First Grammar Lessons: Part I, Lesson XI
Lesson XI
Tom is good.
We speak of Tom.
That which we speak of is called the subject.
Because subjects are always the names of the things we speak of, they are in the naming case.
Case means condition. If a little boy is hungry, he is in a hungry case; if he is sleepy, he is in a sleepy case; if people are in trouble, it is a sad case. And because subjects are always naming, they are in the naming case.
Can you remember the word the Roman people used for name? Turn the a into o and put an n at the end of our word, and you have it—nomen.
Just as we call our name-words nouns from their word nomen, so we call our naming case nominative case.
To be learnt.
The subject is the name of the thing spoken about.
It is in the nominative case.
Nominative means naming.
Exercise XI
1. The boy reads.
What case is boy in?
Why?
(Because it is the subject, and the subject is the name of the thing spoken about.)
2. Make sentences about twelve things, and say this about the subject each time.
3. Find the subjects to all the verbs in a page of your story book. Say in what case each one is and why.
4. Say of what number each verb on the page is, and why it is so.
Remember nothing but the subject is ever in the nominative case, because nothing else is the name of the thing of which we speak.
Exercise Lesson
John is good.
You can say four things about the word John.
John is a boy’s name.
Name-words are called nouns.
So, John is a noun.
We speak about John.
That which we speak about is called the subject.
So, John is the subject.
The subject names the thing spoken of.
So, John is in the naming case, or the nominative case.
John means a single boy.
When nouns mean single things they are in the singular number.
So John is in the singular number.
John. A noun.
The subject.
In the nominative case.
In the singular number.
The boys write.
Say four things about boys.
The girl sews.
Say four things about girl.
Give the reason for each thing you say.
Exercise Lesson
John is good.
Is good is what we tell about John.
Predicate means “to tell about.”
Is good is the predicate.
Three things about is:
It is the word that makes a sentence (that is, makes sense) of the other two. “John good” is not sense. “John is good” is a sentence.
We know is must be the verb, because we cannot make sense without it.
It is about being something, so it is one of the words of the verb “Be.”
John is singular.
The verb must be like the subject in number, so is is singular in number.
Is. A verb.
Part of the predicate.
A word of the verb “Be.”
Singular number to be like ‘John.’
Apples are nice.
Say four things about ‘are.’
The boys were late.
Say four things about ‘were.’
Give the reason for each thing you say.