Harvey's Elementary Grammar and Composition · Lesson 12 · Part 1: Part I: The elementary course
10. Quality-words and nouns as predicates
Goal: Your child can make sentences by saying a quality of a subject ("Oranges are yellow") or its kind ("Eagles are birds").
You'll need
- The book, open to this lesson
- Paper and a pencil (or a slate)
What's in the book
Lesson 12 calls words that express qualities quality-words, shows that nouns can be predicates, and gives three lists for building sentences, each with a model.
The lesson, step by step
Review
Ask: In "Snow is white," what is the subject? The predicate? The copula?
Quality-words
Read:
Words which express qualities may be called quality-words.
Ask your child for quality-words about a cat: soft, quick, gray. Each one could be a predicate: "The cat is soft."
Nouns as predicates
Read:
Nouns may be used as predicates. When they are thus used, they denote kind or class.
The book's examples include "Man is mortal" and "Horses are animals." Ask which predicate is a quality-word and which is a noun.
Say a quality
Using the book's model
Oranges are yellow.
say sentences aloud for Iron, Trees, Fishes and Books.
Write all three kinds
Write sentences from each list on the page. Follow the models:
Sugar is sweet.
Eagles are birds.
For the second list, find a subject for each quality (soft, hard, wise, round). For the third, say what class each subject belongs to (Gold, Oxen, Wheat).
Check together
Read the sentences aloud. Is each predicate true? Does each start with a capital and end with a period?
Use it today
Describe something at dinner with a quality-word predicate ("The soup is hot") and a noun predicate ("Carrots are vegetables").
Answers to the book's problems
Sentences will vary. Sample kind-or-class answers: Gold is a metal. Oxen are animals. Sheep are animals. Wheat is a grain. Corn is a grain (or a plant). Eagles are birds. Silver is a metal. Any true class is fine.
Worked out for this site from the scan. If a number in your copy differs, trust the book.