First Grammar Lessons: Part IV, Lesson VII

Lesson VII

You remember that we say, The child walks, and The children walk, because the verb must change to agree with the subject in number. In the same way, we say He walks, They walk.

Yet I walks, He walks is not right, though I and he are both singular.

The reason is that the verb must be like its subject in person as well as in number.

He is the third person, so it takes the same form of verb that the nouns take. But I is first person, so we say, I love, not I loves, and Thou eatest, not Thou eats.

When we look at the verb by itself, we often cannot tell of what person or number it is: that is settled by the subject; whatever the subject is, the verb is also.

To be learnt.

The verb and the subject are of the same person.

Exercise VII

1. Supply the right pronouns to the following verbs:

Write, goes, love, see, dance, fish, climbs, walks, speakest.

2. Supply verbs to the following pronouns:

I, we, they, it, she, you, thou, he.

3. From a page in a reading book point out verbs, and say of what persons they are, and why.

4. Make six sentences in which the verb agrees with its subject to each of the following pronouns:

I, we, he.

5. In a page of a book point out verbs and their subjects.

6. Change the following pronouns into a different person, and see that the verb agrees with its subject, for example:

I walk very fast. (Henry walks very fast, Thou walkest very fast, You walk very fast.)