Grammar Guru: Advice From The Archives
It turns out we’ve had a grammar guru at “The People’s Friend” for quite some time!
Take a look at this little rhyme, printed in our magazine in 1872.
A clever way to teach the difference between nouns, pronouns, conjunction and prepositions.
Everyone in the office agrees that it would have made our English exams a lot easier if we’d been taught this in school!
Grammar In Rhyme
Three little words you often see
Are articles, a, an and the.
A noun’s the name of anything,
As school or garden, hoop or swing.
Adjectives tell the kind of noun,
As great, small, pretty, white or brown.
Instead of nouns the pronoun stands
Her head, his face, your arm, my hand.
Verbs tell of something to be done,
To read, count, sing, laugh, jump or run.
How things are done the adverbs tell,
As slowly, quickly, ill or well
Conjunctions join the words together,
As men and women, wind or weather.
The 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.
We publish all kinds of other hints and tips for budding writers. Check them out here.
Fiction Ed Shirley also provides a unique Writing Prompt Story Starter every week. We hope you can use these as a jumping off point to start your next story. And who knows, maybe we’ll see it in the “Friend” soon!
For more from the Grammar Guru, click the tag below.
