First Grammar Lessons: Part IV, Lesson IV

Lesson IV

If I speak to someone, there must be two persons, the first person, I, who speak, and the second person, who is spoken to.

In speaking to people we say you, whether we speak to one person or to several.

We may say:

You told Henry,

where You is the subject—nominative case, or,

Henry told you,

where you is the object—objective case.

You only alters a little when it owns. We do not say You book, but Your book.

Your is the possessive case for pronouns in the second person.

It used to be the custom to say thou for the subject, and thee for the object, and thy for the possessing pronoun, when speaking to one person, and we still find these words used in poetry.

See thee, when thou eat’st thy fill.

Here thee is object after the verb see,

thou the subject of the verb eat’st,

and thy is possessive, owning fill.

To be learnt.

The person spoken to is the second person.

“you” and “your” are pronouns of the second person.

“thou,” “thee,” and “thy” are sometimes used.

Exercise IV

1. Supply pronouns of the second person to each of the following verbs:

sing, laugh, play.

2. Supply possessive pronouns with regard to things in the house which belong to different people in the room, such as:

Your rabbit, your spade, your book.

3. Find in a page of a reading book some pronouns in the second person.

4. Find in a poem some pronouns belonging to the second person.

5. How would you tell Baby that all his toys belong to him?

These are _____ bricks; this is _____ ball.

6. Give six sentences with the pronoun of the second person in the objective case, such as:

I told _____ to write a letter.
I gave _____ a book.

7. Point out all the pronouns in the second person in the page of a book, and say whether they are singular or plural.