The Mother Tongue, Book I: Lessons in Speaking, Reading and Writing English · Secs. 258–263 · Part 2: Part Second

74. The predicate

Goal: Your child finds the subject and the predicate of a sentence.

⏱ About 30 minutes · 7 steps

Open it at the Internet Archive ↗ 🖨 Copywork sheet

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 258 gives ten sentences and names the predicate, the part that tells something about the subject. Sections 259 to 262 give practice: write sentences about things, find subjects and predicates, divide sentences, and look at sentences already divided (some with the predicate first). Section 263 asks for word groups used as subject or predicate.

The lesson, step by step

  1. Warm up

    Say a sentence and let your child tell you its subject. Do three.

  2. The predicate (Section 258)

    Read the ten sentences together. For each, your child finds the subject, then what is said about it.

    That part of a Sentence which tells something about the subject, is called the Predicate.

  3. Divide sentences (Sections 260 and 261)

    Your child copies six sentences from Section 260 or 261 and draws a line between subject and predicate.

  4. Upside-down sentences (Section 262)

    Look at Section 262. Some sentences put the predicate first: "Down the street ran | the merry children." Ask: Who ran? So which part is the subject?

  5. Build sentences (Section 263)

    Your child uses four of the word groups in Section 263 in sentences, saying whether each was the subject or the predicate. ("A heavy rain" can be a subject: "A heavy rain fell all night.")

  6. Check it gently

    Compare with the Answers. For any line in the wrong place, ask the two questions: "What is it about?" "What does it say about that?"

  7. What a good result looks like

    Example (written for this guide, not from the book):

    The old dog | sleeps by the stove.

    Down the hill rolled | the big red ball. (Here the predicate comes first.)

    A heavy rain | fell all night.

Answers to the book's problems

Section 258: 1. The orioles | build hanging nests. 2. Shepherds | watched their flocks by night. 3. The lark | sings at heaven's gate. 4. Longfellow | wrote "The Village Blacksmith." 5. The clock | strikes one. 6. Dinner | comes at one o'clock. 7. The steed | flew along the drawbridge. 8. The great gates | swung upon their hinges. 9. The lights | streamed through the western windows. 10. The general | rode upon a black horse. Section 260: 1. Primroses | peeped from beneath the thorn tree. 2. The steamer | glided away from the pier. 3. The child | carried flowers in her hand. 4. The clerk | worked at his desk. 5. The king | gathered brave knights about him. 6. The hero | forgot his own danger. 7. The rain | beat against the window. 8. The bucket | hung in the well. 9. The coral | builds the islands of the sea. 10. The ships | suddenly dashed against the rocks. 11. Every boy | prizes his jackknife. 12. The great fire | roared up the chimney. Section 261: 1. The fleecy clouds | sail slowly across the sky. 2. The quiet sheep | nibble the grass in the pasture. 3. The runaway horse | threw his rider. 4. Every word | has a work to do. 5. The schoolroom door | opens at nine o'clock. 6. The cottage | has a thatched roof. 7. The cows | stand knee-deep in the water. 8. Edgar Allan Poe | wrote "The Raven." 9. Jack | lost his ball this morning. 10. Frank | has written his composition.

Worked out for this site from the scan. If a number in your copy differs, trust the book.

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