I am afraid, my dear, you are quite tired of this long lesson, but I don't expect you to remember all I have told you; we will talk over a very small portion of it every day, and then in time you will be able to tell me what part of speech any word is that I may ask you.—I will give you a little example to shew you what I mean and then you shall run away.
The rose in your nosegay was very beautiful a little while ago; but alas! it is now quite dead!
The, an article definite—rose, a substantive, neuter gender, singular number—in, a preposition—your, a possessive pronoun—nosegay, a substantive—was, a verb neuter past tense—very, an adverb—beautiful, an adjective—a, an article indefinite—little, an adjective—while, a substantive—ago, an adverb—but, a conjunction—alas!, an interjection—it, a personal pronoun neuter gender—is, a verb—now, an adverb—quite, an adverb,—dead, a verb, participle passive.
Children might soon understand that a case in grammar signifies the different terminations of nouns and pronouns. A noun has two cases, the nominative which simply names the object: it generally precedes the verb, and answers to the questions who? which? what? The genitive denotes possession and is formed by adding an apostrophe, and the letter s to the nominative; it answers to the question whose? When the plural nominative ends in s the apostrophe only is added: ex. Anne plays. Who? Anne.—Mary's gown. Whose? Mary's.—Birds' feathers. Whose? Birds'.
A personal pronoun has two cases the nominative and the objective. The nominative precedes the verb, and requires it to be of the same person and number as itself; it answers to the questions, who? which? what? The objective follows the verb, and answers to the question whom? ex. I dance, who? I.—We love her, whom? her.
| Singular. | Plural. | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nom. | Objec. | Nom. | Objec. |
| I | Me | We | Us |
| Thou | Thee | You | You |
| He | Him | They | Them |
| She | Her | ||
| It | It | ||
The accusative case of the relative pronoun who is whom.