Harvey's Elementary Grammar and Composition · Lesson 4 · Part 1: Part I: The elementary course
3. Commands, exclamations and the four kinds of sentences
Goal: Your child can name and recognize all four kinds of sentences: declarative, interrogative, imperative and exclamatory.
You'll need
- The book, open to this lesson
- Paper and a pencil (or a slate)
What's in the book
The rest of Lesson 4: definitions of imperative and exclamatory sentences, jumbled words to arrange into commands and exclamations, and nine sentences to sort by kind.
The lesson, step by step
Review
Ask: What is a declarative sentence? An interrogative sentence? Have your child make up one of each.
Commands and requests
Read the definition:
An Imperative Sentence is a sentence used in expressing a command or an entreaty.
Say"Clarence, open the window" is a command. "Do forgive me!" is an entreaty, a begging request.
Give your child a silly command and let them give you one.
Feelings
Read:
An Exclamatory Sentence is a sentence used in expressing some feeling or emotion.
An exclamation point (!) is usually placed after an exclamatory sentence.
Say "Oh, that window is open again!" with feeling. Let your child try one.
Unscramble
Arrange some of the book's word groups aloud, then write them:
Go, your, seats, to, boys.
Me, your, lend, book, Jane.
Clock, four, hark, strikes, the.
Pretty, is, oh, she, how.
The first two are commands; the last two are exclamations.
Sort the sentences
The book asks your child to tell the kind of each sentence. Do them one by one aloud:
The winds bring perfume.
Where is my new book?
Go to the ant, thou sluggard!
Ask: Does it tell, ask, command, or show feeling?
Check together
Go over the answers below. If your child mixed up a command and an exclamation, look at what the sentence does, not only at the end mark.
Use it today
The book suggests telling the kinds of sentences in your reading lesson. Pick a page and find one of each kind, then change a statement into a question.
Answers to the book's problems
Arranged (other orders may be fine): Boys, go to your seats. Ponto, go home at once. Jane, lend me your book. Pupils, study the lesson ten minutes. Ha, ha, ha, I am glad of it! Hark, the clock strikes four! Oh, how pretty she is! Ugh, I don't like it! Kinds of sentences: 1 declarative; 2 interrogative; 3 imperative; 4 imperative (with feeling); 5 declarative; 6 interrogative; 7 exclamatory; 8 imperative; 9 imperative and exclamatory ("Lend me your wings!" is a command; "I mount! I fly!" are exclamations).
Worked out for this site from the scan. If a number in your copy differs, trust the book.