How to use English Grammar Tree

The English Grammar Tree diagrams are designed to be highly interactive, offering a dynamic way to explore and understand sentence structures. It allows you to zoom, pan, rotate branches, and click on sections for detailed grammatical information. You can explore specific parts of a sentence or view the entire structure from different angles, sibling sections, heads or governors of phrases, conjoined elements, and paired enclosure sections. Additionally, you can switch between the unique Tree View and the optional Flat View to parse sentences in different formats.

1. Zooming

Zooming allows you to focus on specific sections of the tree by adjusting the level of detail you see.

On Computers:
- Mouse Scroll: Scroll the mouse wheel up to zoom in and down to zoom out. This is the most intuitive way to control the zoom level.
- Touchpad Gesture: If you’re using a laptop with a touchpad, place two fingers on the pad and pinch them together to zoom out or spread them apart to zoom in.
On Mobile Devices: Place two fingers on the screen and pinch them together to zoom out, or spread them apart to zoom in.

2. Panning

Panning allows you to move the tree horizontally or vertically to explore different parts of the diagram.

On Computers: Click anywhere on the tree and hold the left mouse button. Drag the tree in any direction to pan across it.
On Mobile Devices: Hold the screen with two fingers and move in any direction to pan across the tree.

3. Rotating

Sometimes, we need to rotate a specific sub-trunk to be horizontal for better readability because all the sub-trunks are not horizontal at first given that the sentence trees in the diagrams resemble trees lying on the ground.

To do this, long-press (On Computers or On Mobile Devices) or right-click (On Computers) on any section of the target trunk or the section you intend to focus on to rotate it to horizontal.

4. Viewing Details

To view more details about a particular section of the tree, a detailed prompt will appear with additional information.

On Computers: Simply hover your mouse pointer over the section you want to explore.
On Mobile Devices: Tap on the section you’re interested in.

These interactions make it easy to access further explanations and clarifications for each section, ensuring a smooth and informative experience across all devices.

5. Reseting View

How can the diagram view be reset to its original state after zooming, panning, and rotating?

To reset the view, click (On Computers) or tap (On Mobile Devices) on any empty area of the tree diagram.

6. Viewing Siblings of Sections or Units

In complex sentences, large units often contain smaller units on the same level (not branching off), which can make it challenging to identify the siblings of a specific section or unit within a larger structure.

To address this, you can highlight the siblings of a section or unit by hovering your mouse pointer or double-clicking on the specific section or unit. Siblings will be underlined to distinguish them. If the sibling is a unit, both of its enclosure sections will be underlined, and they will flicker to draw attention. Note that other sections within these enclosure sections will not be affected, as they are not considered siblings of the selected section or unit.

For example, in the sentence “What she said was true” the clause unit “{What she said}?” is embedded within the main trunk.

To view the siblings of specific sections like “was” or “true,” or to see the siblings of the unit “{What she said},” follow these steps:

Sections

To view the siblings of the section “true”:

On Computers:
- Double-click on the section “true” without activating the section’s details prompt.
- Hover the mouse pointer over the section “true” while showing the section’s details prompt.
On Mobile Devices
- Double-tap on the section “true.”

Units

To view the siblings of the unit “{What she said}”:

The method is the same as for Sections:

On Computers:
- Double-click on either of the two enclosure sections of the unit without activating the unit’s details prompt.
- Hover the mouse pointer over either of the two enclosure sections of the unit while showing the unit’s details prompt.
On Mobile Devices:
- Double-tap on either of the two enclosure sections of the unit.

7. Viewing the Head or Governor of Phrases and Clauses

You may have noticed that the section “was” was bolded after you double-clicked on the section “true” or the unit “{What she said}” in the previous example diagram.

This indicates that “was” is the head of the section “true” and the unit “{What she said}.”

In grammar and theoretical linguistics, the term “head” or “governor” refers to the main word in a phrase or clause that dictates the structure or meaning of its dependents.

For instance, “love” is the head in the sentence “I love you,” with “I” and “you” being its dependents. Another example is that “on” acts as the governor in the phrase “on the table,” with “the table” as its dependent.

One way to identify the head of a section or a unit is to use the same method described in the Viewing Siblings of Sections or Units section above.

Another method is to hover the mouse pointer over the section or unit, or single-tap on it, and check the details in the popup that appears.

8. Viewing Conjoined Elements Linked by Coordinate Conjunctions

Need to quickly identify which elements a coordinate conjunction links?

On Computers:
- Hover the mouse pointer over or click on the coordinate conjunction.
On Mobile Devices:
- Double-tap on it.

The conjoined elements it links will then be bolded.

9. Viewing the Paired Enclosure Section of a Specific Unit

A unit has two paired enclosure sections: one at the beginning and one at the end. How can you quickly identify the corresponding enclosure section in a very long unit?

On Computers:
- Hover the mouse pointer over or click on either enclosure section.
On Mobile Devices:
- Double-tap on it.

The paired enclosure sections will be bolded and will flicker.

10. Switching Between Tree View and Flat View

Tree View is a unique feature of English Grammar Tree. In addition to Tree View, English Grammar Tree offers an alternative view mode called Flat View. In Flat View, all sections are displayed in a linear format, just like a regular sentence you can read from left to right, but with vibrant background colors and rich interactivity.

Here are two diagrams representing the same sentence, “If you are already an experienced coder, you can try a complete build setup,” one in Tree View and the other in Flat View.

Tree View:

Flat View:

You can switch between these views by clicking either of the two options on the control panel, located in the top-left corner of the diagram.

The switch is seamless, allowing you to parse the structure in the format that best suits your needs. While Tree View is ideal for visually tracking grammatical relationships, Flat View provides a clearer look at the entire sentence in a familiar linear format.

In Flat View, while the sections and units are flat, they are also hierachically arranged through different font size, and it provides options to rotate, zoom, and pan, similar to Tree View. Clicking on sections or units reveals their more details, ensuring that all the rich features of English Grammar Tree are fully accessible regardless of the view mode.