Graded Lessons in English | Page 9

in parsing? What is the
rule for writing individual names?

LESSON 16.
VERBS.
+Hints for Oral Instruction+.--We propose to introduce you now to
another class of words. (The teacher may here refer to the talk about
birds.)
You have learned that one very large class of words consists of names
of things. There is another very important class of words used to tell
what these things do, or used to express their existence.
When I say, Plants grow, is grow the name of anything? +P+.--No.
+T+.--What does it do? +P+.--It tells what plants do. It expresses
action.
+T+.--When I say, God is, what does is express? +P+.--It expresses
existence, or being.
+T+.--When I say, George sleeps, sleeps expresses being and
something more; it tells the condition, or state in which George is, or
exists, that is, it expresses state of being.
All the words that assert action, being, or state of being, we call
+Verbs+.
Let the teacher write nouns on the board, and require the pupils to give
all the words of which they can think, telling what the things named
can do. They may be arranged thus:--
Noun. Verbs. | grow, | droop, Plants + decay, | flourish, | revive.
Each pupil may give a verb that expresses an action of the body; as
weep, sing; an action of the mind; as, study, love; one that expresses
being or state of being.
+DEFINITION.--A Verb is a word that asserts action, being, or state of
being+.

The office of the verb in all its forms, except two (the participle and the
infinitive, see Lessons 48 and 49), is to +assert+. This it does whether
the sentence affirms, denies, or asks a question.
+To the Teacher+.--In the exercises of this and the next two Lessons,
let the pupils note the agreement of the verb with its subject. See Notes,
pp. 163-165.
Supply, to each of the following nouns, as many appropriate verbs as
you can think of.
Let some express being or state of being.
Water ----. Wind ----. Pens ----. Parrots ----. Vines ----. Farmers ----.
Trees ----. Ministers ----.
One verb may consist of two, three, or four words; as, is singing, will
be sung, might have been sung.
Form verbs by combining the words in columns 2 and 3, and add these
verbs to all the nouns in column 1 with which they appropriately
combine.
1 | 2 | 3 -------|------------------|------------ Laws | has been | published.
Clouds | have been | paid. Food | will be | restored. Health | should have
been | preserved. Taxes | may be | collected. Books | are | obeyed.
The examples you have written are sentences; the nouns are subjects,
and the verbs are predicates.
As verbs are the only words that assert, +every predicate+ must be a
+verb+, or must contain a verb.
Be prepared to analyze and parse five of the sentences that you have
written.
+Model+.--Laws are obeyed. Diagram and analyze as in Lesson 11.
+Parsing+.--Laws is a noun, because----; are obeyed is a verb, because

it asserts action.

LESSON 17.
Select and write all the verbs in the sentences given in Lessons 28, 31,
34, and tell why they are verbs.

LESSON 18.
SENTENCE-BUILDING.
From the following nouns and verbs, build as many sentences as
possible, taking care that every one makes good sense.
Poems, was conquered, lambs, rebellion, stars, forests, shone, were
seen, were written, treason, patriots, meteors, fought, were discovered,
frisk, Cain, have fallen, fled, stream, have crumbled, day, ages, deer,
are flickering, are bounding, gleamed, voices, lamps, rays, were heard,
are gathering, time, death, friends, is coming, will come.
+To the Teacher+.--Before this recitation closes, let the teacher open up
the subject of Lesson 19. See "Hints for Oral Instruction."

LESSON 19.
PRONOUNS.
+Hints for Oral Instruction+.--We propose to introduce you now to the
third part of speech. +T.--+If I should ask who whispered, and some
boy should promptly confess, what would he say? +P.--+I whispered.
+T.--+Would he mention his own name? +P.--+No. +T.--+What word
would he use instead? +P.--+I.
+T.--+Suppose that I had spoken to that boy and had accused him of

whispering, how should I have addressed him without mentioning his
name? +P.--+You whispered. +T.--+What word would be used instead
of the name of the boy to whom I spoke? +P.--+You.
+T.--+Suppose that, without using his name, I had told you what he did,
what should I have said? +P.--+He whispered. +T.--+What word would
have been used instead of the name of the boy of whom I spoke?
+P.--+He.
(Repeat these questions and suppose the pupil to be a girl.)
+T.--+If I should tell that boy to close his book, when his book was
already closed, what would he say without mentioning the word book?
+P.--+It is closed.
+T.--+If I should