First Grammar Lessons: Part IV, Lesson VI
Lesson VI
If we speak about anyone, there must be three persons in our mind:
We who speak.
The person we speak to.
The person we speak about.
Therefore the person we speak about is the third person.
When we use the names of persons and things, we are generally speaking about them, so that nouns are nearly always in the third person.
When we speak of a man we use he for the subject:
He went with his brother.
We use him for the object:
His brother went with him.
And his for the possessing pronoun:
His brother.
In speaking of a woman,
She is the subject:
She heard me.
Her is the object:
I heard her.
And her is the possessing pronoun:
Her dress.
For things, it is both subject and object:
It is here. Give it to me.
The possessing pronoun is its:
The fly broke its wing.
To be learnt.
The person we speak of is the third person.
Nouns are mostly of the third person.
Exercise VI
1. Supply pronouns for the given nouns in the sentence:
I told Mary that John was in the garden, and Mary said, “Ask John to come in and have John’s tea.”
2. Give three pronouns that you would use instead of each of the following nouns:
Beetle, jug, boy, grocer, country, cat.
3. Find in a page of a reading book pronouns that are subjects.
4. Now make a list of pronouns that are objects.
5. Make a list of all the possessing pronouns in a page of a book.
6. Supply three nouns for the following pronouns:
He
She } is big.
It
7. Supply three pronouns for the following, and say for what they are meant:
him.
John saw } her.
it.
Mary saw _____ hat. (Here use the possessing pronoun.)