovable. When taken as a whole, these quotes showcase the brilliant ways in which Queen Elizabeth walked that fine line. She was strong and beautiful, severe and magnanimous.

I imagine she would have taken Machiavelli’s advice about it being better to be feared than loved, if one cannot be both, as a challenge. “Of course I can be both!” she might have answered. Elizabeth was feared by many during her lifetime because of her iron-fisted rule, but it is the extent to which she was loved that is most remembered.

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The Language of Grammar: Authentic Sentences #1

Now that we have mastered classifying and diagramming the various sentence patterns and sentence types, we are ready to work with authentic language, or words spoken in their natural context.

So far, I have composed all the sentences in this blog series to fit a particular lesson. That is no longer necessary. We can now move on to sentences drawn from the bottomless treasure trove of the written and spoken word. There may be a few outstanding classifying and diagramming rules for us to learn, but we will deal with them as they come up.

PRACTICE SENTENCES

In keeping with our theme of the Renaissance and building off of our last post on Francis Petrarch, we turn to another humanist, Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527). He is considered one of the most influential political thinkers of his day and is most well-known for writing The Prince, which was meant as a guide for Medici de Lorenzo, ruler of Florence.

Machiavelli’s ideas continue to shape politics, statesmanship, and power today. Here are some of his most famous, not to mention controversial, quotes for us to classify and diagram.

“Who wishes to be obeyed” is a noun clause modifying “He.” It answers the question, “What kind of he?”
This sentence has another noun clause. “He has around him” modifies “men.” It answers the question, “Which men?”
“Who has power” is a noun clause that modifies “he.” It answers the question, “What kind of he?” Notice also that the subject noun in the second complete thought is inferred. I left it blank, but another option is to write an x in the space.
This complex sentence has the added complexity of using an unequal comparison between being feared and being loved, which is set up by the word “than.” We can infer a parallel structure in the comparison such that the phrase means “it is better to be feared than to be loved.”
This sentence has another noun clause. “That does not trust its people to be armed” modifies “government.” It answers the question, “What kind of government?”
Here we have another unequal comparison set up with the word “than.” The “sureness” of the sign of decay is guaranteed, or we might say maximized, by the contempt that is “held.”
The subject noun of the second complete thought is inferred, so I left it blank. While we could think of “few” as the subject pronoun, the sentence is meant to be parallel. Hence, “few” is an adjective just as “all” is an adjective.

Whether we agree with Machiavelli’s principles or not, he certainly had great insight into the politics of governance. He understood how to read and exploit the feelings of society for the advantage of his prince.

While we may not like his lack of moral scruples, his judgment was governed by something he thought far more sacred—power. In his view, every decision, every action of a ruler should be a careful calculation designed to secure and augment the strength of the state.

Although it makes Machiavelli seem somewhat sinister by our modern sensibilities, there is an honesty to his politics. He did not pretend to serve the people, at least not directly. His allegiance was to his “prince” who, in turn, offered safety and security to the kingdom. Without a strong centralized government, he contended, the people would suffer—not that he necessarily cared about them for their own sake

In any event, Machiavelli’s ideas make for wonderful practice classifying and diagramming sentences. They also make for wonderful debate in the classroom!

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The Language of Grammar: Compound-Complex Sentences

We have finally arrived at the dreaded compound-complex sentence, the very name of which often strikes fear in the hearts of my students. It sounds so complicated! At least it did to me when I was their age. I had a hard time breaking the sentence down into its parts. There are three in all, consisting of two complete thoughts and one incomplete thought.

Complete Thought + Complete Thought + Incomplete Thought = Compound-Complex Sentence

Once my students memorize this formula, they simply need to put it together with the same rules for compound sentences and complex sentences. As the name implies, a compound-complex sentence builds from those earlier structures, so a good foundation in them is essential.

SAMPLE LESSON

Here is our first sample sentence.

(We’ll look at the merits of Petrarch’s philosophy shortly. For now, let’s focus on the sentence structure.)

