# Sentence diagramming

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sentence-diagramming/615359>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [March 10, 2012, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sentence-diagramming/615359 "2012-03-10T02:00:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sentence-diagramming/615359/61 "2012-03-14T15:16:14Z")

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> [@kushiel](#):
>
> Nope. We’d be given a sentence and then we had to write down what the subject, noun, verb, etc. was, but never in a diagram form.
> 
> Canada, elementary school in the 90s.

Same here, although I went to elementary school in the 80s.

However, in one of my university computer science classes, I think we talked about [parse trees](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parse_tree) in the context of English senteces. I don’t know if that counts.

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**Author:** ![Lionne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Lionne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lionne)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sentence-diagramming/615359/62 "2012-03-14T20:44:44Z")

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Never learned it…didn’t even know of it until well after I graduated high school.  
Elementary school in both New England and Florida, mid-to-late 80s.

I would have loved diagramming.

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**Author:** ![wonderlust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonderlust/32/7237_2.png) [@wonderlust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonderlust)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sentence-diagramming/615359/63 "2012-03-14T23:38:53Z")

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When I was about 7 my mom saw that I needed something to do, other than browsing the Childcraft Encyclopedia and memorizing the poems, so she showed me how to diagram sentences. I loved it! It was like doing puzzles.

My elementary school did teach what I see is called Reed-Kellogg in about 4th grade (1963), but only a brief, single lesson.

> [@Dr.Woo](#):
>
> This was '60s in California.

Me too!

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**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\
**Post date:** [March 15, 2012, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sentence-diagramming/615359/64 "2012-03-15T01:18:51Z")

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I learned constituency trees, but only at university (late 80s).

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**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\
**Post date:** [March 15, 2012, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sentence-diagramming/615359/65 "2012-03-15T01:52:08Z")

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No sentence diagramming ever, k-12, central Indiana. Loads of spelling instruction, 1st-7th grades, phonics through third grade, and grammar and composition through 11th. Senior English wasn’t required back then (1978 graduate).

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**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\
**Post date:** [March 15, 2012, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sentence-diagramming/615359/66 "2012-03-15T08:00:14Z")

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I didn’t know until now that it was called “the Reed-Kellogg system” but I learned about diagramming sentences in elementary school–I don’t remember exactly which grade–but probably sometime around 1980 or so in Cobb County, Georgia (suburban Atlanta).

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