AN ENGLISH GRAMMAR

FOR THE USE OF

HIGH SCHOOL, ACADEMY, AND COLLEGE CLASSES

BY

W.M. BASKERVILL

PROFESSOR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE IN VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY NASHVILLE, TENN.

AND

J.W. SEWELL

OF THE FOGG HIGH SCHOOL, NASHVILLE, TENN.

1895

PREFACE.

Of making many English grammars there is no end; nor should there be till theoretical scholarship and actual practice are more happily wedded. In this field much valuable work has already been accomplished; but it has been done largely by workers accustomed to take the scholar's point of view, and their writings are addressed rather to trained minds than to immature learners. To find an advanced grammar unencumbered with hard words, abstruse thoughts, and difficult principles, is not altogether an easy matter. These things enhance the difficulty which an ordinary youth experiences in grasping and assimilating the facts of grammar, and create a distaste for the study. It is therefore the leading object of this book to be both as scholarly and as practical as possible. In it there is an attempt to present grammatical facts as simply, and to lead the student to assimilate them as thoroughly, as possible, and at the same time to do away with confusing difficulties as far as may be.

To attain these ends it is necessary to keep ever in the foreground the real basis of grammar; that is, good literature. Abundant quotations from standard authors have been given to show the student that he is dealing with the facts of the language, and not with the theories of grammarians. It is also suggested that in preparing written exercises the student use English classics instead of "making up" sentences. But it is not intended that the use of literary masterpieces for grammatical purposes should supplant or even interfere with their proper use and real value as works of art. It will, however, doubtless be found helpful to alternate the regular reading and æsthetic study of literature with a grammatical study, so that, while the mind is being enriched and the artistic sense quickened, there may also be the useful acquisition of arousing a keen observation of all grammatical forms and usages. Now and then it has been deemed best to omit explanations, and to withhold personal preferences, in order that the student may, by actual contact with the sources of grammatical laws, discover for himself the better way in regarding given data. It is not the grammarian's business to "correct:" it is simply to record and to arrange the usages of language, and to point the way to the arbiters of usage in all disputed cases. Free expression within the lines of good usage should have widest range.

It has been our aim to make a grammar of as wide a scope as is consistent with the proper definition of the word. Therefore, in addition to recording and classifying the facts of language, we have endeavored to attain two other objects,—to cultivate mental skill and power, and to induce the student to prosecute further studies in this field. It is not supposable that in so delicate and difficult an undertaking there should be an entire freedom from errors and oversights. We shall gratefully accept any assistance in helping to correct mistakes.

Though endeavoring to get our material as much as possible at first hand, and to make an independent use of it, we desire to express our obligation to the following books and articles:—

Meiklejohn's "English Language," Longmans' "School Grammar," West's "English Grammar," Bain's "Higher English Grammar" and "Composition Grammar," Sweet's "Primer of Spoken English" and "New English Grammar," etc., Hodgson's "Errors in the Use of English," Morris's "Elementary Lessons in Historical English Grammar," Lounsbury's "English Language," Champney's "History of English," Emerson's "History of the English Language," Kellner's "Historical Outlines of English Syntax," Earle's "English Prose," and Matzner's "Englische Grammatik." Allen's "Subjunctive Mood in English," Battler's articles on "Prepositions" in the "Anglia," and many other valuable papers, have also been helpful and suggestive.

We desire to express special thanks to Professor W.D. Mooney of Wall & Mooney's Battle-Ground Academy, Franklin, Tenn., for a critical examination of the first draft of the manuscript, and to Professor Jno. M. Webb of Webb Bros. School, Bell Buckle, Tenn., and Professor W.R. Garrett of the University of Nashville, for many valuable suggestions and helpful criticism.

W.M. BASKERVILL.

J.W. SEWELL.

NASHVILLE, TENN., January, 1896.

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION


PART I.
THE PARTS OF SPEECH.

NOUNS.
PRONOUNS.
ADJECTIVES.
ARTICLES.
VERBS AND VERBALS..
Verbs.
Verbals.
How To Parse Verbs And Verbals.
ADVERBS.
CONJUNCTIONS.
PREPOSITIONS..
WORDS THAT NEED WATCHING.
INTERJECTIONS.

PART II.
ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES.

CLASSIFICATION ACCORDING TO FORM.
CLASSIFICATION ACCORDING TO NUMBER OF STATEMENTS.
Simple Sentences.
Contracted Sentences.
Complex Sentences.
Compound Sentences.

PART III.
SYNTAX

INTRODUCTORY.
NOUNS.
PRONOUNS.
ADJECTIVES.
ARTICLES.
VERBS.
INDIRECT DISCOURSE.
VERBALS.
INFINITIVES.
ADVERBS.
CONJUNCTIONS.
PREPOSITIONS

INDEX

INTRODUCTION.

So many slighting remarks have been made of late on the use of teaching grammar as compared with teaching science, that it is plain the fact has been lost sight of that grammar is itself a science. The object we have, or should have, in teaching science, is not to fill a child's mind with a vast number of facts that may or may not prove useful to him hereafter, but to draw out and exercise his powers of observation, and to show him how to make use of what he observes.... And here the teacher of grammar has a great advantage over the teacher of other sciences, in that the facts he has to call attention to lie ready at hand for every pupil to observe without the use of apparatus of any kind while the use of them also lies within the personal experience of every one.—Dr Richard Morris.

The proper study of a language is an intellectual discipline of the highest order. If I except discussions on the comparative merits of Popery and Protestantism, English grammar was the most important discipline of my boyhood.—John Tyndall.

INTRODUCTION.

What various opinions writers on English grammar have given in answer to the question, What is grammar? may be shown by the following—

These are sufficient to suggest several distinct notions about English grammar—

(1) It makes rules to tell us how to use words.

(2) It is a record of usage which we ought to follow.

(3) It is concerned with the forms of the language.

(4) English has no grammar in the sense of forms, or inflections, but takes account merely of the nature and the uses of words in sentences.

Fierce discussions have raged over these opinions, and numerous works have been written to uphold the theories. The first of them remained popular for a very long time. It originated from the etymology of the word grammar (Greek gramma, writing, a letter), and from an effort to build up a treatise on English grammar by using classical grammar as a model.

Perhaps a combination of (1) and (3) has been still more popular, though there has been vastly more classification than there are forms.

During recent years, (2) and (4) have been gaining ground, but they have had hard work to displace the older and more popular theories. It is insisted by many that the student's time should be used in studying general literature, and thus learning the fluent and correct use of his mother tongue. It is also insisted that the study and discussion of forms and inflections is an inexcusable imitation of classical treatises.

Which view shall the student of English accept? Before this is answered, we should decide whether some one of the above theories must be taken as the right one, and the rest disregarded.

The real reason for the diversity of views is a confusion of two distinct things,—what the definition of grammar should be, and what the purpose of grammar should be.

The province of English grammar is, rightly considered, wider than is indicated by any one of the above definitions; and the student ought to have a clear idea of the ground to be covered.

It must be admitted that the language has very few inflections at present, as compared with Latin or Greek; so that a small grammar will hold them all.

It is also evident, to those who have studied the language historically, that it is very hazardous to make rules in grammar: what is at present regarded as correct may not be so twenty years from now, even if our rules are founded on the keenest scrutiny of the "standard" writers of our time. Usage is varied as our way of thinking changes. In Chaucer's time two or three negatives were used to strengthen a negation; as, "Ther nas no man nowher so vertuous" (There never was no man nowhere so virtuous). And Shakespeare used good English when he said more elder ("Merchant of Venice") and most unkindest ("Julius Cæsar"); but this is bad English now.

If, however, we have tabulated the inflections of the language, and stated what syntax is the most used in certain troublesome places, there is still much for the grammarian to do.

Surely our noble language, with its enormous vocabulary, its peculiar and abundant idioms, its numerous periphrastic forms to express every possible shade of meaning, is worthy of serious study, apart from the mere memorizing of inflections and formulation of rules.

Grammar is eminently a means of mental training; and while it will train the student in subtle and acute reasoning, it will at the same time, if rightly presented, lay the foundation of a keen observation and a correct literary taste. The continued contact with the highest thoughts of the best minds will create a thirst for the "well of English undefiled."

Coming back, then, from the question, What ground should grammar cover? we come to answer the question, What should grammar teach? and we give as an answer the definition,—

English grammar is the science which treats of the nature of words, their forms, and their uses and relations in the sentence.

This will take in the usual divisions, "The Parts of Speech" (with their inflections), "Analysis," and "Syntax." It will also require a discussion of any points that will clear up difficulties, assist the classification of kindred expressions, or draw the attention of the student to everyday idioms and phrases, and thus incite his observation.

A few words here as to the authority upon which grammar rests.

The statements given will be substantiated by quotations from the leading or "standard" literature of modern times; that is, from the eighteenth century on. This literary English is considered the foundation on which grammar must rest.

Here and there also will be quoted words and phrases from spoken or colloquial English, by which is meant the free, unstudied expressions of ordinary conversation and communication among intelligent people.

These quotations will often throw light on obscure constructions, since they preserve turns of expressions that have long since perished from the literary or standard English.

Occasionally, too, reference will be made to vulgar English,—the speech of the uneducated and ignorant,—which will serve to illustrate points of syntax once correct, or standard, but now undoubtedly bad grammar.

The following pages will cover, then, three divisions:—

PART I.

THE PARTS OF SPEECH.

NOUNS.

1. In the more simple state of the Arabs, the nation is free, because each of her sons disdains a base submission to the will of a master.—Gibbon.

By examining this sentence we notice several words used as names. The plainest name is Arabs, which belongs to a people; but, besides this one, the words sons and master name objects, and may belong to any of those objects. The words state, submission, and will are evidently names of a different kind, as they stand for ideas, not objects; and the word nation stands for a whole group.

When the meaning of each of these words has once been understood, the word naming it will always call up the thing or idea itself. Such words are called nouns.

