SECTION ONE THE SENTENCE I SUMMARY OF GRAMMAR IN BOOK ONE Parts of Speech Names of persons, places, things, or ideas are called nouns. Words used to describe nouns are called adjectives. Words that are used in the place of nouns are called pronouns. I, you, he, she, it and their families are called personal pronouns. Words that may be used to tell or state are called verbs. Words that tell how, when, or where are called adverbs. Words that show the relations of nouns or pronouns to other words are called prepositions. Words that join words or sentences are called conjunctions. Sentences Sentences that tell, state, or declare are called declarative sentences. Sentences that ask questions are called interrogative sentences. Sentences that command or direct are called imperative sentences. Sentences that exclaim are called exclamatory sen tences. Every sentence may be divided into two parts, the subject and the predicate. Paragraphs It A paragraph is a group of words consisting of one or more sentences, all relating to the same topic. is usually a sub-division of a longer composition. II THE SENTENCE - SUBJECT AND PREDICATE (1) Coming events cast their shadows before. CAMPBELL. Where are the snows of yesteryear? — D. G. ROSSETTI. Toll for the brave, the brave that are no more. - COWPER. What a fall was there, my countrymen!- SHAKESPEARE. One of these sentences expresses a statement, one a question, one a command, and one an exclamation. What name do we give to each? Find and copy a sentence of each kind in "How Alfred the Great learned to Read" (p. 13). Though the sentences studied above are of different kinds, they all express thoughts. Every thought must be about something. You cannot think of nothing. So every statement of a thought in words must have a word or words to tell what the thought is about, and other word or words to tell what the thought is. The sentence "King Ethelwulf had five sons," is a statement about King Ethelwulf. The person writing the sentence was thinking about him. The thought that is stated about King Ethelwulf is that he had five sons. The word or words naming that about which the thought is expressed are called the subject of the sentence. The word or words expressing the thought about the subject are called the predicate. A sentence is a group of words consisting of a subject and a predicate and expressing an entire thought. What is the subject and what the predicate of the sentence"King Ethelwulf had five sons"? The subject and the predicate of a sentence may each be a single word as Write separately the subject and the predicate of each of the following sentences :— "A soft answer turneth away wrath." "Evil communications corrupt good manners." "The way of the transgressor is hard." "A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance." "Grievous words stir up anger." "A man is known by the company he keeps." (3) Whenever the subject or the predicate is a group of words, there is usually one word that is the principal word, the others being its modifiers. In "a soft answer turneth away wrath," what group of words is the subject? What noun is the principal word in the group? What group of words is the predicate? What verb is the principal word in this group? Answer is called the simple subject and a soft answer the complete or grammatical subject. Turneth is the simple predicate and turneth away wrath is the complete or grammatical predicate. Make a definition for the simple subject, the complete subject, the simple predicate, the complete predicate. |