Graded Lessons in English - Alonzo Reed and Brainerd Kellogg (classic reads txt) 📗

class by itself. So we call the noun music a common noun.

CLASSES OF PRONOUNS.

The speaker seldom refers to himself by name, but uses the pronoun I instead. In speaking to a person, we often use the pronoun you instead of his name. In speaking of a person or thing that has been mentioned before, we say he or she or it. These words that by their form indicate the speaker, the hearer, or the person or thing spoken of, are called +Personal Pronouns+. See Lesson 19, “Hints.”

Give sentences containing nouns repeated, and require the pupils to improve these sentences by substituting pronouns.

When we wish to refer to an object that has been mentioned in another clause, and at the same time to connect the clauses, we use a class of pronouns called +Relative Pronouns+. Let the teacher illustrate by using the pronouns who, which, and that. See Lesson 57, “Hints for Oral Instruction.”

When we wish to ask about anything whose name is unknown, we use a class of pronouns called +Interrogative Pronouns+. The interrogative pronoun stands for the unknown name, and asks for it; as, Who comes here? What is this?

Both men were wrong. Let us omit men and say, Both were wrong. You see the meaning is not changed—_both_ is here equivalent to both men, that is, it performs the office of an adjective and that of a noun. It is therefore an +Adjective Pronoun+. Let the teacher further illustrate the office of the adjective pronoun by using the words each, all, many, some, such, etc.

DEFINITIONS.

CLASSES OF NOUNS.

+A Common Noun is a name which belongs to all things of a class+.

+A Proper Noun is the particular name of an individual+.

CLASSES OF PRONOUNS.

+A Personal Pronoun is a pronoun that by its form denotes the speaker, the one spoken to, or the one spoken of+.

+A Relative Pronoun is one that relates to some preceding word or words, and connects clauses+.

+An Interrogative Pronoun is one with which a question is asked+.

+An Adjective Pronoun is one that performs the offices of both an adjective and a noun+.

 

LESSON 72.

SENTENCE-BUILDING.

Build each of the following groups of nouns into a sentence. See Rule, Lesson 15.

webster cares office washington repose home marshfleld.

george washington commander army revolution president united states westmoreland state virginia month february.

san francisco city port pacific trade united states lines steamships sandwich islands japan china australia.

Write five simple sentences, each containing one of the five personal pronouns: I, thou or you, he, she, and it.

Write four complex sentences, each containing one of the four relative pronouns: who, which, that, and what.

What is used as a relative pronoun when the antecedent is omitted. The word for which a pronoun stands is called its antecedent. When we express the antecedent, we use which or that. I shall do what is required; I shall do the thing which is required, or that is required.

Build three interrogative sentences, each containing one of the three interrogative pronouns: who, which, and what.

Build eight sentences, each containing one of the following adjective pronouns: few, many, much, some, this, these, that, those.

 

LESSON 73.

CLASSES OF ADJECTIVES.

+Hints for Oral Instruction+.—When I say large, round, sweet, yellow oranges, the words large, round, sweet, and yellow modify the word oranges by telling the kind, and limit the application of the word to oranges of that kind.

When I say this orange, yonder orange, one orange, the words this, yonder, and one do not tell the kind, but simply point out or number the orange, and limit the application of the word to the orange pointed out or numbered.

Adjectives of the first class describe by giving a quality, and so are called +Descriptive adjectives+.

Adjectives of the second class define by pointing out or numbering, and so are called +Definitive adjectives+.

Let the teacher write nouns on the board, and require the pupils to modify them by appropriate descriptive and definitive adjectives.

DEFINITIONS.

+A Descriptive Adjective is one that modifies by expressing quality+.

+A Definitive Adjective is one that modifies by pointing out, numbering, or denoting quantity+.

SENTENCE-BUILDING.

Place the following adjectives in two columns, one headed descriptive, and the other definitive, then build simple sentences in which they shall be employed as modifiers. Find out the meaning of each word before you use it.

Round, frolicsome, first, industrious, jolly, idle, skillful, each, the, faithful, an, kind, one, tall, ancient, modern, dancing, mischievous, stationary, nimble, several, slanting, parallel, oval, every.

Build simple sentences in which the following descriptive adjectives shall be employed as attribute complements. Let some of these attributes be compound.

Restless, impulsive, dense, rare, gritty, sluggish, dingy, selfish, clear, cold, sparkling, slender, graceful, hungry, friendless.

Build simple sentences in which the following descriptive adjectives shall be employed.

Some of these adjectives have the form of participles, and some are derived from proper nouns.

+CAPITAL LETTER—RULE.—An Adjective derived from a proper noun must begin with a capital letter+.

Shining, moving, swaying, bubbling, American, German, French, Swiss, Irish, Chinese.

 

LESSON 74.

CLASSES OF VERBS.