2. A noun is a name word, representing directly to the mind an object, substance, or idea.

3. Nouns are classified as follows:—

(1) Proper.

(2) Common. (a) CLASS NAMES: i. Individual.
ii. Collective.
(b) MATERIAL.

(3) Abstract. (a) ATTRIBUTE.
(b) VERBAL

4. A proper noun is a name applied to a particular object, whether person, place, or thing.

It specializes or limits the thing to which it is applied, reducing it to a narrow application. Thus, city is a word applied to any one of its kind; but Chicago names one city, and fixes the attention upon that particular city. King may be applied to any ruler of a kingdom, but Alfred the Great is the name of one king only.

The word proper is from a Latin word meaning limited, belonging to one. This does not imply, however, that a proper name can be applied to only one object, but that each time such a name is applied it is fixed or proper to that object. Even if there are several Bostons or Manchesters, the name of each is an individual or proper name.

5. A common noun is a name possessed by any one of a class of persons, animals, or things.

Common, as here used, is from a Latin word which means general, possessed by all.

For instance, road is a word that names any highway outside of cities; wagon is a term that names any vehicle of a certain kind used for hauling: the words are of the widest application. We may say, the man here, or the man in front of you, but the word man is here hedged in by other words or word groups: the name itself is of general application.

Besides considering persons, animals, and things separately, we may think of them in groups, and appropriate names to the groups.

Thus, men in groups may be called a crowd, or a mob, a committee, or a council, or a congress, etc.

These are called COLLECTIVE NOUNS. They properly belong under common nouns, because each group is considered as a unit, and the name applied to it belongs to any group of its class.

6. The definition given for common nouns applies more strictly to class nouns. It may, however, be correctly used for another group of nouns detailed below; for they are common nouns in the sense that the names apply to every particle of similar substance, instead of to each individual or separate object.

They are called MATERIAL NOUNS. Such are glass, iron, clay, frost, rain, snow, wheat, wine, tea, sugar, etc.

They may be placed in groups as follows:—

(1) The metals: iron, gold, platinum, etc.

(2) Products spoken of in bulk: tea, sugar, rice, wheat, etc.

(3) Geological bodies: mud, sand, granite, rock, stone, etc.

(4) Natural phenomena: rain, dew, cloud, frost, mist, etc.

(5) Various manufactures: cloth (and the different kinds of cloth), potash, soap, rubber, paint, celluloid, etc.

7. NOTE.—There are some nouns, such as sun, moon, earth, which seem to be the names of particular individual objects, but which are not called proper names.

The reason is, that in proper names the intention is to exclude all other individuals of the same class, and fasten a special name to the object considered, as in calling a city Cincinnati; but in the words sun, earth, etc., there is no such intention. If several bodies like the center of our solar system are known, they also are called suns by a natural extension of the term: so with the words earth, world, etc. They remain common class names.

8. Abstract nouns are names of qualities, conditions, or actions, considered abstractly, or apart from their natural connection.

When we speak of a wise man, we recognize in him an attribute or quality. If we wish to think simply of that quality without describing the person, we speak of the wisdom of the man. The quality is still there as much as before, but it is taken merely as a name. So poverty would express the condition of a poor person; proof means the act of proving, or that which shows a thing has been proved; and so on.

Again, we may say, "Painting is a fine art," "Learning is hard to acquire," "a man of understanding."

9. There are two chief divisions of abstract nouns:—

(1) ATTRIBUTE NOUNS, expressing attributes or qualities.

(2) VERBAL NOUNS, expressing state, condition, or action.

10. The ATTRIBUTE ABSTRACT NOUNS are derived from adjectives and from common nouns. Thus, (1) prudence from prudent, height from high, redness from red, stupidity from stupid, etc.; (2) peerage from peer, childhood from child, mastery from master, kingship from king, etc.

II. The VERBAL ABSTRACT NOUNS Originate in verbs, as their name implies. They may be—

(1) Of the same form as the simple verb. The verb, by altering its function, is used as a noun; as in the expressions, "a long run" "a bold move," "a brisk walk."

(2) Derived from verbs by changing the ending or adding a suffix: motion from move, speech from speak, theft from thieve, action from act, service from serve.

(3) Derived from verbs by adding -ing to the simple verb. It must be remembered that these words are free from any verbal function. They cannot govern a word, and they cannot express action, but are merely names of actions. They are only the husks of verbs, and are to be rigidly distinguished from gerunds (Secs. 272, 273).

To avoid difficulty, study carefully these examples:

The best thoughts and sayings of the Greeks; the moon caused fearful forebodings; in the beginning of his life; he spread his blessings over the land; the great Puritan awakening; our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting; a wedding or a festival; the rude drawings of the book; masterpieces of the Socratic reasoning; the teachings of the High Spirit; those opinions and feelings; there is time for such reasonings; the well-being of her subjects; her longing for their favor; feelings which their original meaning will by no means justify; the main bearings of this matter.

12. Some abstract nouns were not derived from any other part of speech, but were framed directly for the expression of certain ideas or phenomena. Such are beauty, joy, hope, ease, energy; day, night, summer, winter; shadow, lightning, thunder, etc.

The adjectives or verbs corresponding to these are either themselves derived from the nouns or are totally different words; as glad—joy, hopeful—hope, etc.

Exercises.

NOTE.—Remember that all sentences are to be selected from standard literature.

SPECIAL USES OF NOUNS.

13. By being used so as to vary their usual meaning, nouns of one class may be made to approach another class, or to go over to it entirely. Since words alter their meaning so rapidly by a widening or narrowing of their application, we shall find numerous examples of this shifting from class to class; but most of them are in the following groups. For further discussion see the remarks on articles (p. 119).

14. Proper nouns are used as common in either of two ways:—

(1) The origin of a thing is used for the thing itself: that is, the name of the inventor may be applied to the thing invented, as a davy, meaning the miner's lamp invented by Sir Humphry Davy; the guillotine, from the name of Dr. Guillotin, who was its inventor. Or the name of the country or city from which an article is derived is used for the article: as china, from China; arras, from a town in France; port (wine), from Oporto, in Portugal; levant and morocco (leather).

Some of this class have become worn by use so that at present we can scarcely discover the derivation from the form of the word; for example, the word port, above. Others of similar character are calico, from Calicut; damask, from Damascus; currants, from Corinth; etc.

(2) The name of a person or place noted for certain qualities is transferred to any person or place possessing those qualities; thus,—

15. Material nouns may be used as class names. Instead of considering the whole body of material of which certain uses are made, one can speak of particular uses or phases of the substance; as—

(1) Of individual objects made from metals or other substances capable of being wrought into various shapes. We know a number of objects made of iron. The material iron embraces the metal contained in them all; but we may say, "The cook made the irons hot," referring to flat-irons; or, "The sailor was put in irons" meaning chains of iron. So also we may speak of a glass to drink from or to look into; a steel to whet a knife on; a rubber for erasing marks; and so on.

(2) Of classes or kinds of the same substance. These are the same in material, but differ in strength, purity, etc. Hence it shortens speech to make the nouns plural, and say teas, tobaccos, paints, oils, candies, clays, coals.

(3) By poetical use, of certain words necessarily singular in idea, which are made plural, or used as class nouns, as in the following:—

(4) Of detached portions of matter used as class names; as stones, slates, papers, tins, clouds, mists, etc.

16. Abstract nouns are frequently used as proper names by being personified; that is, the ideas are spoken of as residing in living beings. This is a poetic usage, though not confined to verse.

17. Abstract nouns are made half abstract by being spoken of in the plural.

They are not then pure abstract nouns, nor are they common class nouns. For example, examine this:—

When it is said that art differs from science, that the power of art is founded on fact, that disposition is the thing to be created, the words italicized are pure abstract nouns; but in case an art or a science, or the arts and sciences, be spoken of, the abstract idea is partly lost. The words preceded by the article a, or made plural, are still names of abstract ideas, not material things; but they widen the application to separate kinds of art or different branches of science. They are neither class nouns nor pure abstract nouns: they are more properly called half abstract.

Test this in the following sentences:—

18. Nouns used as descriptive terms. Sometimes a noun is attached to another noun to add to its meaning, or describe it; for example, "a family quarrel," "a New York bank," "the State Bank Tax bill," "a morning walk."

It is evident that these approach very near to the function of adjectives. But it is better to consider them as nouns, for these reasons: they do not give up their identity as nouns; they do not express quality; they cannot be compared, as descriptive adjectives are.

They are more like the possessive noun, which belongs to another word, but is still a noun. They may be regarded as elliptical expressions, meaning a walk in the morning, a bank in New York, a bill as to tax on the banks, etc.

NOTE.—If the descriptive word be a material noun, it may be regarded as changed to an adjective. The term "gold pen" conveys the same idea as "golden pen," which contains a pure adjective.

WORDS AND WORD GROUPS USED AS NOUNS.

19. Owing to the scarcity of distinctive forms, and to the consequent flexibility of English speech, words which are usually other parts of speech are often used as nouns; and various word groups may take the place of nouns by being used as nouns.

(1) Other parts of speech used as nouns:—

(2) Certain word groups used like single nouns:—

(3) Any part of speech may be considered merely as a word, without reference to its function in the sentence; also titles of books are treated as simple nouns.

20. It is to be remembered, however, that the above cases are shiftings of the use, of words rather than of their meaning. We seldom find instances of complete conversion of one part of speech into another.

When, in a sentence above, the terms the great, the wealthy, are used, they are not names only: we have in mind the idea of persons and the quality of being great or wealthy. The words are used in the sentence where nouns are used, but have an adjectival meaning.

In the other sentences, why and wherefore, When, Now, and Then, are spoken of as if pure nouns; but still the reader considers this not a natural application of them as name words, but as a figure of speech.

