The best place to start classifying and diagramming is with a pattern one sentence. In its most basic form, it consists of only two words. The first word is the subject noun (SN), or who or what the sentence is about. The second word is the verb (V), or what is being said about the subject noun.
Before we get started with examples, take a moment and download the grammar memorization questions as a cross-reference.
SAMPLE LESSON
Let’s take a look at a pattern one sentence.
In the example, “Henry” is the subject noun because the sentence is about him, and “ruled” is the verb because that is what is being said about him. Of course, it’s kind of a boring sentence, but it is a sentence. We know that because it’s a complete thought by itself. As such, the subject noun and the verb are the sentence’s core parts.
If we want to make it more interesting, we just add a few modifiers. Adjectives (Adj) are good modifiers to start with. They add meaning to nouns and pronouns. They show “what kind,” “which one,” and “how many” of something. Here is an example.
“King” is an adjective because it says what kind of person Henry is. “VII” is also an adjective. It says which Henry the sentence is about.
Next, let’s try an adverb (Adv) modifier. Adverbs add meaning to verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. They show “how,” “when,” “where,” “why,” and “to what extent” of something.
“Self-righteously” is an adverb because it shows how he ruled.
(Incidentally, I say it was self-righteously because Henry would not listen to the reason of men such as St. Thomas More who warned him of the dangers of breaking with the Church in order to satisfy his more carnal appetites. Likewise, Henry was very clever at justifying his actions as being for the sake of securing a male heir, allegedly “for the kingdom.”)
Okay, the sentence has gotten a lot more interesting, but it still lacks context. That’s where prepositional phrases come in handy.
Prepositional phrases start with a preposition (P) and end with an object of the preposition (OP). Collectively, their function is to show the relationship of one idea to another idea. Some prepositional phrases function as adjectives; others function as adverbs.
By adding “over England” we now have an adverb prepositional phrase that modifies “ruled.” Specifically, it tells us where Henry ruled.
Let’s add a few more prepositional phrases and see what happens.
We now have three prepositional phrases. “Over England” still explains where he ruled. “From 1509” explains when he ruled. “To 1547,” however, shows how many years he ruled past 1509. As such, we have to build the diagram like this.
Notice that “to 1547” is drawn off of “1509.” That makes it an adjective prepositional phrase because 1509 is a noun, not to mention that the phrase answers an adjective question.
PRACTICE SENTENCES
To round out the lesson, here are several more pattern one sentences about Henry VIII that include adjectives, adverbs, and prepositional phrases.
Poor Henry! (Note my sarcasm.) When we get to pattern two sentences in the next lesson, I’ll be able to fill in more of the racy details like who he married and what happened to each of them. For now, we have to content ourselves with generalities.