Harvey's Elementary Grammar and Composition · Lesson 68–71 · Part 2: Part II: The parts of speech in full
59. Relative pronouns in full
Goal: Your child knows the simple, compound and double relatives, can decline who and which, and can parse a relative pronoun.
You'll need
- The book, open to this lesson
- Paper and a pencil (or a slate)
What's in the book
Lesson 68 lists simple and compound relatives and explains words like what and whoever that hold both antecedent and relative. Lessons 69 to 71 give the declension, the order of parsing and models, with seven sentences and a composition on the Quail.
The lesson, step by step
Review
Ask: What is a relative pronoun? What is an antecedent?
The lists
Read:
The Simple Relative Pronouns are who, which, what, and that.
The Compound Relative Pronouns are whoever, whichever, whosoever, whichsoever, whatever, and whatsoever.
And a test for that:
That is a relative when who, which, or whom can be used in its place.
Two in one
The book shows that "I got what I desired" means "the thing which I desired," and "Whoever runs may read" means "he who runs." So what and whoever hold both the antecedent and the relative.
Decline and parse
Decline who and which from the table on page 94. The order of parsing: A pronoun? Relative? Its antecedent? Gender, person and number? Decline it. Case, and rule.
Use the models:
Happy is the man that findeth wisdom.
Whoever perseveres will succeed.
Parse the book's sentences
Find and parse the relatives:
This is the child that was lost.
That is the man whose house was burned.
This is the dog that worried the cat that killed the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built.
Write
The book asks for the first two sentences of a composition on the Quail, with the nouns and pronouns parsed, then the rest of the composition.
Use it today
Count the relative pronouns in "the house that Jack built" rhyme if you know it.
Answers to the book's problems
Declension: who, whose, whom (singular and plural alike); which, whose, which. Relatives and antecedents: that (He); that (child); which (dog); what (equal to that which); what (that which); whose (man); that, five times (dog, cat, rat, malt, house).
Worked out for this site from the scan. If a number in your copy differs, trust the book.