NOTE.—These remarks do not apply, of course, to such words as become pure nouns by use. There are many of these. The adjective good has no claim on the noun goods; so, too, in speaking of the principal of a school, or a state secret, or a faithful domestic, or a criminal, etc., the words are entirely independent of any adjective force.

Exercise.

Pick out the nouns in the following sentences, and tell to which class each belongs. Notice if any have shifted from one class to another.

INFLECTIONS OF NOUNS.

GENDER.

21. In Latin, Greek, German, and many other languages, some general rules are given that names of male beings are usually masculine, and names of females are usually feminine. There are exceptions even to this general statement, but not so in English. Male beings are, in English grammar, always masculine; female, always feminine.

When, however, inanimate things are spoken of, these languages are totally unlike our own in determining the gender of words. For instance: in Latin, hortus (garden) is masculine, mensa (table) is feminine, corpus (body) is neuter; in German, das Messer (knife) is neuter, der Tisch (table) is masculine, die Gabel (fork) is feminine.

The great difference is, that in English the gender follows the meaning of the word, in other languages gender follows the form; that is, in English, gender depends on sex: if a thing spoken of is of the male sex, the name of it is masculine; if of the female sex, the name of it is feminine. Hence:

22. Gender is the mode of distinguishing sex by words, or additions to words.

23. It is evident from this that English can have but two genders,—masculine and feminine.

All nouns, then, must be divided into two principal classes,—gender nouns, those distinguishing the sex of the object; and neuter nouns, those which do not distinguish sex, or names of things without life, and consequently without sex.

Gender nouns include names of persons and some names of animals; neuter nouns include some animals and all inanimate objects.

24. Some words may be either gender nouns or neuter nouns, according to their use. Thus, the word child is neuter in the sentence, "A little child shall lead them," but is masculine in the sentence from Wordsworth,—

Of animals, those with which man comes in contact often, or which arouse his interest most, are named by gender nouns, as in these sentences:—

Other animals are not distinguished as to sex, but are spoken of as neuter, the sex being of no consequence.

25. According to the definition, there can be no such thing as "common gender:" words either distinguish sex (or the sex is distinguished by the context) or else they do not distinguish sex.

If such words as parent, servant, teacher, ruler, relative, cousin, domestic, etc., do not show the sex to which the persons belong, they are neuter words.

26. Put in convenient form, the division of words according to sex, or the lack of it, is,—

(MASCULINE: Male beings.
Gender nouns {
(FEMININE: Female beings.

Neuter nouns: Names of inanimate things, or of living beings whose sex cannot be determined.

27. The inflections for gender belong, of course, only to masculine and feminine nouns. Forms would be a more accurate word than inflections, since inflection applies only to the case of nouns.

There are three ways to distinguish the genders:—

(1) By prefixing a gender word to another word.

(2) By adding a suffix, generally to a masculine word.

(3) By using a different word for each gender.

I. Gender shown by Prefixes.

28. Usually the gender words he and she are prefixed to neuter words; as he-goat—she-goat, cock sparrow—hen sparrow, he-bear—she-bear.

One feminine, woman, puts a prefix before the masculine man. Woman is a short way of writing wifeman.

II. Gender shown by Suffixes.

29. By far the largest number of gender words are those marked by suffixes. In this particular the native endings have been largely supplanted by foreign suffixes.

The native suffixes to indicate the feminine were -en and -ster. These remain in vixen and spinster, though both words have lost their original meanings.

The word vixen was once used as the feminine of fox by the Southern-English. For fox they said vox; for from they said vram; and for the older word fat they said vat, as in wine vat. Hence vixen is for fyxen, from the masculine fox.

Spinster is a relic of a large class of words that existed in Old and Middle English,^[1] but have now lost their original force as feminines. The old masculine answering to spinster was spinner; but spinster has now no connection with it.

The foreign suffixes are of two kinds:—

(1) Those belonging to borrowed words, as czarina, señorita, executrix, donna. These are attached to foreign words, and are never used for words recognized as English.

(2) That regarded as the standard or regular termination of the feminine, -ess (French esse, Low Latin issa), the one most used. The corresponding masculine may have the ending -er (-or), but in most cases it has not. Whenever we adopt a new masculine word, the feminine is formed by adding this termination -ess.

Sometimes the -ess has been added to a word already feminine by the ending -ster; as seam-str-ess, song-str-ess. The ending -ster had then lost its force as a feminine suffix; it has none now in the words huckster, gamester, trickster, punster.

30. The ending -ess is added to many words without changing the ending of the masculine; as,—

• baron—baroness
• count—countess
• lion—lioness
• Jew—Jewess
• heir—heiress
• host—hostess
• priest—priestess
• giant—giantess

The masculine ending may be dropped before the feminine -ess is added; as,—

• abbot—abbess
• negro—negress
• murderer—murderess
• sorcerer—sorceress

The feminine may discard a vowel which appears in the masculine; as in—

• actor—actress
• master—mistress
• benefactor—benefactress
• emperor—empress
• tiger—tigress
• enchanter—enchantress

Empress has been cut down from emperice (twelfth century) and emperesse (thirteenth century), from Latin imperatricem.

Master and mistress were in Middle English maister—maistresse, from the Old French maistre—maistresse.

31. When the older -en and -ster went out of use as the distinctive mark of the feminine, the ending -ess, from the French -esse, sprang into a popularity much greater than at present.

Instead of saying doctress, fosteress, wagoness, as was said in the sixteenth century, or servauntesse, teacheresse, neighboresse, frendesse, as in the fourteenth century, we have dispensed with the ending in many cases, and either use a prefix word or leave the masculine to do work for the feminine also.

Thus, we say doctor (masculine and feminine) or woman doctor, teacher or lady teacher, neighbor (masculine and feminine), etc. We frequently use such words as author, editor, chairman, to represent persons of either sex.

NOTE.—There is perhaps this distinction observed: when we speak of a female as an active agent merely, we use the masculine termination, as, "George Eliot is the author of 'Adam Bede;'" but when we speak purposely to denote a distinction from a male, we use the feminine, as, "George Eliot is an eminent authoress."

III. Gender shown by Different Words.

32. In some of these pairs, the feminine and the masculine are entirely different words; others have in their origin the same root. Some of them have an interesting history, and will be noted below:—

• bachelor—maid
• boy—girl
• brother—sister
• drake—duck
• earl—countess
• father—mother
• gander—goose
• hart—roe
• horse—mare
• husband—wife
• king—queen
• lord—lady
• wizard—witch
• nephew—niece
• ram—ewe
• sir—madam
• son—daughter
• uncle—aunt
• bull—cow
• boar—sow

Girl originally meant a child of either sex, and was used for male or female until about the fifteenth century.

Drake is peculiar in that it is formed from a corresponding feminine which is no longer used. It is not connected historically with our word duck, but is derived from ened (duck) and an obsolete suffix rake (king). Three letters of ened have fallen away, leaving our word drake.

Gander and goose were originally from the same root word. Goose has various cognate forms in the languages akin to English (German Gans, Icelandic gás, Danish gaas, etc.). The masculine was formed by adding -a, the old sign of the masculine. This gansa was modified into gan-ra, gand-ra, finally gander; the d being inserted to make pronunciation easy, as in many other words.

Mare, in Old English mere, had the masculine mearh (horse), but this has long been obsolete.

Husband and wife are not connected in origin. Husband is a Scandinavian word (Anglo-Saxon hūsbonda from Icelandic hús-bóndi, probably meaning house dweller); wife was used in Old and Middle English to mean woman in general.

King and queen are said by some (Skeat, among others) to be from the same root word, but the German etymologist Kluge says they are not.

Lord is said to be a worn-down form of the Old English hlāf-weard (loaf keeper), written loverd, lhauerd, or lauerd in Middle English. Lady is from hlœ̄̄fdige (hlœ̄̄f meaning loaf, and dige being of uncertain origin and meaning).

Witch is the Old English wicce, but wizard is from the Old French guiscart (prudent), not immediately connected with witch, though both are ultimately from the same root.

Sir is worn down from the Old French sire (Latin senior). Madam is the French ma dame, from Latin mea domina.

33. Besides gander and drake, there are two other masculine words that were formed from the feminine:—

Bridegroom, from Old English brȳd-guma (bride's man). The r in groom has crept in from confusion with the word groom.

Widower, from the weakening of the ending -a in Old English to -e in Middle English. The older forms, widuwa—widuwe, became identical, and a new masculine ending was therefore added to distinguish the masculine from the feminine (compare Middle English widuer—widewe).

Personification.

34. Just as abstract ideas are personified (Sec. 16), material objects may be spoken of like gender nouns; for example,—

This is not exclusively a poetic use. In ordinary speech personification is very frequent: the pilot speaks of his boat as feminine; the engineer speaks so of his engine; etc.

In such cases the gender is marked by the pronoun, and not by the form of the noun. But the fact that in English the distinction of gender is confined to difference of sex makes these departures more effective.

NUMBER.

35. In nouns, number means the mode of indicating whether we are speaking of one thing or of more than one.

36. Our language has two numbers,—singular and plural. The singular number denotes that one thing is spoken of; the plural, more than one.

37. There are three ways of changing the singular form to the plural:—

(1) By adding -en.

(2) By changing the root vowel.

(3) By adding -s (or -es).

The first two methods prevailed, together with the third, in Old English, but in modern English -s or -es has come to be the "standard" ending; that is, whenever we adopt a new word, we make its plural by adding -s or -es.

I. Plurals formed by the Suffix -en.

38. This inflection remains only in the word oxen, though it was quite common in Old and Middle English; for instance, eyen (eyes), treen (trees), shoon (shoes), which last is still used in Lowland Scotch. Hosen is found in the King James version of the Bible, and housen is still common in the provincial speech in England.

39. But other words were inflected afterwards, in imitation of the old words in -en by making a double plural.

Brethren has passed through three stages. The old plural was brothru, then brothre or brethre, finally brethren. The weakening of inflections led to this addition.

