Diagramming Sentences

Hello Readers,
  The novel Wishin' and Hopin' by Wally Lamb takes place in the mid-1960s when LBJ was in the White House.  Our narrator, Felix Funicello, is a 5th grader in parochial school.  He tells about one time during confession,  "I admitted that, having forgotten to do my sentence diagramming homework one night, I had copied someone else's paper on the bus."
  Sentence diagramming.  How many of you remember doing it in school?  I do, and I believe that by diagramming sentences, I gained the understanding of how parts of speech work.  That plus 35 years of teaching French and Spanish where it was helpful to identify the parts of speech to the students before introducing a new concept.  For example, explaining to them what the subject of the sentence was, or the verb, or the adverb.
  If you were unlucky enough not to have had the experience of diagramming sentences, then you will learn from my blog just how the parts of speech work and how to work them correctly.


  Let's start with the subject and verb.  The subject of the sentence is who or what is doing the action, which is the verb.  =   Bobby Fischer plays chess.
                                    Bobby Fischer is the subject.
                           or     The man plays chess.
                                   The man is the subject.
 His name or description can be replaced by a subject pronoun.
                                    He plays chess.
The verb, of course, is plays.
  Another example:   The plane will arrive on time.
                                 The plane is the subject.
The plane can be replaced by a subject pronoun.
                                 It will arrive on time.
The verb in the future tense is will arrive.
The subject and the verb must agree.  What does this mean?


   Example:  In the "Seinfeld" episode entitled "The Dinner Party",  Jerry, Elaine, George and Kramer are on their way to a dinner party.  Jerry and Elaine stop at a bakery to buy a babka while Kramer and George go to a liquor store.  After a while, Elaine asks Jerry, "Where is George and Kramer?"  WRONG.
   George and Kramer is the subject, and the verb should be are because two people are the subject, therefore plural.  Is is used for a singular subject.  "Where is George?"
   Example:  In the Jodie Foster movie "The Brave One", Detective Mercer says to Erica Bain (victim of a brutal crime), "We got two of the best detectives in this city that's working on this."  WRONG.
It should be "Two of the best detectives...who are working on this case."  Plural subject needs a plural verb.
   Example:  In the series "Boardwalk Empire" season 1, episode 1, Nucky Thompson says to his girl friend,
"....Arnold Rothstein and $90,000 is more important than you."  WRONG.
Arnold Rothstein and $90,000 = plural; are more important = plural.
   Example:  In the series "Fairly Legal" episode entitled "Force Majeure", San Francisco ADA Justin Patrick is being deposed by another ADA and close colleague.  To diffuse the tense situation, Justin asks, "How is Sheila and the baby doing?"  WRONG.  Of course it should be "How are Sheila and the baby doing?"
   Example:  On "The Bachelorette", during one of the rose ceremonies, Emily says, "Each of you are so wonderful."  WRONG.   It should be "Each of you is so wonderful" because "each" indicates one.
   Example:  In "Blue Lagoon:  The Awakening", Dean and Emma are stranded on an island.  He says to her, "None of us are cave dwellers."   WRONG.   None indicates "not one", therefore singular.  It should be "None of us is a cave dweller."
  Example:  On "America's Got Talent", Sharon asks, "Where's the pirates?"  It should be "Where are the pirates?"
  Last example:  On the show "Dogs in the City", New York City dog guru Justin Silver says, "The fashion district is right off of Times Square, so there's people everywhere."   People refers to more than one, therefore plural:  There are people everywhere.


   Here are two examples of CORRECT usage:
   In the novel The Last Time They Met by Anita Shreve, someone says, "None of us is safe here."
   On "The Big Bang Theory"  episode "The Roommate Transmorgrification", Howard Wolowitz asks his girl friend what type of research she will be doing at her new job in a pharmaceutical company.  She replies, "There are a couple of opportunties available..."
   Good job shout out to Ms. Shreve and to the writers of "The Big Bang Theory".


   Next post:  Adverbs and how to use them correctly.