grammar conversations with the boy…
Feb 26th, 2009 by Sandy
Me: “I love the word demolished. It is a great word.”
The Boy: “But, wait, if demolished means destroyed, then what does molished mean?”
M: “What?”
TB: “You know, de- would be the predicate. Wait, is that right?”
M: “No, I think you mean prefix. Wait, do you know what a predicate is?”
TB: “Yes, it is a part of a sentence.”
M: “Yes, but what part?”
TB: “The end part. You know, it is where the object gets verbed.”
M: “Hmmm….I guess the object does get verbed.”
That’s an excellent description of a predicate. I remember being so nervous in linguistics because we were talking a lot about grammar structures and to be honest, I’m not great at grammar. Wish I’d had TB’s sense of things then, would’ve made much more sense, I think. =)