INTRODUCTION EVERY English-speaking person should know the general terms and the leading facts of English grammar. I. WORDS The Parts of Speech. A child who is beginning to talk does not say "I want my mamma; " "I like to hear that dog bark;" "The monkey-man has come with his organ." He merely says "mamma," "bow-wow," "monkey-man." The single word he uses calls attention to the person or thing that he is thinking of, but it does not express a complete thought. To say anything definite which is not a command or an entreaty, two words, at least, are needed. When I say "Hero barks," I mean that what barks is called "Hero," and that what "Hero" does is to "bark." Hens cackle. Chanticleer crows. We see at a glance that the first word in each of these examples differs in kind from the second word. The first names something; the second asserts something about the thing named. Words which name things are called NOUNS ; words which assert or declare something about the things named are called VERBS. |