Having made the classification of words clear and comprehensible, you next proceed to the second grand class of words, the verbs, and their adjuncts, the adverbs. With these you will proceed as with the former; let action be distinguished by words;—the children walk, play, read, eat, run; master laughs, frowns, speaks, sings; and so on; letting the children find their own examples; then comes the demand from the master for words expressing the manner of action. How do the children walk?—slowly, quickly, orderly. How do they read, eat run! How does the master laugh, speak, sing? The children now find you ADVERBS, and it will be quite time enough to give them terms for the classification they thus intuitively make, when they have a clear idea of what they are doing. When this end is attained, your children have some ideas of grammar, and those clear ones. There is no occasion to stop here. Proceed, but slowly, and in the same method. The tenses of the verbs, and the subdivision into active, passive, and neuter, will require the greatest care and attention which the teacher can use, to simplify them sufficiently for the children's comprehension; as it will likewise enable them to understand the nature and office of the other classes of words. As, however, it is not my intention to write a grammar here, but merely to throw out a few hints on the subject, I shall leave the further development of the plan to the ingenuity of those who may think fit to adopt its principles, as above laid down.
English Grammar doth us teach,
That it hath nine parts of speech;—
Article, adjective, and noun,
Verb, conjunction, and pronoun,
With preposition, and adverb,
And interjection, as I've heard.
The letters are just twenty-six,
These form all words when rightly mix'd.
The vowels are a, e, o, i,
With u, and sometimes w and y.
Without the little vowels' aid,
No word or syllable is made;
But consonants the rest we call,
And so of these we've mention'd all.
Three little words we often see,
Are articles,—a, an, and the.
A noun's the name of any thing—
As school, or garden, hoop, or swing.
Adjectives tell the kind of noun—
As great, small, pretty, white, or brown.
Instead of nouns the pronouns stand,
John's head, his face, my arm, your hand.
Verbs tell of something being done—
To read, write, count, sing, jump, or run.
How things are done the adverbs tell—
As slowly, quickly, ill, or well.
Conjunctions join the nouns together—
As men and children, wind or weather.
A preposition stands before
A noun, as in or through a door.
The interjection shows surprise—
As, oh! how pretty, ah! how wise.
The whole are called nine parts of speech,
Which, reading, writing, speaking teach.
THE ARTICLES.
Three little words we hear and see
In frequent use, a, an, and the;
These words so useful, though so small,
Are those which articles we call.
The first two, a and an, we use
When speaking of one thing alone;
For instance, we might wish to say
An oak, a man, a dog, a bone.
The speaks of either one or more,—
The cow, the cows, the pig, the pigs,
The plum, the plums (you like a score),
The pear, the pears, the fig, the figs.
An oak, a man; means any oak,
Or any man of all mankind;
A dog, a bone, means any dog,
Or any bone a dog may find.
This article we only use
Whenever it may be our wish
To speak of some determined thing,
As thus;—the bird, the ox, the fish.
By which we mean not any bird,
That flying in the air may be,
Or any ox amongst the herd,
Or any fish in stream or sea.
But some one certain bird or ox,
Or fish (let it be which it may)
Of which we're speaking, or of which
We something mean to write or say.