+Hints for Oral Instruction+.—_The man caught_ makes no complete assertion, and is not a sentence. If I add the object complement fish, I complete the assertion and form a sentence—_The man caught fish_. The action expressed by caught passes over from the man to the fish. Transitive means passing over, and so all those verbs that express an action that passes over from a doer to something which receives, are called +Transitive verbs+.

Fish swim. The verb swim does not require an object to complete the sentence. No action passes from a doer to a receiver. These verbs which express action that does not pass over to a receiver, and all those which do not express action at all, but simply being or state of being, are called +Intransitive verbs+.

Let the teacher write transitive and intransitive verbs on the board, and require the pupils to distinguish them.

When I say, I crush the worm, I express an action that is going on now, or in present time. I crushed the worm, expresses an action that took place in past time. As tense means time, we call the form crush the present tense of the verb, and crushed the past tense. In the sentence, The worm crushed under my foot died, crushed, expressing the action as assumed, is, as you have already learned, a participle; and, as the action is completed, we call it a past participle. Now notice that ed was added to crush, the verb in the present tense, to form the verb in the past tense, and to form the past participle. Most verbs form their past tense and their past participle by adding ed, and so we call such +Regular verbs+.

I see the man; I saw the man; The man seen by me ran away. I catch fish in the brook; I caught fish in the brook; The fish caught in the brook tasted good. Here the verbs see and catch do not form their past tense and past participle by adding ed to the present, and so we call them Irregular verbs.

Let the teacher write on the board verbs of both classes, and require the pupils to distinguish them.

 

DEFINITIONS.

CLASSES OF VERBS WITH RESPECT TO MEANING.

+A Transitive Verb is one that requires an object+. [Footnote: The object of a transitive verb, that is, the name of the receiver of the action, may be the object complement, or it may be the subject; as, Brutus stabbed Caesar, Caesar was stabbed by Brutus.]

+An Intransitive Verb is one that does not require an object+.

CLASSES OF VERBS WITH RESPECT TO FORM.

+A Regular Verb is one that forms its past tense and past participle by adding ed to the present+. [Footnote: If the present ends in e, the e is dropped when ed is added; as, love, loved; believe, believed.]

+An Irregular Verb is one that does not form its past tense and past participle by adding ed to the present+.

SENTENCE-BUILDING.

Place the following verbs in two columns, one headed transitive and the other, intransitive. Place the same verbs in two other columns, one headed regular and the other, irregular. Build these verbs into sentences by supplying a subject to each intransitive verb, and a subject and an object to each transitive verb.

Vanish, gallop, bite, promote, contain, produce, provide, veto, secure, scramble, rattle, draw.

Arrange the following verbs as before, and then build them into sentences by supplying a subject and a noun attribute to each intransitive verb, and a subject and an object to each transitive verb.

Degrade, gather, know, was, became, is.

A verb may be transitive in one sentence and intransitive in another. Use the following verbs both ways.

+Model+.—The wren sings sweetly.

The wren sings a pretty little song.

Bend, ring, break, dash, move.

 

LESSON 75.

CLASSES OF ADVERBS.

+Hints for Oral Instruction+.—When I say, He will come soon, or presently, or often, or early, I am using, to modify will come, words which express the time of coming. These and all such adverbs we call +Adverbs of Time+.

He will come up, or hither, or here, or back. Here I use, to modify will come, words which express place. These and all such adverbs we call +Adverbs of Place+.

When I say, The weather is so cold, or very cold, or intensely cold, the words so, very, and intensely modify the adjective cold by expressing the degree of coldness. These and all such adverbs we call +Adverbs of Degree+.

When I say, He spoke freely, wisely, and well, the words freely, wisely, and well tell how or in what manner he spoke. All such adverbs we call +Adverbs of Manner+.

Let the teacher place adverbs on the board, and require the pupil to classify them.

 

DEFINITIONS.

+_Adverbs of Time_ are those that generally answer the question+, When?

_+Adverbs of Place are those that generally answer the question+, Where?

+Adverbs of Degree are those that generally answer the question+, To what extent?

+Adverbs of Manner are those that generally answer the question+, In what way?_

SENTENCE-BUILDING.

Place the following adverbs in the four classes we have made—if the classification be perfect, there will be five words in each column—then build each adverb into a simple sentence.

Partly, only, too, wisely, now, here, when, very, well, where, nobly, already, seldom, more, ably, away, always, not, there, out.

Some adverbs, as you have already learned, modify two verbs, and thus connect the two clauses in which these verbs occur. Such adverbs are called +Conjunctive Adverbs+.

The following dependent clauses are introduced by conjunctive adverbs. Build them into complex sentences by supplying independent clauses.

–– when the ice is smooth; –– while we sleep; –– before winter comes; –– where the reindeer lives; –– wherever you go.

 

LESSON 76.

CLASSES OF CONJUNCTIONS. [Footnote: For classified lists, see pp. 190,191.]

+Hints for Oral Instruction+.—Frogs,