First Grammar Lessons: Part I, Lesson II

First Grammar Lessons: Part I, Lesson II

Lesson II

We may make a sentence of two words—the thing we speak of, and what we say about it.

John writes.
Birds sing.
Mary sews.

We speak about ‘John.’

We tell about him that he ‘writes.’

These words, ‘writes,’ ‘sing,’ ‘sews,’ come out of one group, and the words in that group are the chief words of all; for this reason, we cannot make sense, and therefore cannot make a sentence without using one of them.

They are called verbs, which means words, because they are the chief words of all.

All verbs tell what a person or thing is, as:

I am hungry.
The chair is broken.
The birds are merry.

Or what a person or thing does:

Alice writes.
The cat mews.
He calls.

To be learnt.

We cannot make a sentence without a verb.

“Verb” means word.

Verbs state what the subject is.

Verbs state what the subject does.

Exercise II

1. Put in a verb about being.

Mary _____ sleepy.
Boys _____ rough.
Girls _____ quiet.
He _____ first yesterday.
I _____ a little boy.
Tom and George _____ swinging before dinner.
We _____ busy to-morrow.
Fido _____ a good dog.

2. You have eight sentences with different words about being.

Make three new sentences with the verb in each one of these (24).

3. Find the verbs about being in:

I am glad he is here, if he were not we should be sorry and should fear he had been a bad boy, or was poorly.

4. Make six sentences with as many ‘Be’ words in each as you can use.

5. Put a verb about doing to:

The cat _____.
Dogs _____.

6. Make twenty sentences about “That man,” with verbs showing what he does.

That man walks.

7. Find the verbs, and say whether of being or of doing, in:

He went away.
You are my cousin.
It is time to go to bed.
George goes to school.
He took his book.

8. Count how many verbs you use in your talk for the next ten minutes. (Sometimes two words make the verb—He can go.)

9. Write every verb you have found in the exercise, and draw a line under each.