Question about lesson 86 in PLL (Davidson), someone please advise.

[Trivium Academy]

Lesson 86

Reading Lesson - Dialogue for two pupils

 

1. Who is it? It is I.

2. Did you knock at the door? No, it was not I; it was he.

3. Is that your brother? Yes it is he.

4. Who called? It was I.

5. Who threw the snowballs? It was they.

6. Did Mary speak? I think it was she.

7. Who fell down? It was not I.

8. Who laughed? It was we.

9. Who was standing at the window? It was she.

10. Did Helen break her doll? No, I am the one who broke it.

11. Is your cousin here? Yes, that is he.

 

Note to the teacher- this lesson should be repeated many times, until the noun forms no longer seem strange or unusual.

 

`````````````````````````````````

 

Is this correct? Modern-day correct? I do not talk this way. "It was I." Lol. I just want to double-check these noun forms.

 

Thank you for any assistance!

[VaKim]

Yep. It is grammatically correct, even though very few people actually use the correct forms when speaking.

 

In all the sentences you listed, the pronoun in the predicate serves as a predicate nominative, renaming the subject, connected by a linking verb. Therefore, the nominative case of the pronoun is the correct one.

[Trivium Academy]

Thank you! Or, it is I who thanks you. :)

[8filltheheart]

Hi Jessica,

 

Yes, grammatically they are correct. Modern usage? No.

 

The reason they are correct is b/c they are subjective complements (the basic part of speech that follows a linking verb; complements are in the nominative case)

 

Complements follow this basic pattern:

 

N-LV-N

N-LV-pron

N-LV-adj

 

You can help your children identify them by showing them they are grammatically correct if the sentence is reversed.

 

James is my friend.

My friend is James.

 

He is my friend.

My friend is he.

 

She is Jessica

Jessica is she.

 

 

The boys (that got in the fight) are they.

They are the boys (that got in the fight).

 

The flower are beautiful. (adj)

The beautiful flowers

 

People do not speak that way. It does not make them correct. :) People also no longer use "shall" with I/we, only "will."

 

I teach my kids the rules of grammar, not dependence on examples or "sound." If a child is taught the N-LV-pron pattern, they will recognize the proper grammatical structure on tests, etc. I don't expect them to speak that way.

[Trivium Academy]

I don't really have to be concerned with this in 3rd grade, do I? We can just do the lesson and move on because we'll cover this in more depth later, right?

 

Thank you Karen!

[VaKim]

I don't really have to be concerned with this in 3rd grade, do I? We can just do the lesson and move on because we'll cover this in more depth later, right?

 

Thank you Karen!

 

You will cover it every single year that you choose to do grammar, lol. I don't worry about anything but exposure at that age to those things that will be repeated again later.

[8filltheheart]

You don't have to worry about it. But my kids typically master the idea the first time around. It really isn't difficult if they learn the basic examples.

 

My poor kids have heard, "Beethoven is a composer. The composer is Beethoven," so many times they can say it w/o thinking. Ditto to "The flower is a daisy. A daisy is a flower. The flower is pretty. The pretty flower" :P

 

I do expect them to understand the difference between nominative case and objective case b/c that solves all the problems with who/whom. :) Like Kim said, you do this every yr you do grammar.

[Trivium Academy]

I really appreciate your help, seeing that my own grammar knowledge rarely is above what dd8 is studying. This is one particular subject that I have to completely relearn, what I do know is just based on familiarity and not so much because I have internalized the rules.

 

Have a great day ladies!