When I guide my students through a sentence like this, I tell them to first look for any conjunctions, conjunctive adverbs, or subordinate conjunctions. For example, if we see a comma conjunction, then we know two complete thoughts are being combined. If we see a subordinate conjunction followed by a phrase that otherwise looks like a complete thought, then we have an incomplete thought.

In this example, we have the conjunction “but” set off with a comma. We also have the subordinate conjunction “because” followed by a complete thought. Right away, that should tell us we have two complete thoughts and one incomplete thought. That makes the sentence compound-complex!

To be more precise, the first complete thought is “Francis Petrarch considered the Middle Ages a period of darkness.” The second complete thought is “he considered himself enlightened.” The incomplete thought is “because he valued the principles of classical antiquity.”

Yes, there are a number of steps in identifying a compound-complex sentence, but they follow a predictable pattern. With practice, students come to recognize them quickly.

To diagram a compound-complex sentence, we start off with the two complete thoughts, stacking the first one on top and the second on the bottom. We connect them with our “step” from the top verb to the bottom verb and place the conjunction on the step.

Once we have done that, then we diagram the part of the incomplete thought that looks complete. That should be placed beneath the complete thought it modifies, which may mean it needs to be pushed far off to the side to fit below.

Finally, we connect it with a dotted diagonal line from verb to verb and write the subordinate conjunction on it.

PRACTICE SENTENCES

We’ll continue with Francis Petrarch (1304-1374) for our practice sentences and try to get to the bottom of why he considered his era, the Renaissance, so far superior to the preceding Middle Ages.

In fact, we have Petrarch to thank for all those comics with knights riding around in the pitch black. No, he did not actually draw them, but his philosophy gave birth to them. He called the Middle Ages the “Dark Ages,” and that term has stuck throughout the centuries. Only in modern times have historians begun to reconsider the merits of this term and all the negative connotations it implies.

Obviously, knights were not really riding around blindly in the dark, but more to the point, society as a whole was not simply devoid of culture and learning during the Middle Ages. There were ample great thinkers throughout the era, many of whom went on to become saints: Augustine, Bernard of Clairvaux, and Thomas Aquinas, to name a few.

What’s more, they were not wholly disconnected from the works of classical antiquity. Rather, they expanded and developed them in innovative ways, often drawing previously unseen connections to Christianity. One might even argue the Middle Ages gave birth to greater originality than the Renaissance where artists painstakingly copied the work of their classical icons as if they were a fixed formula or pattern.

The point is not so much to compare which era is better but to acknowledge the richness found in both. Petrarch may have been a genius of sorts, but that does not mean the generations of the preceding era were inferior, or worse yet, “backwards.” Rather, the differences between the Renaissance and the Middle Ages reflect a major shift in the worldview that prevailed throughout Western Civilization.

We’ll look at some of those differences in the next post.

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The Language of Grammar: Complex Sentences

It’s time to move on to complex sentences. Unlike compound sentences, which combine two complete thoughts, complex sentences combine one complete thought with one incomplete thought.

Complete Thought + Incomplete Thought = Complex Sentence

And the order does not matter. We can put the complete thought at the beginning or at the end and still have a complex sentence. The only difference it makes is in the punctuation, explained below.

SAMPLE LESSON

So let’s see what this looks like with a few examples.

This example begins with a complete thought, “Galileo was famous.” It ends with an incomplete thought, “because he developed the first telescope.”  Now if we flip the order of the sentence and put the incomplete thought first, then the punctuation changes.

Notice we put a comma after the incomplete thought. That is because incomplete thoughts are always attached to the predicate, making it an inverted sentence. The comma is a handy way to show this.

Much like compound sentences which are combined using conjunctions or connective adverbs, complex sentences are combined using subordinate conjunctions.

In the examples above, the subordinate conjunction is “because.” If we were to take out “because,” “he developed the first telescope” would actually be a complete thought. As soon as we put it in, however, it can no longer stand alone. It becomes dependent or subordinate to the rest of the sentence. Without the addition of “Galileo became famous,” “because he developed the first telescope” would not make sense. It would leave us wondering what else was meant to be said.