Children has passed through the same history, though the intermediate form childer lasted till the seventeenth century in literary English, and is still found in dialects; as,—

Kine is another double plural, but has now no singular.

II. Plurals formed by Vowel Change.

40. Examples of this inflection are,—

• man—men
• foot—feet
• goose—geese
• louse—lice
• mouse—mice
• tooth—teeth

Some other words—as book, turf, wight, borough—formerly had the same inflection, but they now add the ending -s.

41. Akin to this class are some words, originally neuter, that have the singular and plural alike; such as deer, sheep, swine, etc.

Other words following the same usage are, pair, brace, dozen, after numerals (if not after numerals, or if preceded by the prepositions in, by, etc, they add -s): also trout, salmon; head, sail; cannon; heathen, folk, people.

The words horse and foot, when they mean soldiery, retain the same form for plural meaning; as,—

III. Plurals formed by Adding -s or -es.

42. Instead of -s, the ending -es is added—

(1) If a word ends in a letter which cannot add -s and be pronounced. Such are box, cross, ditch, glass, lens, quartz, etc.

If the word ends in a sound which cannot add -s, a new syllable is made; as, niche—niches, race—races, house—houses, prize—prizes, chaise—chaises, etc.

-Es is also added to a few words ending in -o, though this sound combines readily with -s, and does not make an extra syllable: cargo—cargoes, negro—negroes, hero—heroes, volcano—volcanoes, etc.

Usage differs somewhat in other words of this class, some adding -s, and some -es.

(2) If a word ends in -y preceded by a consonant (the y being then changed to i); e.g., fancies, allies, daisies, fairies.

Formerly, however, these words ended in -ie, and the real ending is therefore -s. Notice these from Chaucer (fourteenth century):—

And these from Spenser (sixteenth century):—

(3) In the case of some words ending in -f or -fe, which have the plural in -ves: calf—calves, half—halves, knife—knives, shelf—shelves, etc.

Special Lists.

43. Material nouns and abstract nouns are always singular. When such words take a plural ending, they lose their identity, and go over to other classes (Secs. 15 and 17).

44. Proper nouns are regularly singular, but may be made plural when we wish to speak of several persons or things bearing the same name; e.g., the Washingtons, the Americas.

45. Some words are usually singular, though they are plural in form. Examples of these are, optics, economics, physics, mathematics, politics, and many branches of learning; also news, pains (care), molasses, summons, means: as,—

Two words, means and politics, may be plural in their construction with verbs and adjectives:—

46. Some words have no corresponding singular.

• aborigines
• amends
• annals
• assets
• antipodes
• scissors
• thanks
• spectacles
• vespers
• victuals
• matins
• nuptials
• oats
• obsequies
• premises
• bellows
• billiards
• dregs
• gallows
• tongs

Sometimes, however, a few of these words have the construction of singular nouns. Notice the following:—

In Early Modern English thank is found.

47. Three words were originally singular, the present ending -s not being really a plural inflection, but they are regularly construed as plural: alms, eaves, riches.

48. A few nouns have two plurals differing in meaning.

• brother—brothers (by blood), brethren (of a society or church).
• cloth—cloths (kinds of cloth), clothes (garments).
• die—dies (stamps for coins, etc.), dice (for gaming).
• fish—fish (collectively), fishes (individuals or kinds).
• genius—geniuses (men of genius), genii (spirits).
• index—indexes (to books), indices (signs in algebra).
• pea—peas (separately), pease (collectively).
• penny—pennies (separately), pence (collectively).
• shot—shot (collective balls), shots (number of times fired).

In speaking of coins, twopence, sixpence, etc., may add -s, making a double plural, as two sixpences.

49. Other words have one plural form with two meanings,—one corresponding to the singular, the other unlike it.

• custom—customs: (1) habits, ways; (2) revenue duties.
• letter—letters: (1) the alphabet, or epistles; (2) literature.
• number—numbers: (1) figures; (2) poetry, as in the lines,—

Numbers also means issues, or copies, of a periodical.

• pain—pains: (1) suffering; (2) care, trouble,
• part—parts: (1) divisions; (2) abilities, faculties.

50. Compound words may be divided into two classes:—

(1) Those whose parts are so closely joined as to constitute one word. These make the last part plural.

• courtyard
• dormouse
• Englishman
• fellow-servant
• fisherman
• Frenchman
• forget-me-not
• goosequill
• handful
• mouthful
• cupful
• maidservant
• pianoforte
• stepson
• spoonful
• titmouse

(2) Those groups in which the first part is the principal one, followed by a word or phrase making a modifier. The chief member adds -s in the plural.

• aid-de-camp
• attorney at law
• billet-doux
• commander in chief
• court-martial
• cousin-german
• father-in-law
• knight-errant
• hanger-on

NOTE.—Some words ending in -man are not compounds of the English word man, but add -s; such as talisman, firman, Brahman, German, Norman, Mussulman, Ottoman.

51. Some groups pluralize both parts of the group; as man singer, manservant, woman servant, woman singer.

52. As to plurals of names with titles, there is some disagreement among English writers. The title may be plural, as the Messrs. Allen, the Drs. Brown, the Misses Rich; or the name may be pluralized.

The former is perhaps more common in present-day use, though the latter is often found; for example,—

53. A number of foreign words have been adopted into English without change of form. These are said to be domesticated, and retain their foreign plurals.

Others have been adopted, and by long use have altered their power so as to conform to English words. They are then said to be naturalized, or Anglicized, or Englished.

The domesticated words may retain the original plural. Some of them have a secondary English plural in -s or -es.

Exercise.

Find in the dictionary the plurals of these words:—

I. FROM THE LATIN.

• apparatus
• appendix
• axis
• datum
• erratum
• focus
• formula
• genus
• larva
• medium
• memorandum
• nebula
• radius
• series
• species
• stratum
• terminus
• vertex

II. FROM THE GREEK.

• analysis
• antithesis
• automaton
• basis
• crisis
• ellipsis
• hypothesis
• parenthesis
• phenomenon
• thesis

When the foreign words are fully naturalized, they form their plurals in the regular way; as,—

• bandits
• cherubs
• dogmas
• encomiums
• enigmas
• focuses
• formulas
• geniuses
• herbariums
• indexes
• seraphs
• apexes

54. Letters, figures, etc., form their plurals by adding -s or 's. Words quoted merely as words, without reference to their meaning, also add -s or 's; as, "His 9's (or 9s) look like 7's (or 7s)," "Avoid using too many and's (or ands)," "Change the +'s (or +s) to -'s (or -s)."

CASE.

55. Case is an inflection or use of a noun (or pronoun) to show its relation to other words in the sentence.

In the sentence, "He sleeps in a felon's cell," the word felon's modifies cell, and expresses a relation akin to possession; cell has another relation, helping to express the idea of place with the word in.

56. In the general wearing-away of inflections, the number of case forms has been greatly reduced.

There are now only two case forms of English nouns,—one for the nominative and objective, one for the possessive: consequently the matter of inflection is a very easy thing to handle in learning about cases.

But there are reasons why grammars treat of three cases of nouns when there are only two forms:—

(1) Because the relations of all words, whether inflected or not, must be understood for purposes of analysis.

(2) Because pronouns still have three case forms as well as three case relations.

57. Nouns, then, may be said to have three cases,—the nominative, the objective, and the possessive.

I. Uses of the Nominative.

58. The nominative case is used as follows:—

(1) As the subject of a verb: "Water seeks its level."

(2) As a predicate noun, completing a verb, and referring to or explaining the subject: "A bent twig makes a crooked tree."

(3) In apposition with some other nominative word, adding to the meaning of that word: "The reaper Death with his sickle keen."

(4) In direct address: "Lord Angus, thou hast lied!"

(5) With a participle in an absolute or independent phrase (there is some discussion whether this is a true nominative): "The work done, they returned to their homes."

(6) With an infinitive in exclamations: "David to die!"

Exercise.

Pick out the nouns in the nominative case, and tell which use of the nominative each one has.

II. Uses of the Objective.

59. The objective case is used as follows:—

(1) As the direct object of a verb, naming the person or thing directly receiving the action of the verb: "Woodman, spare that tree!"

(2) As the indirect object of a verb, naming the person or thing indirectly affected by the action of the verb: "Give the devil his due."

(3) Adverbially, defining the action of a verb by denoting time, measure, distance, etc. (in the older stages of the language, this took the regular accusative inflection): "Full fathom five thy father lies;" "Cowards die many times before their deaths."

(4) As the second object, completing the verb, and thus becoming part of the predicate in acting upon an object: "Time makes the worst enemies friends;" "Thou makest the storm a calm." In these sentences the real predicates are makes friends, taking the object enemies, and being equivalent to one verb, reconciles; and makest a calm, taking the object storm, and meaning calmest. This is also called the predicate objective or the factitive object.

(5) As the object of a preposition, the word toward which the preposition points, and which it joins to another word: "He must have a long spoon that would eat with the devil."

The preposition sometimes takes the possessive case of a noun, as will be seen in Sec. 68.

(6) In apposition with another objective: "The opinions of this junto were completely controlled by Nicholas Vedder, a patriarch of the village, and landlord of the inn."

Exercise.

Point out the nouns in the objective case in these sentences, and tell which use each has:—

III. Uses of the Possessive.

60. The possessive case always modifies another word, expressed or understood. There are three forms of possessive showing how a word is related in sense to the modified word:—

(1) Appositional possessive, as in these expressions,—

In these sentences the phrases are equivalent to of the rocky isle [of] Scio, and in the bay [of] Baiæ, the possessive being really equivalent here to an appositional objective. It is a poetic expression, the equivalent phrase being used in prose.

(2) Objective possessive, as shown in the sentences,—

In these the possessives are equivalent to an objective after a verbal expression: as, for murdering Sir Thomas Overbury; an elegy to commemorate yesterday. For this reason the use of the possessive here is called objective.

