Diagramming Charles Dickens

Diagram a sentence from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, and sign up for our free email series!

External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. 

If you already know how to diagram, try diagramming that sentence before you peek at the answer below. When you scroll down, you’ll also find a key that tells you about each word in the sentence and links to a lesson about that concept.

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The emails will be written like little sentence diagramming puzzles. I’ll send you a sentence along with tips for diagramming the sentence. Then, I’ll show you the answer. Here’s an example!

Directions

Use the tips and links below to help you diagram the sentence. Scroll to the bottom to see the answer. Have fun!

The Sentence

External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. 

Tips

1. This is a simple, declarative sentence.
2. Heat and cold are compound subjects. They are connected with the coordinating conjunction and. 
3. External is an adjective modifying both heat and cold. Diagram it branching from the horizontal line after the line for the two subjects comes together. 
4. Had is the verb. It’s a transitive active verb. 
5. Influence is the direct object of the verb had. 
6. Little is an adjective modifying influence. 
7. On Scrooge is a prepositional phrase modifying had. Notice that we can move the phrase around in the sentence, and the sentence maintains its meaning. This helps us see that it’s modifying the verb. 

   On Scrooge, external heat and cold had little influence.

   External heat and cold had, on Scrooge, little influence.
   

8. Here are the parts of the sentence that go in the slots of the sentence diagram: 

Can you diagram it?

When you’re finished, scroll down to see the answer.

🙂 Elizabeth

Are you ready for the answer?

Let’s look at the diagram.

Do you want to see more sentences from A Christmas Carol diagrammed? We’ll be diagramming more in our upcoming email series, so be sure to sign up below!

If you’d like to teach or learn grammar the easy way—with sentence diagrams—check out our Get Smart Grammar Program.

It starts from the very beginning and teaches you grammar and sentence diagramming in easy, bite-size lessons.