This brings us to a few additional terms. When talking about incomplete thoughts in the context of complex sentences, we can also call them dependent thoughts or subordinate thoughts. Likewise, complete thoughts can also be called independent thoughts. In order to have a term that opposes subordinate, my students and I also call them bossy thoughts.

No matter the terminology, the point is the same. One of the thoughts can stand alone; the other cannot. By putting them together, we end up with a complex sentence.

Diagrams of complex sentences always start off with the complete thought on top. We diagram this in the regular way. Then, we diagram everything else but the subordinate conjunction as if it were a complete thought just beneath it. Finally, we attach the two thoughts with a diagonal dotted line from verb to verb. Just make sure to capitalize the first word of the sentence so readers know whether the sentence is inverted or not.

PRACTICE SENTENCES

Renaissance scientist Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) will be the focus of these practice sentences. He was a controversial person in his day because he pushed the boundaries of scientific discovery in a way that challenged the Church, ultimately leading to conflict. Let’s take a quick look at what happened and practice complex sentences as we do so.

This sentence has a direct object phrase, which needs to be placed on a pedestal. Many direct object phrases begin with the word “that.” If “that” is not included, and often it is not, then simply put an “x” on the horizontal line on top of the direct object phrase.
Note that “out of” is a compound preposition, so both words go on the same line.

Sadly, Galileo’s story is not the most flattering for the Church. Its stubborn resistance to heliocentrism reflects a complex insecurity. At stake was not only the Church’s credibility on scientific matters but on theological ones as well, or so they thought. If they could get the galaxy backwards, then might they also get a lot of other things backwards?

And so, Galileo was compelled to recant. As a devout Catholic, he preferred to maintain his ties with the Church than to push his theory forward. Perhaps he knew that time would allow the Church, as well as the rest of the world, to realize he was right about heliocentrism—and that a True worldview could never undermine the authority of the Church.

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The Language of Grammar: Compound Sentences

After students have mastered the organizational structure of the simple sentence, they are ready to move on to the compound sentence, which combines two complete thoughts. I like presenting this with a math equation.

1 Complete Thought + 1 Complete Thought = 1 Compound Sentence

In short, a compound sentence is really just compounding or combining two simple sentences to make a new sentence. There a few ways we can do this.

SAMPLE LESSON

The first is to place a comma followed by a conjunction between two complete thoughts.

In this example, our first complete thought is “Michelangelo loved painting.” Our second complete thought is “he loved sculpting.” The glue that holds them together, so to speak, is “, and”.

Of course there are many other conjunctions (listed below), which are more appropriately called coordinating conjunctions, that could be used in a similar format, but the most common are and, or, but. It’s important to remember that the choice of which conjunction to use depends on the message within the sentence.

If we want to show continuation or similarity such as in the sentence above, then we use and.

If we want to show alternatives, then we use or.

Note that “depending on” is a two-word preposition in this case.

If we want to show contrast, then we use but.

Another way to make a compound sentence is to place a semi-colon between two complete thoughts. This format, however, is a bit harder to pull off, so it takes a degree of trial and error to figure out when it works. Typically, students might write something like this at first.

Yes, this sentence is grammatically correct and connects two related ideas in a logical way. However, we could just as easily use the comma conjunction format and say exactly the same thing.

If we want to get the most out of the semi-colon format, then we have to imagine it offering something different than the other compound sentence formats. There should be an even more intimate or profound connection between two related ideas. Likewise, the first complete thought should lead to something bigger or more significant in the second complete thought.

Now this sentence uses the semi-colon in a much better way. The ideas are connected very deeply, and the second complete thought builds on the first.

The final way to combine two complete thoughts is to place a semi-colon followed by a conjunctive adverb followed by a comma between them.