(3) Subjective possessive, the most common of all; as,—

If this were expanded into the power which his Creator possesses, the word Creator would be the subject of the verb: hence it is called a subjective possessive.

61. This last-named possessive expresses a variety of relations. Possession in some sense is the most common. The kind of relation may usually be found by expanding the possessive into an equivalent phrase: for example, "Winter's rude tempests are gathering now" (i.e., tempests that winter is likely to have); "His beard was of several days' growth" (i.e., growth which several days had developed); "The forest's leaping panther shall yield his spotted hide" (i.e., the panther which the forest hides); "Whoso sheddeth man's blood" (blood that man possesses).

62. As said before (Sec. 56), there are only two case forms. One is the simple form of a word, expressing the relations of nominative and objective; the other is formed by adding 's to the simple form, making the possessive singular. To form the possessive plural, only the apostrophe is added if the plural nominative ends in -s; the 's is added if the plural nominative does not end in -s.

Case Inflection.

63. The full declension of nouns is as follows:—

NOTE.—The difficulty that some students have in writing the possessive plural would be lessened if they would remember there are two steps to be taken:—

(1) Form the nominative plural according to Secs 39-53

(2) Follow the rule given in Sec. 62.

Special Remarks on the Possessive Case.

64. In Old English a large number of words had in the genitive case singular the ending -es; in Middle English still more words took this ending: for example, in Chaucer, "From every schires ende," "Full worthi was he in his lordes werre [war]," "at his beddes syde," "mannes herte [heart]," etc.

By the end of the seventeenth century the present way of indicating the possessive had become general. The use of the apostrophe, however, was not then regarded as standing for the omitted vowel of the genitive (as lord's for lordes): by a false theory the ending was thought to be a contraction of his, as schoolboys sometimes write, "George Jones his book."

Though this opinion was untrue, the apostrophe has proved a great convenience, since otherwise words with a plural in -s would have three forms alike. To the eye all the forms are now distinct, but to the ear all may be alike, and the connection must tell us what form is intended.

The use of the apostrophe in the plural also began in the seventeenth century, from thinking that s was not a possessive sign, and from a desire to have distinct forms.

65. Occasionally the s is dropped in the possessive singular if the word ends in a hissing sound and another hissing sound follows, but the apostrophe remains to mark the possessive; as, for goodness' sake, Cervantes' satirical work.

In other cases the s is seldom omitted. Notice these three examples from Thackeray's writings: "Harry ran upstairs to his mistress's apartment;" "A postscript is added, as by the countess's command;" "I saw what the governess's views were of the matter."

66. In compound expressions, containing words in apposition, a word with a phrase, etc., the possessive sign is usually last, though instances are found with both appositional words marked.

Compare the following examples of literary usage:—

More common still is the practice of turning the possessive into an equivalent phrase; as, in the name of the emperor their master, instead of the emperor their master's name.

67. The possessive is sometimes used without belonging to any noun in the sentence; some such word as house, store, church, dwelling, etc., being understood with it: for example,—

68. A peculiar form, a double possessive, has grown up and become a fixed idiom in modern English.

In most cases, a possessive relation was expressed in Old English by the inflection -es, corresponding to 's. The same relation was expressed in French by a phrase corresponding to of and its object. Both of these are now used side by side; sometimes they are used together, as one modifier, making a double possessive. For this there are several reasons:—

(1) When a word is modified by a, the, this, that, every, no, any, each, etc., and at the same time by a possessive noun, it is distasteful to place the possessive before the modified noun, and it would also alter the meaning: we place it after the modified noun with of.

(2) It is more emphatic than the simple possessive, especially when used with this or that, for it brings out the modified word in strong relief.

(3) It prevents ambiguity. For example, in such a sentence as, "This introduction of Atterbury's has all these advantages" (Dr. Blair), the statement clearly means only one thing,—the introduction which Atterbury made. If, however, we use the phrase of Atterbury, the sentence might be understood as just explained, or it might mean this act of introducing Atterbury. (See also Sec. 87.)

The following are some instances of double possessives:—

Exercises.

(a) Pick out the possessive nouns, and tell whether each is appositional, objective, or subjective.

(b) Rewrite the sentence, turning the possessives into equivalent phrases.

HOW TO PARSE NOUNS.

69. Parsing a word is putting together all the facts about its form and its relations to other words in the sentence.

In parsing, some idioms—the double possessive, for example—do not come under regular grammatical rules, and are to be spoken of merely as idioms.

70. Hence, in parsing a noun, we state,—

(1) The class to which it belongs,—common, proper, etc.

(2) Whether a neuter or a gender noun; if the latter, which gender.

(3) Whether singular or plural number.

(4) Its office in the sentence, determining its case.

71. In parsing any word, the following method should always be followed: tell the facts about what the word does, then make the grammatical statements as to its class, inflections, and relations.

MODEL FOR PARSING.

"What is bolder than a miller's neckcloth, which takes a thief by the throat every morning?"

Miller's is a name applied to every individual of its class, hence it is a common noun; it is the name of a male being, hence it is a gender noun, masculine; it denotes only one person, therefore singular number; it expresses possession or ownership, and limits neckcloth, therefore possessive case.

Neckcloth, like miller's, is a common class noun; it has no sex, therefore neuter; names one thing, therefore singular number; subject of the verb is understood, and therefore nominative case.

Thief is a common class noun; the connection shows a male is meant, therefore masculine gender; singular number; object of the verb takes, hence objective case.

Throat is neuter, of the same class and number as the word neckcloth; it is the object of the preposition by, hence it is objective case.

NOTE.—The preposition sometimes takes the possessive case (see Sec. 68).

Morning is like throat and neckcloth as to class, gender, and number; as to case, it expresses time, has no governing word, but is the adverbial objective.

Exercise.

Follow the model above in parsing all the nouns in the following sentences:—

PRONOUNS.

72. When we wish to speak of a name several times in succession, it is clumsy and tiresome to repeat the noun. For instance, instead of saying, "The pupil will succeed in the pupil's efforts if the pupil is ambitious," we improve the sentence by shortening it thus, "The pupil will succeed in his efforts if he is ambitious."

Again, if we wish to know about the ownership of a house, we evidently cannot state the owner's name, but by a question we say, "Whose house is that?" thus placing a word instead of the name till we learn the name.

This is not to be understood as implying that pronouns were invented because nouns were tiresome, since history shows that pronouns are as old as nouns and verbs. The use of pronouns must have sprung up naturally, from a necessity for short, definite, and representative words.

A pronoun is a reference word, standing for a name, or for a person or thing, or for a group of persons or things.

73. Pronouns may be grouped in five classes:—

(1) Personal pronouns, which distinguish person by their form (Sec. 76).

(2) Interrogative pronouns, which are used to ask questions about persons or things.

(3) Relative pronouns, which relate or refer to a noun, pronoun, or other word or expression, and at the same time connect two statements They are also called conjunctive.

(4) Adjective pronouns, words, primarily adjectives, which are classed as adjectives when they modify nouns, but as pronouns when they stand for nouns.

(5) Indefinite pronouns, which cannot be used as adjectives, but stand for an indefinite number of persons or things.

Numerous examples of all these will be given under the separate classes hereafter treated.

PERSONAL PRONOUNS..

74. Since pronouns stand for persons as well as names, they must represent the person talking, the person or thing spoken to, and the person or thing talked about.

This gives rise to a new term, "the distinction of person."

75. This distinction was not needed in discussing nouns, as nouns have the same form, whether representing persons and things spoken to or spoken of. It is evident that a noun could not represent the person speaking, even if it had a special form.

From analogy to pronouns, which have forms for person, nouns are sometimes spoken of as first or second person by their use; that is, if they are in apposition with a pronoun of the first or second person, they are said to have person by agreement.

But usually nouns represent something spoken of.

76. Pronouns naturally are of three persons:—

(1) First person, representing the person speaking.

(2) Second person, representing a person or thing spoken to.

(3) Third person, standing for a person or thing spoken of.

FORMS OF PERSONAL PRONOUNS.

77. Personal pronouns are inflected thus:—

Remarks on These Forms.

78. It will be noticed that the pronouns of the first and second persons have no forms to distinguish gender. The speaker may be either male or female, or, by personification, neuter; so also with the person or thing spoken to.

But the third person has, in the singular, a separate form for each gender, and also for the neuter.

In Old English these three were formed from the same root; namely, masculine hē, feminine hēo, neuter hit.

The form hit (for it) is still heard in vulgar English, and hoo (for hēo) in some dialects of England.

The plurals were hī, heora, heom, in Old English; the forms they, their, them, perhaps being from the English demonstrative, though influenced by the cognate Norse forms.

79. Thou, thee, etc., are old forms which are now out of use in ordinary speech. The consequence is, that we have no singular pronoun of the second person in ordinary speech or prose, but make the plural you do duty for the singular. We use it with a plural verb always, even when referring to a single object.

80. There are, however, two modern uses of thou, thy, etc.:—

(1) In elevated style, especially in poetry; as,—

(2) In addressing the Deity, as in prayers, etc.; for example,—

81. It is worth while to consider the possessive its. This is of comparatively recent growth. The old form was his (from the nominative hit), and this continued in use till the sixteenth century. The transition from the old his to the modern its is shown in these sentences:—

Here his refers to altar, which is a neuter noun. The quotation represents the usage of the early sixteenth century.

Shakespeare uses his, it, and sometimes its, as possessive of it.

In Milton's poetry (seventeenth century) its occurs only three times.

82. We have an interesting relic in such sentences as this from Thackeray: "One of the ways to know 'em is to watch the scared looks of the ogres' wives and children."

As shown above, the Old English objective was hem (or heom), which was often sounded with the h silent, just as we now say, "I saw 'im yesterday" when the word him is not emphatic. In spoken English, this form 'em has survived side by side with the literary them.

83. The pronouns he and she are often used in poetry, and sometimes in ordinary speech, to personify objects (Sec. 34).

CASES OF PERSONAL PRONOUNS.

