Exercise 2.

Find five interesting declarative sentences in a story book. Write them with the subject underlined.

Exercise 3. Write a fitting predicate for each of the following subjects:

II. SIMPLE SUBJECT. NOUNS

3. It is evident from the sentences in Exercise 1, p. 10, that the subject of a sentence may consist of one word or of a group of words. In the sentence, "Peter was sitting by himself," the subject is only the one word Peter. In the sentence, “A lovely old lady with white hair and a gentle, noble face came to the door," the subject is a group of twelve words. What are they?

When the subject of a sentence is a group of words, there is always a base word in the group, which, more than any other word, names or designates the person, place, or thing about which something is said. This word is called the simple subject.

What is the simple subject in the sentence that tells who came to the door? What are the simple subjects in sentences 1, 2, 5, 7, 12, 14, and 15 in Exercise 1, p. 10?

4. Every word in a sentence is used for a particular purpose. Because words are used for different purposes they have been divided into classes called parts of speech.

In the sentences just studied the words Peter and lady are used to name certain persons. Name words are called nouns. A noun is a part of speech.

5. Not every noun is the name of a person. Many are names of places; as, Oshkosh, pasture, corner. Many more are names of things of all sorts; as, peach, violet, bee, thimble, automobile.

In the sentence about the lovely old lady, find three nouns that are names of things.

Any noun may be used as the simple subject of a sentence. Write sentences in which the nouns hair, face, and door are so used.

Summary. The simple subject of a sentence is the base word, or most important word, of the subject.

Parts of speech are the classes into which words are divided according to their use.

A noun is a name word.

A noun may be used as the simple subject of a sentence.

Exercise. Write a list of all the nouns you can find in the following paragraphs. Tell what each noun is the name of. Point out five nouns that are simple subjects. What are their predicates?

1. At last Purun Dass went to England on a visit, and had to pay enormous sums to the priests when he came back to India; for even so high-caste a Brahmin as he lost caste by crossing the black sea. In London he met and talked with every one worth knowing — men whose names go all over the world and saw a great deal more 'than he said. He was given honorary degrees by learned universities, and he made speeches and talked of Hindu social reform to English ladies in evening dress, till all London cried, "This is the most fascinating man we have ever met at dinner since cloths were first laid."

2. Her godmother laughed, and touched Cinderella also with the wand; at which her wretched, threadbare jacket became stiff with gold, and sparkling with jewels; her woolen petticoat lengthened into a gown of sweeping satin, from underneath which peeped out her little feet, no longer bare, but covered with silk stockings and the prettiest glass slippers in the world. "Now, Cinderella, depart;

but remember, if you stay one instant after midnight, your carriage will become a pumpkin, your coachman a rat, your horses mice, and your footmen lizards; while you yourself will be the little cinder wench you were an hour ago."

6. There are certain beings in the world that are called men, and certain other beings that are called horses, certain things that are called cities, and certain other things that are called rivers, hence the words man, horse, city, and river are names, or nouns. Since these nouns belong in common to a great many individuals, we call them common

nouns.

7. On the other hand, every man, every horse, every city, and every river is likely to have a special name that distinguishes that particular man or horse or city or river from all others. Cæsar, Gypsy, Denver, and Penobscot are such Since these names belong to only one thing instead of to a class of things, we call them proper nouns.

names.

8. A common noun is a name that belongs to a person, a place, or a thing because of its nature or qualities. A boat is entitled to the name boat because it has the characteristics of boats. A proper noun is a name conferred or given by some person, as when a certain boat was named by its owners Westernland.

It sometimes happens that the same name is conferred upon several objects. There is more than one city named Madison, more than one dog named Shep. Still these names are proper names, because they are names conferred upon a special city and a special dog to distinguish them from other cities and other dogs.

A proper noun always begins with a capital letter.

9. When a word denoting relationship, like father, mother, uncle, is used as the name of a particular person, it is a proper noun and should therefore begin with a capital letter; as, "Did Father say that Grandma and Auntie are coming?"

10. A title like Colonel, Judge, Duke, is a proper noun when it is used to denote a special person; as, "Thousands had gathered to welcome the Colonel home." When such a word is the name of a class of persons, it is a common noun; as, "A new uniform was designed for the colonels."

When a title is followed by another name, as, Colonel Bouck, Judge Gary, the two words are considered as one proper noun. In the same way, any group of two or more words forming one special name may be considered as one proper noun; as, Liberty Bell, Bay of Biscay, Mountains of the Moon. In such groups of words, each important word begins with a capital letter.

NOTE. Names of qualities, conditions, or actions are often called abstract nouns; as, honesty, power, boyhood, the passing of the train, sound thinking, suspense.

Summary. A common noun is a noun that belongs in common to each one of a class of persons, places, or things. A proper noun is a name that has been conferred upon a particular person, place, or thing.

Every proper noun should begin with a capital letter. Exercise. Select all the nouns in the following sentences, and tell whether they are common or proper nouns. your reason in each case. Account for the capitalization.

Give

1. The Bermudas are a cluster of small islands, lying as far south as Charleston, as far east as Nova Scotia.

2. Hotel Hamilton is a large, commodious building with many pillars and broad verandas.

3. The Tenedos is lying off Grassy Bay, making herself fine to receive the Princess Louise, and her jolly tars are in high spirits.

4. On the Sunday of the christening, Mrs. Howe and her children watched the merrymaking in Poverty Lane from a second story window.

5. Where was Prospero's cell? Where slept the fair Miranda? Upon what bank sat Ferdinand when Ariel sang?

6. The Duluth High School is a fine structure built of red sandstone.

7. The Deliverance was a ship of eighty tons.

8. Old Lobo, or the King, as the Mexicans called him, was the gigantic leader of a remarkable pack of gray wolves, that had ravaged the Currumpaw Valley for a number of years.

9. About this time I met with an odd volume of the Spectator. 10. Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night

Sailed off in a wooden shoe.

11. Let us all go to the station Monday to meet Uncle.

12.

The cows were coming one by one;

Brindle, Ebony, Speckle, and Bess,

Shaking their horns in the evening wind.

13. Gunpowder had been a favorite steed of his master's, the choleric Van Ripper, who was a furious rider.

14. Upstream, at the bend of the sluggish pool round the Peace Rock, stood Hathi, the wild elephant, with his sons, gaunt and gray in the moonlight.

15. In his eighth year Charles Lamb entered Christ's Hospital, a famous school in London.

It is evident from this exercise that several different sorts of things, as hotels, streets, books, and ships, may have special names conferred upon them. Think of ten other things that may have special names, and write two names for each one.

11. Just as the subject of a sentence may consist of only one word, so may the predicate. Hence it is that a declarative sentence may contain only two words, one being the subject and the other the predicate; as in the sentence, “ Water runs." Here the noun water names the thing about which something is told, and the word runs tells something about water.