Conjunctive adverbs (listed below) are sometimes called connective adverbs. They are commonly confused with coordinating conjunctions because their functions are so closely related. I think it’s fine to lump them in with conjunctions as long you remember the difference when it comes to diagramming.

To diagram compound thoughts connected with coordinating conjunctions and semi-colons, we stack the first thought on top of the second thought. Then, we simply draw a dotted step leading from the top verb to the bottom verb. Lastly, we write the conjunction, if there is one, on the step.

Complete thoughts connected by conjunctive adverbs are also stacked on top of each other, but instead of a dotted step, we draw a dotted vertical line connecting the top thought to the bottom thought. Place the vertical line all the way to the left, and write the conjunctive adverb like a regular adverb connected to the second verb.  

SAMPLE LESSON

Much like Leonardo, Michelangelo’s (1475 – 1564) talents launched him into the forefront of Renaissance art. His work was so revered that he became the subject of two biographies during his own lifetime, which was pretty much unheard of for anyone, let alone an artist. A look at our practice sentences illustrates some of the reasons for his fame.  

Scholars are unsure whether Michelangelo had help interpreting the theological aspects of his paintings. Either way, he was an artistic genius and Biblical scholar in his own right. What my students often find so incredible is that his works make complex Church doctrine feel simple and easy to understand.

What’s more, his works garner a level of contemplation that is both intellectual and prayerful, ultimately evoking wonder and awe in God Himself.

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The Language of Grammar: Simple Sentences

To close out this blog series, we are going to focus on the various sentence types. Different from sentence patterns that reflect core parts (e.g., SN + V), sentence types reflect the organization of thoughts in sentences.

As every writer knows, it can be hard to organize one’s ideas into a sentence that makes sense. Grammatically, we call this a complete thought or a simple sentence, meaning it has a clear subject, or who or what the subject is about, and a clear predicate, or what is being said about the subject.

Let’s put this in context with a few examples of simple sentences.

SAMPLE LESSON

Alas, it’s time to say goodbye to Queen Elizabeth and move onto another area of the Renaissance. For this lesson, we’ll consider some of the greatest artists of the time period.

This sentence is a complete thought. It has a subject (Leonardo) and a predicate (liked painting). When we put them together, they make sense. If we separate them, they no longer make sense because they turn into incomplete thoughts or fragments.

Happily, most seventh graders have mastered this concept long before they get to my classroom. Nevertheless, I still walk through this organizational structure because it serves as the foundation for all the other sentence types.

A variation of the simple sentence is a simple sentence with a compound subject (SCS).

This time, our complete thought consists of two subject nouns and one verb. If we wanted, we could combine many more subject nouns.

Another form of the simple sentence is a simple sentence with a compound verb (SCV).

Instead of combining multiple subject nouns, we have combined multiple verbs. Following the same logic above, it’s still just one complete thought. We could add even more verbs, and that would still be true.

Diagrams provide a helpful way to visualize how simple sentences consist of only one complete thought.

Recall from any of our previous lessons that diagrams are formed by crossing a long horizontal line with a short vertical line. That vertical line separates the complete subject from the complete predicate. If you have only one of those vertical lines, then you have only one complete thought no matter how many compound subjects and compound verbs there may be.

PRACTICE SENTENCES

Now it’s time to practice what we’ve learned. Here are several simple sentences about Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519).

To review pattern two sentences, click here.
This one is another pattern two sentence.
Here is another pattern two sentence, this time with a compound verb-transitive.
Here is another pattern two sentence.
Here is another pattern two sentence.
To review pattern seven, click here.
Here’s one last pattern four sentence.
Note that “Renaissance” could just as logically be placed in the same space as “Man” since it’s a title. Here, I diagrammed it as an adjective.

It’s no wonder his legacy extends far beyond the Renaissance. The diversity of his interests and the steadfast commitment to excellence he applied therein reminds us that we are all endowed with multiple talents waiting to be developed. His achievements, impressive as they are, were not the product of superhuman abilities.

