LESSON 31.

PHRASES INTRODUCED BY PREPOSITIONS.

+Hints for Oral Instruction+.--In the preceding Lessons, you have learned
that several words may be grouped together and used as one modifier. In the
examples given, the principal word is joined directly to the subject or to
the predicate, and this word is modified by another word. In this Lesson
also groups of words are used as modifiers, but these words are not united
with one another, or with the word which the group modifies, just as they
are in the preceding Lessons. I will write on the board this sentence: _De
Soto marched into Florida_. +T+.--What tells where De Soto marched?
+P+.--_Into Florida_. +T+.--What is the principal word of the group?
+P+.--_Florida_. +T+.--Is _Florida_ joined directly to the predicate, as
rapidly was in Lesson 25? +P+.--No. +T+.--What little word comes in to
unite the modifier to _marched?_ +P+.--_Into_. +T+.--Does _Florida_ alone,
tell where he marched? +P+.--No. +T+.--Does _into_ alone, tell where he
marched? +P+.--No.

+T+.--These groups of related words are called +Phrases+. Let the teacher
draw on the board the diagram of the sentence above.

Phrases of the form illustrated in this diagram are the most common, and
they perform a very important function in our language.

Let the teacher frequently call attention to the fact that all the words of
a phrase are _taken together_ to perform _one distinct office_.

A phrase modifying the subject is equivalent to an adjective, and,
frequently, may be changed into one. _The dew of the morning has passed