First Grammar Lessons: Part I, Lesson III

John writes. Birds sing. Mary sews.

We know that ‘John,’ ‘birds,’ and ‘Mary’ are the subjects or things we speak of in each sentence.

You can tell something more about them:

John is a boy’s name.
Mary is a girl’s name.
Birds is a name given to feathered creatures.

So ‘John,’ ‘Mary’ and ‘birds’ are name-words.

As all persons and most things in the world have names, you can imagine how many name-words there must be.

Think of all the names of persons you know—

of all the names of places—

of all the things you have seen—

of things you have heard and cannot see, such as music and noise—

then of things that you can only think about, such as obedience and gentleness.

You could easily think of hundreds of name-words belonging to things that you know yourself.

The name-words are the largest group of words. We call them nouns, a word which comes from the Latin word “nomen,” which means a name.

To be learnt.

Name-words are called nouns.

1. Make ten sentences with nouns that are names of persons for the subject:

Mary went away.

2. Make ten sentences with nouns that are the names of places for the subject:

Worthing is a clean town.

3. Make ten sentences with nouns that are the names of things you can see for the subject:

Chairs are useful.

4. Make ten sentences with nouns that are the names of things you can hear for the subject:

A noise disturbs the baby.

5. Make ten sentences with nouns that are the names of things you have heard about for the subject:

A victory was gained.

6. Make ten sentences with nouns that are the names of things you can only think of for the subject:

Patience makes lessons pleasant.

You have made sixty sentences with Noun subjects—repeat the sixty nouns, or, write them with a line under each.