primary english help!

[crisgal]

Can anyone help my daughter?
She needs to know what kind of word 'that' is in the following sentence:

"the ceiling was supported, like that of a barn"

[Hymie]

It is a four letter word.

[crisgal]

ha ha.
she needs to know whether it's a noun, pronoun, adverb, conjuction etc.

[vodkancoke]

I think it's a conjunctive adverb....I could be very wrong though and I apologise if I am! :)

[crisgal]

it's a tricky one isn't it? I'm struggling with some of the words in her homework - and she's only 10!
What would 'cruelty' be?

[roslyn251254]

noun?

[chrissa1]

Cruelty is a mass noun.

[crisgal]

oh my gosh - that's not even on her list! I think we'd better leave the ones she's not sure of.

I got my english o'level many years ago, and my memory's not what it was!

[chrissa1]

"We can't stand cruelty to animals".

[echokilo]

Yes, conjunctive adverb.

[crisgal]

could you please explain why?

[Clanad]

Well... actually, when deconstructing the sentence one finds that the word "that", in this case is refering to "ceiling". One could certainly say with clarity, " The ceiling was like that of a barn"... so that make it an adjective... which is the part of speech (or word class) that modifies a noun or a pronoun...

[coccinelle]

that here is a pronoun (it stands for 'the one') and cruelty is a noun.

[margie04]

Will just add to coccinelle's answer that 'cruelty' is an Abstract Noun. Nouns dealing with items that can be felt or seen are Concrete Nouns. Or used to be, long long ago.

[Anngel123]

10 years old!!!!???? Is this a private school? Sounds like they are expecting a lot of a ten year old.

[Mosaic]

I can't understand why it is necessary for a child of 10 to fiddle with grammar to this extent.
I'd be tempted to draw the teacher's fire by sending in a note explainig that this bit of homework was attempted bt no aswer could be found, and can s/he please supply the correct answer so learning can be attained.

[Jonathan-Joe]

To be really pedantic, "like" is incorrect. The phrase should read "as that of a barn".

[sherrardk]

I'm with Mosaic on this one, if your daughter cannot do the homework (which is supposed to back up what is currently being studied in school) then you should make sure the teacher knows. Your daughter has either not understood if fully or the teacher has not explained it properly. If the teacher is any good, he/she will be quite happy to re-explain it in a manner that your daughter understands.

[crisgal]

oh don't worry - i shall see the teacher tomorrow to make sure she knows that most of it wasn't understood! She's just gone into year 6 and I think the teacher is testing them to see how clever the clever ones are! Her maths was just as bad last week!
i wouldn't have let her write your answers, I just wanted to know for myself.

Jonathan-Joe - don't shoot the messenger! It was an excerpt from Nicholas Nickleby!

[boxtops]

We did this sort of stuff when I was in primary school, I think it's good - but I do agree with Jonathan-Joe.

[scotman]

On first look I would have said pronoun.

"the ceiling was supported, like that of a barn"

"the ceiling was supported, like the ceiling of a barn"

hence 'that' = 'the ceiling'