Sentence Diagram Generator: Diagram Any English Sentence

A sentence diagram is a picture of a sentence's grammar. Each word sits on a line, and the position of the line shows the word's job: subject, verb, object, modifier or clause.

The standard method in American grammar textbooks is the Reed-Kellogg diagram. Alonzo Reed and Brainerd Kellogg set it out in Higher Lessons in English (1877). It replaced an older style of drawing words in bubbles, used by Stephen W. Clark in the 1840s.

Sentence diagramming is still part of many middle-school ELA and homeschool grammar programs. It makes students decide what every word does, instead of just labeling parts of speech.

To diagram a sentence, draw a baseline and split the subject from the verb with a vertical line. Put the direct object after a shorter line, hang the indirect object and prepositional phrases below the verb, then slant adjectives and adverbs under the words they modify.

Here is My grandmother gave the neighbors a warm apple pie on Sunday., built up one step at a time. Each picture is the tool's own output.

Step 1: Find the subject and the verb

Draw a horizontal baseline. Write the subject on the left and the verb on the right, and split them with a vertical line that crosses the baseline.

Step 2: Add the direct object

If the verb has a direct object, write it after the verb, behind a short vertical line that stops at the baseline.

Step 3: Hang the indirect object under the verb

An indirect object (to whom or for whom) goes on a horizontal line below the verb, connected by a slanted line with nothing written on it.

Step 4: Attach prepositional phrases

Write the preposition on a slanted line under the word the phrase modifies, and its object on a horizontal line at the bottom of the slant. "On Sunday" tells when, so it hangs from "gave".

Step 5: Slant the modifiers

Put adjectives, articles and possessives on slanted lines under the nouns they describe, and adverbs under the verbs, adjectives or adverbs they modify.

For every other structure (linking verbs, clauses, questions, infinitives and gerunds), see our full guide on how to diagram a sentence, with a diagram and a cheat sheet for each rule.

Most sentences in a grammar book follow one of five patterns. The pattern decides which line comes after the verb.

The backslash leans back toward the subject because a predicate noun or adjective describes the subject, not the verb.

• Compound subjects and verbs. The line splits into a fork, one branch per item, with the conjunction on a dashed line between them.
• Compound sentences. Each independent clause gets its own baseline. A dashed line with a small step carries the conjunction (and, but, or) from one verb to the next.
• Adjective (relative) clauses. The clause goes on its own baseline below. A dashed line runs from the noun it describes to the relative pronoun (who, which, that).
• Adverb clauses. Also on their own baseline below, joined to the verb they modify by a dashed line with the subordinating conjunction (because, when, if) written on it.
• Noun clauses, gerunds and infinitives used as nouns. These stand on a pedestal (sometimes called a stilt) above the slot where a single noun would go.
• Questions. Rewrite in statement order first: "Why did the committee reject the plan?" becomes subject committee, verb did reject.
• Commands. The subject is the understood (you), written in parentheses.
• Phrases. A phrase with no subject and verb puts its main word on the baseline with no divider.

Teachers and parents use this tool mostly for exercise sentences, so it makes two versions of each diagram.

1. Type the sentence as it is to get the labeled diagram. Use it as the answer key.
2. Type blank worksheet: before the same sentence. You get every line with no words, and the sentence printed on top for students to fill in.
3. Optional: type color-code the parts of speech: before the sentence for a colored version, handy for visual learners.

One diagram covers one sentence. For a whole exercise, switch Mode to Worksheet: paste up to 20 sentences and get a practice worksheet with blank lines plus a matching answer key, both as PDFs. Samples and ready-made practice sets: sentence diagramming worksheets.

The drawing step cannot garble letters: code sets every word in a real font. A word can still be missing or on the wrong line when the grammar analysis gets the sentence wrong. Check these cases before you hand a diagram to students:

• Prepositional phrases that could attach two ways. In "She read the letter to the class," does to the class go with read or letter? The tool picks one. If you want the other, add a note and generate again.
• Compound infinitives. "Willing to compromise and adapt" is drawn as two separate infinitives, and the and between them is left out.
• Pairs of modifiers such as "slowly and steadily" or "tired but happy": the diagram has no place for the and or but between them.
• Infinitives without "to" ("made him cry", "let me go"): the diagram may show a to that is not in your sentence, where textbooks write (to).
• Long literary or legal sentences with appositives and several nested clauses. The more layers, the more places a phrase can land on the wrong word.

Some diagrams are drawn by an image model instead of code: when you attach an image to your request, when the text contains characters the diagram font cannot draw (non-Latin scripts, emoji), and when the grammar step fails or takes longer than about 20 seconds. Those results take about a minute and are drawn freehand, so check their words and lines carefully. Our accuracy page explains which diagrams are drawn by code and which by an image model across all Vizcept tools.

Drawing by hand is still the best way to learn. Use the tool to check your work or to make answer keys faster, not to skip the thinking.