Rather, they came from constant and deliberate practice, which is infinitely more commendable than raw talent. I view Leonardo as a model of the boundless potential of humanity and a wonderful example for my students.

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The Language of Grammar: Gerunds

The last of the three verbals, gerunds usually end up being a snap for my students. Like infinitives and participles, they are also made from verbs. These ones, however, always end in –ing and perform noun jobs in sentences.  

Let’s put this in context with a few examples. Be sure to download the grammar memorization questions as a cross-reference. And don’t hesitate to jump through the other lessons for review. They are all linked in the introduction to this series through the table of contents.

SAMPLE LESSON

Here are a few examples of the various noun jobs gerunds can use in sentences.

Hopefully, you immediately recognized this sentence as a pattern five (SN LV PrN). Just in case, let’s review the script we would follow if we were classifying the sentence.

What was sinking ships?—pastime (SN)

What is being said about pastime?—pastime was (LV)

Was what?—sinking ships

Does sinking ships mean the same thing as pastime?—yes (PrN)

Since we have a predicate noun phrase that begins with a noun made from a verb that ends in –ing, we can label the whole phrase gerund predicate noun—(GPrN)

Our next sentence is simply the reverse of our first one.

Now, “sinking ships” is the gerund subject noun phrase, and “pastime” is the predicate noun.

Gerunds can also be used for objects of the preposition, first introduced in this lesson.

The prepositional phrase is “for sinking ships.”

Here is the script for that phrase.

For?—preposition (P)

For what?—sinking ships (OP)

Once again, we would go back and add gerund (G) in front of object of the preposition (OP) because “sinking ships” begins with a noun made from a verb that ends in –ing. So the full label would be GOP.

Gerunds can also be used as direct objects.

The script for a pattern two sentence (SN V-t DO) should also be familiar.

Who liked sinking ships?—Elizabeth (SN)

What is being said about Elizabeth?—Elizabeth liked (V-t)

Liked what?—sinking ships (DO)

Since we have a direct object phrase, “sinking ships,” that begins with a noun made from a verb that ends in –ing, we can label the whole phrase gerund direct object–(GDO)

Another common use for gerunds is as object complement nouns found in pattern six sentence (SN V-t DO OCN).

The script for the core parts looks like this.

Who considered Elizabeth’s hobby unfair fighting?—Spain (SN)

What is being said about Spain?—Spain considered (V-t)

Considered what?—hobby (DO)

Considered hobby what?—fighting 

Does fighting mean the same thing as hobby?—yes (OCN)

Since we have an object complement noun phrase, “unfair fighting,” that begins with a noun made from a verb that ends in –ing, we can label the whole phrase gerund object complement noun–(GOCN)

Now for the diagrams.

As you can see, the gerund is placed on a series of lines that looks like a stairwell. I like to think of the gerund as “running” up and down the steps with one floor being for nouns and the other for verbs. Since gerunds are neither, they are kind of stuck in between.

Lastly, the pedestal is somewhat optional. I tend to use it when the gerund has modifiers since it spreads out the words and affords plenty of space. Otherwise, the diagram can look squished and messy.

PRACTICE SENTENCES

Ever since Queen Elizabeth turned down King Philip II of Spain’s marriage proposal, their relationship soured along with that of their respective states. Spain, the more dominant power, sought to advance itself ever further at the expense of England.

Elizabeth, knowing her country’s disadvantage but unwilling to cower, came up with a clever plan to wage secret naval warfare on Spain. She enlisted the help of William Drake, a “sea dog” or pirate of sorts, to attack and sink Spain’s ships in nearby English waters. The strained relationship between the two countries eventually came to a head, with Spain attempting to invade England in 1588.

We’ll use the story of that invasion for our practice sentences on gerunds. As always, we’ll mix in a variety of sentence patterns and other verbals.

Indeed, it cemented England as the rising power in Europe. Her preemptive strikes on Spain and her resolve to stand with her men at Tilbury were critical to the victory, which ultimately changed the course of Europe’s balance of power.

