Download + The Basic Beginning

+
Chapter 1:
The Basic
Beginning
The Countable Nouns
Vs.
The Uncountable
Nouns
Chapter 3:
The Quiet
Quantity
Chapter 2: The
Plethora of Plurals
Chapter 4:
The Artsy
Article
A Children’s Classic of
Grammatical Rules
Written and Illustrated by:
Gelsey Plaza and Catherine Ha
Period 5
Published on December 21, 2012
+
A long time ago, in a land far, far away, there was the kingdom of
Nouns. One part was the Countable Kingdom, and the other part, the
Uncountable Kingdom. They were separated by their different rules. They
then had a mighty king by the name of Grammar who made rules to unite
the two halves. They lived in peace for a couple of decades.
But one day, Chaos, an evil beast, unleashed his wrath and fury
on the people of the kingdom, making people speak improperly. He told
people the wrong rules of grammar, eventually making everyone believe
that he was right and their mighty king was wrong. King Grammar soon
died of neglect.
For years, Chaos “ruled” and messed up the peace of society.
His rules and teachings caused the kingdoms to break apart.
Soon, a brilliant new leader came to power. He was known as
Count Capresius. He was going to overcome Chaos with help from his
twin brother, Caleb. Caleb was an Uncountable Noun rebel.
+
The Basic Beginning
The brothers came up with the idea of writing the rules
out on a stone tablet so that no one could change them and
everyone could see them. This would definitely make Chaos
furious.
They decided to start by defining who and what the
Uncountable and Countable Nouns were. They wanted to make
sure that they had fair rules for everyone. This is what they came
up with:
Countable Nouns were beings who existed as distinctive
individuals and who could be perceived by the senses.
Uncountable Nouns were a general population of those who could
be counted as whole groups of things. They didn’t like to be taken
apart and were always in groups with each other.
+
The Basic Beginning
Examples of Countable Nouns are: girl, word, and table.
You can count how many girls there are at a party, or how many
words there are in a sentence, or how many tables are at your
house.
Examples of Uncountable Nouns include: anger, milk,
and courage. You cannot count how much anger you have, nor
can you count how much milk you have in your cup, and nor
can you count your courage.
+
Plethora of Plurals
There was another kind of noun; the Plurals. The Plurals
were nouns who were very dependent of each other. They always
had to be together. They were quite unruly when they were
together because they were together all the time. They sometimes
forgot their own rules of courtesy, so Capresius and Caleb had to
make rules for them to follow.
Most of the time, only Countable Nouns can pluralize, and
Uncountable Nouns cannot. To pluralize, most nouns must add an –
s. For example, The citizens lived by the Plural Pyrenees.
Capresius and Caleb made an exception to the rule,
though. Some nouns can be Countable and Uncountable. For
example, the word difficulty. Capresius and Caleb are having
difficulties defeating Chaos. (a countable meaning) Chaos is
messing up the kingdom with little difficulty. (an uncountable
meaning)
+
The Quiet Quantity
Now the brothers went into the smaller parts of the
kingdom and found a quota of Quantity Nouns. They were often
used nouns, but people tended to forget about them. The king and
his brother did not, though. They created rules for them too. Those
rules allowed them to combine nouns with quantity terms.
Singular Countable Nouns are allowed to use each, every,
any, and one. Plural Countable Nouns are allowed to use some,
more, a lot of, many, both, a few, and few/fewer/fewest. Uncountable
Nouns are allowed to use much, very little, most, more, none of the,
and other words.
Count Singular: Capresius eats one fish custard every day.
Count Plural: Caleb has more polka dots.
Noncount: Chaos has very little courage.
+
The Artsy Article
There was another section that was known as the
domain of the Artful Articles. They were skilled artists and
artisans who created things with what little they had. They used
small words to complete whole sentences and make the whole
kingdom flow smoothly.
The Singular Countable Nouns used articles like a, an,
the, this, and that. The Plural Countable Nouns used articles
like the, these, those, or no article was used. The Uncountable
Nouns used words such as the, this, that, or no article was used.
Count Singular: Obi-wan Kenobi was a Jedi Knight.
Count Plural: Yoda and the masters trained the
Younglings.
Noncount: The music in the movies is amazing.
+
The Evitable Ending
After the brothers finished writing all of the rules down on the stone
tablets, they exiled Chaos to the Plural Pyrenees. Soon, Chaos was forgotten
and Grammar’s basic laws were once again restored.
The kingdom was united and a new era, called the “Grammar Age”,
appeared. King Capresius made a speech to all the Nounspeople:
“In this new age of prosperity, there are plenty of opportunities to
make our kingdom a better and stronger place of living. There is enough food
for everyone and no person shall be turned away from a place to sleep for the
night. This will give us the chance to be a more unified civilization and prosper
and grow together. There will never be another time like this, but we have to
make the most of it. No person shall be left behind. No noun will be left behind.
And, alas, I have one more rule to write on the stone tablet that will remind us
that we are one. “
He then went up to the last stone tablet and proceeded to inscribe:
There are plenty of Nounspeople and enough rules to keep us together. No Noun
shall be discriminated because enough, plenty of, and no modify both sections of
uncountable and countable nouns.