I The Nominative.

84. The nominative forms of personal pronouns have the same uses as the nominative of nouns (see Sec. 58). The case of most of these pronouns can be determined more easily than the case of nouns, for, besides a nominative use, they have a nominative form. The words I, thou, he, she, we, ye, they, are very rarely anything but nominative in literary English, though ye is occasionally used as objective.

85. In spoken English, however, there are some others that are added to the list of nominatives: they are, me, him, her, us, them, when they occur in the predicate position. That is, in such a sentence as, "I am sure it was him," the literary language would require he after was; but colloquial English regularly uses as predicate nominatives the forms me, him, her, us, them, though those named in Sec. 84 are always subjects. Yet careful speakers avoid this, and follow the usage of literary English.

II. The Possessive.

86. The forms my, thy, his, her, its, our, your, their, are sometimes grouped separately as POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS, but it is better to speak of them as the possessive case of personal pronouns, just as we speak of the possessive case of nouns, and not make more classes.

The forms mine, thine, yours, hers, theirs, sometimes his and its, have a peculiar use, standing apart from the words they modify instead of immediately before them. From this use they are called ABSOLUTE PERSONAL PRONOUNS, or, some say, ABSOLUTE POSSESSIVES.

As instances of the use of absolute pronouns, note the following:—

Formerly mine and thine stood before their nouns, if the nouns began with a vowel or h silent; thus,—

This usage is still preserved in poetry.

87. The forms hers, ours, yours, theirs, are really double possessives, since they add the possessive s to what is already a regular possessive inflection.

Besides this, we have, as in nouns, a possessive phrase made up of the preposition of with these double possessives, hers, ours, yours, theirs, and with mine, thine, his, sometimes its.

Like the noun possessives, they have several uses:—

(1) To prevent ambiguity, as in the following:—

(2) To bring emphasis, as in these sentences:—

(3) To express contempt, anger, or satire; for example,—

(4) To make a noun less limited in application; thus,—

What would the last two sentences mean if the word my were written instead of of mine, and preceded the nouns?

88. In their function, or use in a sentence, the absolute possessive forms of the personal pronouns are very much like adjectives used as nouns.

In such sentences as, "The good alone are great," "None but the brave deserves the fair," the words italicized have an adjective force and also a noun force, as shown in Sec. 20.

So in the sentences illustrating absolute pronouns in Sec. 86: mine stands for my property, his for his property, in the first sentence; mine stands for my praise in the second. But the first two have a nominative use, and mine in the second has an objective use.

They may be spoken of as possessive in form, but nominative or objective in use, according as the modified word is in the nominative or the objective.

III. The Objective.

89. In Old English there was one case which survives in use, but not in form. In such a sentence as this one from Thackeray, "Pick me out a whip-cord thong with some dainty knots in it," the word me is evidently not the direct object of the verb, but expresses for whom, for whose benefit, the thing is done. In pronouns, this dative use, as it is called, was marked by a separate case.

In Modern English the same use is frequently seen, but the form is the same as the objective. For this reason a word thus used is called a dative-objective.

The following are examples of the dative-objective:—

90. Besides this use of the objective, there are others:—

(1) As the direct object of a verb.

(2) As the object of a preposition.

(3) In apposition.

SPECIAL USES OF PERSONAL PRONOUNS.

91. The word you, and its possessive case yours are sometimes used without reference to a particular person spoken to. They approach the indefinite pronoun in use.

92. The pronoun it has a number of uses:—

(1) To refer to some single word preceding; as,—

(2) To refer to a preceding word group; thus,—

Here it refers back to the whole sentence before it, or to the idea, "any man's doing wrong merely out of ill nature."

(3) As a grammatical subject, to stand for the real, logical subject, which follows the verb; as in the sentences,—

(4) As an impersonal subject in certain expressions which need no other subject; as,—

(5) As an impersonal or indefinite object of a verb or a preposition; as in the following sentences:—

93. The personal pronouns in the objective case are often used reflexively; that is, referring to the same person as the subject of the accompanying verb. For example, we use such expressions as, "I found me a good book," "He bought him a horse," etc. This reflexive use of the dative-objective is very common in spoken and in literary English.

The personal pronouns are not often used reflexively, however, when they are direct objects. This occurs in poetry, but seldom in prose; as,—

REFLEXIVE OR COMPOUND PERSONAL PRONOUNS.

94. The REFLEXIVE PRONOUNS, or COMPOUND PERSONAL, as they are also called, are formed from the personal pronouns by adding the word self, and its plural selves.

They are myself, (ourself), ourselves, yourself, (thyself), yourselves, himself, herself, itself, themselves.

Of the two forms in parentheses, the second is the old form of the second person, used in poetry.

Ourself is used to follow the word we when this represents a single person, especially in the speech of rulers; as,—

95. The question might arise, Why are himself and themselves not hisself and theirselves, as in vulgar English, after the analogy of myself, ourselves, etc.?

The history of these words shows they are made up of the dative-objective forms, not the possessive forms, with self. In Middle English the forms meself, theself, were changed into the possessive myself, thyself, and the others were formed by analogy with these. Himself and themselves are the only ones retaining a distinct objective form.

In the forms yourself and yourselves we have the possessive your marked as singular as well as plural.

96. There are three uses of reflexive pronouns:—

(1) As object of a verb or preposition, and referring to the same person or thing as the subject; as in these sentences from Emerson:—

(2) To emphasize a noun or pronoun; for example,—

NOTE.—In such sentences the pronoun is sometimes omitted, and the reflexive modifies the pronoun understood; for example,—

(3) As the precise equivalent of a personal pronoun; as,—

Exercises on Personal Pronouns.

(a) Bring up sentences containing ten personal pronouns, some each of masculine, feminine, and neuter.

(b) Bring up sentences containing five personal pronouns in the possessive, some of them being double possessives.

(c) Tell which use each it has in the following sentences:—

INTERROGATIVE PRONOUNS.

97. The interrogative pronouns now in use are who (with the forms whose and whom), which, and what.

There is an old word, whether, used formerly to mean which of two, but now obsolete. Examples from the Bible:—

From Steele (eighteenth century):—

98. The use of who, with its possessive and objective, is seen in these sentences:—

From these sentences it will be seen that interrogative who refers to persons only; that it is not inflected for gender or number, but for case alone, having three forms; it is always third person, as it always asks about somebody.

99. Examples of the use of interrogative which:—

As shown here, which is not inflected for gender, number, or case; it refers to either persons or things; it is selective, that is, picks out one or more from a number of known persons or objects.

100. Sentences showing the use of interrogative what:—

These show that what is not inflected for case; that it is always singular and neuter, referring to things, ideas, actions, etc., not to persons.

DECLENSION OF INTERROGATIVE PRONOUNS.

101. The following are all the interrogative forms:—

In spoken English, who is used as objective instead of whom; as, "Who did you see?" "Who did he speak to?"

102. The interrogative who has a separate form for each case, consequently the case can be told by the form of the word; but the case of which and what must be determined exactly as in nouns,—by the use of the words.

For instance, in Sec. 99, which is nominative in the first sentence, since it is subject of the verb had; nominative in the second also, subject of doth love; objective in the last, being the direct object of the verb shall take.

103. Who, which, and what are also relative pronouns; which and what are sometimes adjectives; what may be an adverb in some expressions.

They will be spoken of again in the proper places, especially in the treatment of indirect questions (Sec. 127).

RELATIVE PRONOUNS.

104. Relative pronouns differ from both personal and interrogative pronouns in referring to an antecedent, and also in having a conjunctive use. The advantage in using them is to unite short statements into longer sentences, and so to make smoother discourse. Thus we may say, "The last of all the Bards was he. These bards sang of Border chivalry." Or, it may be shortened into,—

In the latter sentence, who evidently refers to Bards, which is called the antecedent of the relative.

105. The antecedent of a pronoun is the noun, pronoun, or other word or expression, for which the pronoun stands. It usually precedes the pronoun.

Personal pronouns of the third person may have antecedents also, as they take the place usually of a word already used; as,—

In this, both his and who have the antecedent priest.

The pronoun which may have its antecedent following, and the antecedent may be a word or a group of words, as will be shown in the remarks on which below.

106. Relatives may be SIMPLE or INDEFINITE.

When the word relative is used, a simple relative is meant. Indefinite relatives, and the indefinite use of simple relatives, will be discussed further on.

The SIMPLE RELATIVES are who, which, that, what.

107. Examples of the relative who and its forms:—

108. Examples of the relative which and its forms:—

109. Examples of the relative that:—

110. Examples of the use of the relative what:—

[To the Teacher.—If pupils work over the above sentences carefully, and test every remark in the following paragraphs, they will get a much better understanding of the relatives.]

REMARKS ON THE RELATIVE PRONOUNS.

111. By reading carefully the sentences in Sec. 107, the following facts will be noticed about the relative who:—

(1) It usually refers to persons: thus, in the first sentence, Sec. 107, a man...who; in the second, that man...whose; in the third, son, whom; and so on.

(2) It has three case forms,—who, whose, whom.

(3) The forms do not change for person or number of the antecedent. In sentence 4, who is first person; in 5, whose is second person; the others are all third person. In 1, 2, and 3, the relatives are singular; in 4, 5, and 6, they are plural.

112. Though in most cases who refers to persons there are instances found where it refers to animals. It has been seen (Sec. 24) that animals are referred to by personal pronouns when their characteristics or habits are such as to render them important or interesting to man. Probably on the same principle the personal relative who is used not infrequently in literature, referring to animals.

Witness the following examples:—

Other examples might be quoted from Burke, Kingsley, Smollett, Scott, Cooper, Gibbon, and others.

113. The sentences in Sec. 108 show that—

(1) Which refers to animals, things, or ideas, not persons.

(2) It is not inflected for gender or number.

(3) It is nearly always third person, rarely second (an example of its use as second person is given in sentence 32, p. 96).