England had arrived, so to speak, and it was led by a woman. Like her or not, Elizabeth was a champion for her country and dramatically changed the world.  

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The Language of Grammar: Participles

Once you’ve mastered infinitives, the next verbal to move onto is participles. They are also made from verbs, but they are always used as adjectives. That makes them rather easy to pick out.

In the context of sentence classification, they answer the questions what kind, which one, and how many. So, if you find a word made from a verb that answers one of those questions, you definitely have a participle.

Let’s put this in context with a few examples. Be sure to download the grammar memorization questions as a cross-reference. And don’t hesitate to jump through the other lessons for review. They are all linked in the introduction to this series through the table of contents.

SAMPLE LESSON

Participles have four different endings, including -ed, -en, -t, or –ing. To illustrate this, we’ll follow Queen Elizabeth into William Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.

“Excited” is a participle adjective (PAdj) because it is an adjective made from a verb that describes what kind of Globe Theatre.

“Mistaken” is a participle adjective (PAdj) because it is an adjective made from a verb that describes what kind of manners.

“Lost” is a participle predicate adjective (PPAdj) because it is an adjective made from a verb that describes what kind of she.

“Cheering” is a participle adjective (PAdj) because it is an adjective made from a verb that describes what kind of audience.

And this is what those same sentences look like in diagrams.

“Though” sets up a subordinate clause that we connect with a dotted line to the independent clause beginning with “she.” This sentence is formally termed “complex,” which we’ll explain in more detail in a subsequent lesson.

Depending on the publisher, I have seen slight variations of the participle format. The big thing, in my view, is that the word is stretched diagonally across the line. Conceptually, this design is supposed to communicate that a participle is “half adjective” (diagonal line) and “half verb” (horizontal line).

Just like with infinitives, participles need a pedestal when they are on the main horizontal line. Otherwise, they can be neatly tucked beneath it.

PRACTICE SENTENCES

Though it is unlikely Queen Elizabeth dictated the subject matter of any of Shakespeare’s plays, there is little doubt he was constantly catering to her interests. Perhaps that is most obvious in Richard III. A one-time family rival, Shakespeare well-knew that Elizabeth would enjoy seeing Richard villainized on stage while making her grandfather, Henry VII, a hero.  

We will use the storyline of the play for these practice sentences. Once we are through, we will compare the fictional Richard to the historical Richard.

Shakespeare’s storyline was sensational and, to some extent, believed to be historically accurate at the time. In all likelihood, he used St. Thomas More’s biography of Richard III to support his characterization of Richard as such a detestable villain. (Even saints can make mistakes, especially when they are deliberately misled as Thomas was.)

Nevertheless, modern historians have done much to clear Richard’s name since then. Many have persuasively argued that it was Henry Tudor who killed the boys, not Richard. Then, in one of history’s most successful cover-ups, he blamed the murders on Richard.   

No matter where the truth may lie, Elizabeth most certainly liked Shakespeare’s characterization of Richard. Vilifying one of her opponents and glorifying one of her ancestors played right into her political propaganda. One can certainly imagine Elizabeth reveling in the virtuous heroism of her grandfather depicted in the play and bowing before the people of England as if she herself had slayed the monstrous Richard.

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The Language of Grammar: Infinitives

Before I started teaching grammar, I had no idea what infinitives were. Sure, I had heard of them, but they seemed like subject matter for grammar cocktail parties (split infinitive anyone?). No thank you! I thought.

I had never learned about infinitives in my grammar classes, and I was getting by just fine. So when I became a teacher myself, I shied away from them for the first few years. There was so much to teach already!

But then I started really getting the hang of grammar, and my lessons began to move more rapidly. I found myself having extra time at the end of the school year to keep going. There was no longer any excuse to ignore infinitives, not to mention gerunds and participles, which we’ll get to soon enough.

So if you’re not content to relegate infinitives into an obscure Jeopardy category, then this is the lesson for you!

