Let some express being and some express state of being.
+Model.—Noun.
| burns.
| melt.
| scorches.
Fire | keep.
(or) + spreads.
Fires | glow.
| rages.
| heat.
| exists.
+Remark.+—Notice that the simple form of the verb, as, burn, melt, scorch, adds s or es when its subject noun names but one thing.
Lawyers, mills, horses, books, education, birds, mind.
A verb may consist of two, three, or even four words; as, is learning, may be learned, could have been learned. [Footnote: Such groups of words are sometimes called verb-phrases. For definition of phrase, see Lesson 17.]
+Direction.+—Unite the words in columns 2 and 3 below, and append the verbs thus formed to the nouns and pronouns in column 1 so as to make good sentences:—
+Remark.+—Notice that is, was, and has are used with nouns naming one thing, and with the pronouns he, she, and it; and that are, were, and have are used with nouns naming more than one thing, and with the pronouns we, you, and they. I may be used with am, was, and have.
1 2 3
Words am confused.
Cotton is exported.
Sugar are refined.
Air coined.
Teas was delivered.
Speeches were weighed.
I, we, you has been imported.
He, she, it, they have been transferred.
As verbs are the only words that assert, +every predicate+ must be a verb, or must contain a verb.
+Naming the class+ to which a word belongs is the +first step in parsing.+