(4) It has two case forms,—which for the nominative and objective, whose for the possessive.

114. Grammarians sometimes object to the statement that whose is the possessive of which, saying that the phrase of which should always be used instead; yet a search in literature shows that the possessive form whose is quite common in prose as well as in poetry: for example,—

So in Matthew Arnold, Kingsley, Burke, and numerous others.

115. The last two sentences in Sec. 108 show that which may have other antecedents than nouns and pronouns. In 5 (a) there is a participial adjective used as the antecedent; in 5 (b) there is a complete clause employed as antecedent. This often occurs.

Sometimes, too, the antecedent follows which; thus,—

116. In the sentences of Sec. 109, we notice that—

(1) That refers to persons, animals, and things.

(2) It has only one case form, no possessive.

(3) It is the same form for first, second, and third persons.

(4) It has the same form for singular and plural.

It sometimes borrows the possessive whose, as in sentence 6, Sec. 109, but this is not sanctioned as good usage.

117. The sentences of Sec. 110 show that—

(1) What always refers to things; is always neuter.

(2) It is used almost entirely in the singular.

(3) Its antecedent is hardly ever expressed. When expressed, it usually follows, and is emphatic; as, for example,—

Compare this:—

DECLENSION OF RELATIVE PRONOUNS.

118. These are the forms of the simple relatives:—

HOW TO PARSE RELATIVES.

119. The gender, number, and person of the relatives who, which, and that must be determined by those of the antecedent; the case depends upon the function of the relative in its own clause.

For example, consider the following sentence:

Since the relatives hold the sentence together, we can, by taking them out, let the sentence fall apart into three divisions: (1) "He uttered truths;" (2) "The truths wrought upon and molded the lives of the people;" (3) "These people heard him."

That evidently refers to truths, consequently is neuter, third person, plural number. Who plainly stands for those or the people, either of which would be neuter, third person, plural number. Here the relative agrees with its antecedent.

We cannot say the relative agrees with its antecedent in case. Truths in sentence (2), above, is subject of wrought upon and molded; in (1), it is object of uttered. In (2), people is the object of the preposition of; in (3), it is subject of the verb heard. Now, that takes the case of the truths in (2), not of truths which is expressed in the sentence: consequently that is in the nominative case. In the same way who, standing for the people understood, subject of heard, is in the nominative case.

Exercise.

First find the antecedents, then parse the relatives, in the following sentences:—

120. The relative what is handled differently, because it has usually no antecedent, but is singular, neuter, third person. Its case is determined exactly as that of other relatives. In the sentence, "What can't be cured must be endured," the verb must be endured is the predicate of something. What must be endured? Answer, What can't be cured. The whole expression is its subject. The word what, however, is subject of the verb can't be cured, and hence is in the nominative case.

"What we call nature is a certain self-regulated motion or change." Here the subject of is, etc., is what we call nature; but of this, we is the subject, and what is the direct object of the verb call, so is in the objective case.

Some prefer another method of treatment. As shown by the following sentences, what is equivalent to that which:—

Hence some take what as a double relative, and parse that in the first clause, and which in the second clause; that is, "common souls pay with that [singular, object of with] which [singular, object of do] they do."

INDEFINITE RELATIVES.

121. INDEFINITE RELATIVES are, by meaning and use, not as direct as the simple relatives.

They are whoever, whichever, whatever, whatsoever; less common are whoso, whosoever, whichsoever, whatsoever. The simple relatives who, which, and what may also be used as indefinite relatives. Examples of indefinite relatives (from Emerson):—

122. The fitness of the term indefinite here cannot be shown better than by examining the following sentences:—

It is clear that in 1, whatever is equivalent to all things which, and in 2, to everything that; no certain antecedent, no particular thing, being referred to. So with the other indefinites.

123. The above helps us to discriminate between what as a simple and what as an indefinite relative.

As shown in Sec. 120, the simple relative what is equivalent to that which or the thing which,—some particular thing; as shown by the last sentence in Sec. 121, what means anything that, everything that (or everything which). The difference must be seen by the meaning of the sentence, as what hardly ever has an antecedent.

The examples in sentences 5 and 6, Sec. 121, show that who and which have no antecedent expressed, but mean any one whom, either one that, etc.

OTHER WORDS USED AS RELATIVES.

124. Two words, but and as, are used with the force of relative pronouns in some expressions; for example,—

Compare with these the two following sentences:—

Sentence 3 shows that but is equivalent to the relative that with not, and that as after such is equivalent to which.

For as after same see "Syntax" (Sec. 417).

125. In early modern English, as was used just as we use that or which, not following the word such; thus,—

This still survives in vulgar English in England; for example,—

This is frequently illustrated in Dickens's works.

126. Instead of the phrases in which, upon which, by which, etc., the conjunctions wherein, whereupon, whereby, etc., are used.

PRONOUNS IN INDIRECT QUESTIONS.

127. It is sometimes hard for the student to tell a relative from an interrogative pronoun. In the regular direct question the interrogative is easily recognized; so is the relative when an antecedent is close by. But compare the following in pairs:—

In sentences 1 (a), 2 (a) and 3 (a) the regular relative use is seen; who having the antecedent gentleman, what having the double use of pronoun and antecedent, which having the antecedent lines.

But in 1 (b), 2 (b), and 3 (b), there are two points of difference from the others considered: first, no antecedent is expressed, which would indicate that they are not relatives; second, a question is disguised in each sentence, although each sentence as a whole is declarative in form. Thus, 1 (b), if expanded, would be, "Who stood behind? We knew," etc., showing that who is plainly interrogative. So in 2 (b), what is interrogative, the full expression being, "But what had become of them? They knew not." Likewise with which in 3 (b).

In studying such sentences, (1) see whether there is an antecedent of who or which, and whether what = that + which (if so, it is a simple relative; if not, it is either an indefinite relative or an interrogative pronoun); (2) see if the pronoun introduces an indirect question (if it does, it is an interrogative; if not, it is an indefinite relative).

128. On the other hand, care must be taken to see whether the pronoun is the word that really asks the question in an interrogative sentence. Examine the following:—

These are interrogative sentences, but in none of them does the pronoun ask the question. In the first, whence is the interrogative word, which has the antecedent hue. In the second, whose has the antecedent you, and asks no question. In the third, the question is asked by the verb.

OMISSION OF THE RELATIVES.

129. The relative is frequently omitted in spoken and in literary English when it would be the object of a preposition or a verb. Hardly a writer can be found who does not leave out relatives in this way when they can be readily supplied in the mind of the reader. Thus,—

Exercise.

Put in the relatives who, which, or that where they are omitted from the following sentences, and see whether the sentences are any smoother or clearer:—

130. We often hear in spoken English expressions like these:—

Here the omitted relative would be in the nominative case. Also in literary English we find the same omission. It is rare in prose, and comparatively so in poetry. Examples are,—

Exercises on the Relative Pronoun.

(a) Bring up sentences containing ten instances of the relatives who, which, that, and what.

(b) Bring up sentences having five indefinite relatives.

(c) Bring up five sentences having indirect questions introduced by pronouns.

(d) Tell whether the pronouns in the following are interrogatives, simple relatives, or indefinite relatives:—

ADJECTIVE PRONOUNS.

131. Most of the words how to be considered are capable of a double use,—they may be pure modifiers of nouns, or they may stand for nouns. In the first use they are adjectives; in the second they retain an adjective meaning, but have lost their adjective use. Primarily they are adjectives, but in this function, or use, they are properly classed as adjective pronouns.

The following are some examples of these:—

Hence these words are like adjectives used as nouns, which we have seen in such expressions as, "The dead are there;" that is, a word, in order to be an adjective pronoun, must not modify any word, expressed or understood. It must come under the requirement of pronouns, and stand for a noun. For instance, in the following sentences—"The cubes are of stainless ivory, and on each is written, in letters of gold, 'Truth;'" "You needs must play such pranks as these;" "They will always have one bank to sun themselves upon, and another to get cool under;" "Where two men ride on a horse, one must ride behind"—the words italicized modify nouns understood, necessarily thought of: thus, in the first, "each cube;" in the second, "these pranks," in the others, "another bank," "one man."

132. Adjective pronouns are divided into three classes:—

(1) DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS, such as this, that, the former, etc.

(2) DISTRIBUTIVE PRONOUNS, such as each, either, neither, etc.

(3) NUMERAL PRONOUNS, as some, any, few, many, none, all, etc.

DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS

133. A DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUN is one that definitely points out what persons or things are alluded to in the sentence.

The person or thing alluded to by the demonstrative may be in another sentence, or may be the whole of a sentence. For example, "Be that as it may" could refer to a sentiment in a sentence, or an argument in a paragraph; but the demonstrative clearly points to that thing.

The following are examples of demonstratives:—

NOTE.—It will be noticed in the first four sentences that this and that are inflected for number.

Exercises.

(a) Find six sentences using demonstrative adjective pronouns.

(b) In which of the following is these a pronoun?—

DISTRIBUTIVE PRONOUNS.

134. The DISTRIBUTIVE PRONOUNS are those which stand for the names of persons or things considered singly.

Some of these are simple pronouns; for example,—

Two are compound pronouns,—each other, one another. They may be separated into two adjective pronouns; as,

More frequently they are considered as one pronoun.

Exercise.—Find sentences containing three distributive pronouns.

NUMERAL PRONOUNS.

135. The NUMERAL PRONOUNS are those which stand for an uncertain number or quantity of persons or things.

The following sentences contain numeral pronouns:—

It will be noticed that some of these are inflected for case and number; such as one other, another.

The word one has a reflexive form; for example,—

Exercise.—Find sentences containing ten numeral pronouns.

INDEFINITE PRONOUNS.

136. Indefinite pronouns are words which stand for an indefinite number or quantity of persons or things; but, unlike adjective pronouns, they are never used as adjectives.

