Lesson -5

Fun with Language

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(a playground where some students of class-five meet)

Ajay : Hello friends! Come here. I have something very interesting to share with you.

Leela : What's that? Is it something in English. You had a period of English just before the recess.

Ajay : Yes, it is something about names.

Leela : Nafees, Neha and all of you come here please.

Ajay will tell us something about names.

(all friends gather around Ajay)

Ajay : (to Leela) What’s the name of your younger brother?

Leela : Rohit, why are you asking this?

Ajay : It is because I want to tell you something about ‘names’.

* Do you think the grammar of English is difficult to learn?

* Is there any interesting way to learn it?

Leela : What's that?

Ajay : Your brother’s name is Rohit, isn’t it?

Leela : Yes, it is.

Ajay : Now listen carefully. Rohit is a ‘name’ and a ‘name’ is a noun.

Leela : You mean to say that the name of any person, such as Gopal, John and Bhavana can be termed as a noun.

Ajay : Of course.

Nafees : Ajay, can the names of things and places be termed as nouns?

Ajay : Yes.

Neha : What about names of birds, animals, buses, cars, trains, stars, the sun and the moon?

Ajay : All the things around us which are named by man for their recognition are nouns.

Friends : It's really very interesting.

Ajay : Please give me some examples of nouns which are names of persons, places and things.

Leela, you begin with names of persons.

Leela : Mohan, Salim, Madhuri, Tom and Suresh are the names of persons. They are proper nouns.

Ajay : Yes Neha, give some examples of ‘places’.

Neha : Bhopal, Burhanpur, Tawanagar, Delhi and Mumbai are the names of places. They too are proper nouns.

Ajay : Nafees, give some examples of ‘things’ please.

Nafees : Train, bus, table, chair, pen and pencil are names of ‘things’. They are common nouns.

Ajay : Tom, give some examples of birds and animals please.

Tom : Parrot, sparrow, crow, cuckoo, peacock, cow, goat, sheep, elephant and tiger etc. are all the names of birds and animals. They too are common nouns.

Ajay : Well friends, you all have given good examples. Now let's define a noun in a sentence.

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Leela : “A noun is a naming word.”

Nafees : “A name is a noun.”

Neha : All the naming words are nouns.

(Ajay's teacher Mr. Singh happens to pass by. He stops there.)

Mr. Singh: Well, children! What are you doing?

Ajay : Sir, we are discussing about nouns.

Leela : Sir, Ajay told us that all the naming words are nouns.

Nafees : Is it correct, sir?

Mr. Singh: It is absolutely correct. I am happy you're doing something very good. Carry it on. (Mr. Singh goes away)

Leela, Nafees, Neha and friends : Thank you, Ajay. We have enjoyed the discussion. It was really very interesting. (All friends leave to their classes)

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Exercises

Fill in the blanks using suitable words given in brackets.

1) Answer these questions.

Read and Learn

Word Power

Comprehension

recess recognition

gather define

absolute topic

(cuckoo, peacock, Taj Mahal, Red Fort, cow)

(i) The _______ is a useful animal.

(ii) The ________ is a singing bird.

(iii) The ________ is the national bird of India.

(iv) The ________ is a beautiful historical building.

(v) The ________ is in Delhi.

(i) Where did the students of class five meet?

(ii) What was the name of Leela’s brother?

(iii) Who happened to pass by?

(iv) Which type of noun are ‘peacock’, ‘village’ and ‘table’?

(v) Which type of noun are ‘Gopal’, ‘Indore’ and ‘July’?

(vi) Write five examples of proper and common nouns each.

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Let's Learn

Look at this story.

Once while walking along the road I saw that there was a man cycling along the road with his family. His wife was sitting behind him and the children were sitting on the cross bar of the bicycle. He was a tall and weak man but his wife was short. She was weak and skinny. The man

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was cycling very fast and at a turning his bicycle slipped. He could not control himself and fell down. His wife and children were thrown off the bicycle and rolled along the road. They were badly injured.

People helped them and took them to the dispensary where they were treated.

Ajay to Leela - What does ‘he’ stand for?

Leela - ‘He’ stands for the ‘man’ cycling.

Ajay - Right. Nafees, what does ‘she’ stand for?

Nafees - ‘She’ stands for the woman, his wife.

Ajay - Right. Neha - what does ‘they’ stand for?

Neha - ‘They’ stands for all of them.

Ajay - So, what do we conclude?

Nafees - We conclude that a word used for a Noun is called a ‘Pronoun’.

Ajay to Neha- Have you anything more to say?

Neha - Yes, now I understand that:

- for males we use ‘he’ when the noun is in singular number.

- for females we use ‘she’ when the noun is in singular number.

- for plural nouns we use ‘they’ when the noun is in plural number.

Nafees - Ajay, I have heard about ‘it’ also. What do you say?

Ajay - Nafees, look at this example.

Here is a book; take it away.

What does ‘it’ stand for, Nafees?

Nafees - Here ‘it’ stands for the book.

Ajay - So, you see how we use ‘he’, ‘she’ and ‘it’ for nouns.

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Leela and friends thank Ajay for this information.

Let's ReadRead this story and answer the questions given under it:

Ramu was a blind old man. One dark night he came out of his cottage and went along the road. He had a pitcher of water under his right arm and a lantern in his left hand.

A young man was coming from the other end of the road. He came to Ramu and shouted, Ramu you can't see, but you are carrying a lantern in your hand, why?

Ramu smiled and said, “Do not shout, young man. Listen to me. This light is not for me. It is for you and others. I go out every night with a lantern in my hand. So that people may see me and avoid knocking against me.”

The young man was ashamed of his behaviour and went away.

(a) (i) “Do not shout young man. Listen to me.”

(ii) “People may see me and avoid knocking against me.”

(b) (i) Ramu came on the road. What did he have in his hands?

(ii) Why did Ramu come with a lantern on the road?

(iii) What did the young man say to Ramu?

(iv) Who was wiser of the two?

Rahul : May I come in Sir?

Teacher : Yes, come in Rahul.

Why are you late today?

Rahul : Sir, I missed the bus.

Questions:

Let's Talk

Who said these words and to whom:

Form groups of four students in your class and discuss as given below. Each one in every group will act as a person.

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Teacher : Well, take your seat.

Rahul : Thank you, sir.

Teacher : Have you done your home work, Rahul?

Rahul : I am sorry sir, I could not do it.

Teacher : It's very bad Rahul. You are getting careless these days.

Rahul : I am sorry, sir. Please excuse me today.

Hence-forth you won't get any excuses

from me about my studies or home work.

Ashok : Excuse me, sir.

Teacher : Yes.

Ashok : Sir, I could not follow the problem you discussed yesterday. Please explain it to me again.

Teacher : Well, pay attention now. (The teacher deals with the problem again)

“Have you followed it?” he asks.

Ashok : Yes sir, thank you very much.

Write five sentences on your school building. Now count how many nouns have occurred in them.

___________________________________________________

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Let's Write

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__________ ___________ __________

__________ ___________ __________

__________ ___________ __________

__________ ___________ __________

__________ ___________ __________

__________ ___________ __________

Persons Places Things

Let's do it

Collect information from your parents, teachers and friends and write down the names of persons, places and things in the given table.