Let’s put this in context with an example. Be sure to download the grammar memorization questions as a cross-reference. And don’t hesitate to jump through the other lessons for review. They are all linked in the table of contents found in the introduction to this series.

SAMPLE LESSON

Infinitives are generally easy to recognize because they follow a predictable pattern: to + verb. Let’s find the infinitive in the following quote by Queen Elizabeth. 

“There is nothing about which I am more anxious than my country, and for its sake I am willing to die ten deaths, if that be possible.”

So maybe she exaggerated a little, but it’s still a good quote, especially for our purposes. “To die” is an infinitive because it follows the “to + verb” pattern.

Okay, that’s basic enough, but to really understand infinitives, we have to put them into the fuller context of language. It’s not enough to just recognize them. We need to think about them in connection to the parts of speech. Though they look like verbs, they are not. Rather, infinitives can serve as nouns, adjectives, and adverbs. When nouns, they can have multiple noun jobs: subject noun, predicate noun, object of the preposition, indirect object, and direct object.

In the example above, “to die” functions as a noun, and its jobs is that of a direct object because it answers the verb what question.

Am willing what?—to die (DO)

What kind of direct object?—infinitive direct object (IDO)

Given that infinitives are made from verbs but do not act like verbs, they are classified as verbals. Verbals themselves are not a part of speech, just as infinitives are not. They are simply one of the seemingly endless grammar classifications out there. Everything need a name, I guess.

Now for the diagram. Though it would be fun in a teacher-kind-of-way to diagram the whole sentence, we’re not ready for that yet. (The sentence structure is far beyond our current lessons.) Let’s content ourselves with diagramming just the infinitive. That’s the important part.

The top portion looks like the familiar format for a prepositional phrase. Given that “to” is often used as preposition, this makes perfect sense to my students. They just need to be reminded to look closely at the object of “to.” If the object is a noun or a pronoun, then they have found a prepositional phrase. If it’s a verb, then they have found an infinitive.

The long vertical line with the two “feet” beneath it is generally referred to as a pedestal. We use pedestals when the infinitive goes on the main horizontal line.

In many cases, infinitives consist of more than “to + verb.” When that happens, we call it an infinitive phrase, and we can classify and diagram the phrase the same way we would if the verb really were a verb. In our example, we would use this script to finish the infinitive phrase.

To die what?—deaths (DO)

How many deaths?—ten (Adj)

That phrase would look like this as a diagram.

Here’s the catch: “deaths” is not really a direct object, nor is “ten” really an adjective because they are part of the infinitive phrase. So when we classify them, we don’t need to give them individual labels. We can just put brackets around them to show they are connected to the infinitive.

PRACTICE SENTENCES

Although we will never know if Queen Elizabeth really was willing to die ten times for her country, we do know that she was willing to kill multiple times for it. The martyrdom of Saint Edmund Campion is but one example. Elizabeth had him hanged, drawn, and quartered for spreading the Catholic faith, which she deemed treasonous.

Let’s use his story to practice classifying and diagramming infinitives and review our seven sentence patterns at the same time.

Here we have an infinitive adverb phrase because “to become an Anglican priest” answers the adverb question studied why.

Alternatively, you could label “however” as a conjunction. Since it is not connecting two complete thoughts, I prefer to label it as an adverb.
“Held” is a linking verb because it is not showing action. An easy way to confirm this is to see if you can substitute a being verb for “held” and retain the intended meaning.

Elizabeth’s brutal hand in killing Edmund no doubt sparked fear in the underground Catholic Club, as the Catholic leaders in England were called, but Edmund’s courage in the face of death did much to overcome that. Many were so inspired by Edmund that they, too, ended up offering their lives rather than compromising their souls.

Such is the way of martyrdom. Like the famous Christian author and historian Tertullian said during the early Roman persecutions, “The more they cut us down, the more we grow. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” It would take several decades, but Catholicism would eventually be legalized again in England. Elizabeth would have little imagined how much it had thrived in the meantime.