The Mother Tongue, Book I: Lessons in Speaking, Reading and Writing English · Secs. 421–424 · Part 2: Part Second
116. The of-phrase, Rest, and a dictation
Goal: Your child chooses between the genitive and an of-phrase and learns a short poem by heart.
You'll need
- The book, open to this lesson
- Paper and pencil (a notebook kept just for this book works well)
What's in the book
Section 421 explains that "the march of the soldiers" is often clearer or smoother than "the soldiers' march", and gives the rule. Section 422 gives four pairs to compare. Section 423 is Goethe's short poem "Rest", to learn; Section 424 is Ben Jonson's "It is not growing like a tree", for dictation.
The lesson, step by step
Hear the problem (Section 421)
Say aloud: "The soldier's march was long" and "The soldiers' march was long." Ask: Can you hear the difference? (No; only the reader can see it.)
The Possessive Phrase beginning with "of" is often substituted for the genitive form of the noun, for the sake of clearness or smoothness.
Compare (Section 422)
Read the four pairs. Your child says which sounds better in each and why.
Switch them
Your child turns three genitives into of-phrases ("the box's lid" into "the lid of the box") and one of-phrase into a genitive.
Rest (Section 423)
Read the poem together.
Rest is not quitting
The busy career;
Ask: What does the poet say real rest is? Copy it and learn it by heart.
Dictation (Section 424)
Your child studies Ben Jonson's lines, then writes them from dictation and checks against the book.
Check it gently
Your child fixes their own slips in the dictation. Talk about only one kind of mistake.
What a good result looks like
Example (written for this guide, not from the book):
The color of the house is gray. (better than "the house's color")
The roof of the barn leaks.
My brother's coat is torn. (for a person, the genitive sounds natural)
Answers to the book's problems
Section 422: in each pair the of-phrase sounds better: the spire of the church, the lid of the box, the inhabitants of the cities, the frame of the picture. For things (not people or animals), English usually prefers the of-phrase. "Rest" means: real rest is not stopping work, but fitting yourself to your place and going on steadily, like a brook flowing clear to the ocean, loving and serving the highest and best.
Worked out for this site from the scan. If a number in your copy differs, trust the book.