It is so with the words of our language. There are many thousand words, all of which belong to eight classes.
These classes of words are called +Parts of Speech+.
We classify birds according to their form, color, etc., but we group words into classes, called +Parts of Speech+, with respect to their use in the sentence.
We find that many words are names. These we put in one class and call them
+Nouns+.
Each pupil may give the name of something in the room; the name of a distinguished person; a name that may be applied to a class of persons; the name of an animal; the name of a place: the name of a river; the name of a mountain; the name of something which we cannot see or touch, but of which we can think; as, beauty, mind.
Remind the pupils frequently that these names are all nouns.
NOUNS.
+DEFINITION.—A Noun is the name of anything+.
Write in columns, headed nouns, the names of domestic animals, of garden vegetables, of flowers, of trees, of articles sold in a dry goods store, and of things that cannot be seen or touched; as, virtue, time, life.
Write and arrange, according to the following model, the names of things that can float, fly, walk, work, sit, or sing.