Most of them are compounds of two or more words:—

Somebody, some one, something; anybody, any one (or anyone), anything; everybody, every one (or everyone), everything; nobody, no one, nothing; somebody else, anyone else, everybody else, every one else, etc.; also aught, naught; and somewhat, what, and they.

The following sentences contain indefinite pronouns:—

They indefinite means people in general; as,—

What indefinite is used in the expression "I tell you what." It means something, and was indefinite in Old English.

Exercise.—Find sentences with six indefinite pronouns.

137. Some indefinite pronouns are inflected for case, as shown in the words everybody's, anybody else's, etc.

See also "Syntax" (Sec. 426) as to the possessive case of the forms with else.

HOW TO PARSE PRONOUNS.

138. In parsing pronouns the student will need particularly to guard against the mistake of parsing words according to form instead of according to function or use.

Exercise.

Parse in full the pronouns in the following sentences:—

ADJECTIVES.

139. Nouns are seldom used as names of objects without additional words joined to them to add to their meaning. For example, if we wish to speak of a friend's house, we cannot guide one to it by merely calling it a house. We need to add some words to tell its color, size, position, etc., if we are at a distance; and if we are near, we need some word to point out the house we speak of, so that no other will be mistaken for it. So with any object, or with persons.

As to the kind of words used, we may begin with the common adjectives telling the characteristics of an object. If a chemist discovers a new substance, he cannot describe it to others without telling its qualities: he will say it is solid, or liquid, or gaseous; heavy or light; brittle or tough; white or red; etc.

Again, in pointing out an object, adjectives are used; such as in the expressions "this man," "that house," "yonder hill," etc.

Instead of using nouns indefinitely, the number is limited by adjectives; as, "one hat," "some cities," "a hundred men."

The office of an adjective, then, is to narrow down or limit the application of a noun. It may have this office alone, or it may at the same time add to the meaning of the noun.

140. Nouns are not, however, the only words limited by adjectives: pronouns and other words and expressions also have adjectives joined to them. Any word or word group that performs the same office as a noun may be modified by adjectives.

To make this clear, notice the following sentences:—

141. An adjective is a word joined to a noun or other substantive word or expression, to describe it or to limit its application.

142. Adjectives are divided into four classes:—

(1) Descriptive adjectives, which describe by expressing qualities or attributes of a substantive.

(2) Adjectives of quantity, used to tell how many things are spoken of, or how much of a thing.

(3) Demonstrative adjectives, pointing out particular things.

(4) Pronominal adjectives, words primarily pronouns, but used adjectively sometimes in modifying nouns instead of standing for them. They include relative and interrogative words.

DESCRIPTIVE ADJECTIVES.

143. This large class includes several kinds of words:—

(1) SIMPLE ADJECTIVES expressing quality; such as safe, happy, deep, fair, rash, beautiful, remotest, terrible, etc.

(2) COMPOUND ADJECTIVES, made up of various words thrown together to make descriptive epithets. Examples are, "Heaven-derived power," "this life-giving book," "his spirit wrapt and wonder-struck," "ice-cold water," "half-dead traveler," "unlooked-for burden," "next-door neighbor," "ivory-handled pistols," "the cold-shudder-inspiring Woman in White."

(3) PROPER ADJECTIVES, derived from proper nouns; such as, "an old English manuscript," "the Christian pearl of charity," "the well-curb had a Chinese roof," "the Roman writer Palladius."

(4) PARTICIPIAL ADJECTIVES, which are either pure participles used to describe, or participles which have lost all verbal force and have no function except to express quality. Examples are,—

Pure participial adjectives: "The healing power of the Messiah," "The shattering sway of one strong arm," "trailing clouds," "The shattered squares have opened into line," "It came on like the rolling simoom," "God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb."

Faded participial adjectives: "Sleep is a blessed thing;" "One is hungry, and another is drunken;" "under the fitting drapery of the jagged and trailing clouds;" "The clearness and quickness are amazing;" "an aged man;" "a charming sight."

144. Care is needed, in studying these last-named words, to distinguish between a participle that forms part of a verb, and a participle or participial adjective that belongs to a noun.

For instance: in the sentence, "The work was well and rapidly accomplished," was accomplished is a verb; in this, "No man of his day was more brilliant or more accomplished," was is the verb, and accomplished is an adjective.

Exercises.

The old sources of intellectual excitement seem to be well-nigh exhausted.

ADJECTIVES OF QUANTITY.

145. Adjectives of quantity tell how much or how many. They have these three subdivisions:—

(1) QUANTITY IN BULK: such words as little, much, some, no, any, considerable, sometimes small, joined usually to singular nouns to express an indefinite measure of the thing spoken of.

The following examples are from Kingsley:—

Examples of small an adjective of quantity:—

When some, any, no, are used with plural nouns, they come under the next division of adjectives.

(2) QUANTITY IN NUMBER, which may be expressed exactly by numbers or remotely designated by words expressing indefinite amounts. Hence the natural division into—

(a) Definite numerals; as, "one blaze of musketry;" "He found in the pathway fourteen Spaniards;" "I have lost one brother, but I have gained fourscore;" "a dozen volunteers."

(b) Indefinite numerals, as the following from Kingsley: "We gave several thousand pounds for it;" "In came some five and twenty more, and with them a few negroes;" "Then we wandered for many days;" "Amyas had evidently more schemes in his head;" "He had lived by hunting for some months;" "That light is far too red to be the reflection of any beams of hers."

(3) DISTRIBUTIVE NUMERALS, which occupy a place midway between the last two subdivisions of numeral adjectives; for they are indefinite in telling how many objects are spoken of, but definite in referring to the objects one at a time. Thus,—

Exercise.—Bring up sentences with ten adjectives of quantity.

DEMONSTRATIVE ADJECTIVES.

146. The words of this list are placed here instead of among pronominal adjectives, for the reason that they are felt to be primarily adjectives; their pronominal use being evidently a shortening, by which the words point out but stand for words omitted, instead of modifying them. Their natural and original use is to be joined to a noun following or in close connection.

The demonstrative adjectives are this, that, (plural these, those), yonder (or yon), former, latter; also the pairs one (or the one)—the other, the former—the latter, used to refer to two things which have been already named in a sentence.

The following sentences present some examples:—

Exercise.—Find sentences with five demonstrative adjectives.

147. The class of numerals known as ordinals must be placed here, as having the same function as demonstrative adjectives. They point out which thing is meant among a series of things mentioned. The following are examples:—

These do not, like the other numerals, tell how many things are meant. When we speak of the seventeenth century, we imply nothing as to how many centuries there may be.

PRONOMINAL ADJECTIVES.

148. As has been said, pronominal adjectives are primarily pronouns; but, when they modify words instead of referring to them as antecedents, they are changed to adjectives. They are of two kinds,—RELATIVE and INTERROGATIVE,—and are used to join sentences or to ask questions, just as the corresponding pronouns do.

149. The RELATIVE ADJECTIVES are which and what; for example,—

150. The INDEFINITE RELATIVE adjectives are what, whatever, whatsoever, whichever, whichsoever. Examples of their use are,—

151. The INTERROGATIVE ADJECTIVES are which and what. They may be used in direct and indirect questions. As in the pronouns, which is selective among what is known; what inquires about things or persons not known.

Sentences with which and what in direct questions:—

Sentences with which and what in indirect questions:—

152. In exclamatory expressions, what (or what a) has a force somewhat like a descriptive adjective. It is neither relative nor interrogative, but might be called an EXCLAMATORY ADJECTIVE; as,—

Exercise.—Find ten sentences containing pronominal adjectives.

INFLECTIONS OF ADJECTIVES.

153 .Adjectives have two inflections,—number and comparison.

NUMBER.—This, That.

154. The only adjectives having a plural form are this and that (plural these, those).

This is the old demonstrative; that being borrowed from the forms of the definite article, which was fully inflected in Old English. The article that was used with neuter nouns.

In Middle English the plural of this was this or thise, which changed its spelling to the modern form these.

But this had also another plural, thās (modern those). The old plural of that was tha (Middle English tho or thow): consequently tho (plural of that) and those (plural of this) became confused, and it was forgotten that those was really the plural of this; and in Modern English we speak of these as the plural of this, and those as the plural of that.

COMPARISON.

155. Comparison is an inflection not possessed by nouns and pronouns: it belongs to adjectives and adverbs.

When we place two objects side by side, we notice some differences between them as to size, weight, color, etc. Thus, it is said that a cow is larger than a sheep, gold is heavier than iron, a sapphire is bluer than the sky. All these have certain qualities; and when we compare the objects, we do so by means of their qualities,—cow and sheep by the quality of largeness, or size; gold and iron by the quality of heaviness, or weight, etc.,—but not the same degree, or amount, of the quality.

The degrees belong to any beings or ideas that may be known or conceived of as possessing quality; as, "untamed thought, great, giant-like, enormous;" "the commonest speech;" "It is a nobler valor;" "the largest soul."

Also words of quantity may be compared: for example, "more matter, with less wit;" "no fewer than a hundred."

156. There are some descriptive words whose meaning is such as not to admit of comparison; for example,—

So with the words sole, sufficient, infinite, immemorial, indefatigable, indomitable, supreme, and many others.

It is true that words of comparison are sometimes prefixed to them, but, strictly considered, they are not compared.

157. Comparison means the changes that words undergo to express degrees in quality, or amounts in quantity.

158. There are two forms for this inflection: the comparative, expressing a greater degree of quality; and the superlative, expressing the greatest degree of quality.

These are called degrees of comparison.

These are properly the only degrees, though the simple, uninflected form is usually called the positive degree.

159. The comparative is formed by adding -er, and the superlative by adding -est, to the simple form; as, red, redder, reddest; blue, bluer, bluest; easy, easier, easiest.

160. Side by side with these inflected forms are found comparative and superlative expressions making use of the adverbs more and most. These are often useful as alternative with the inflected forms, but in most cases are used before adjectives that are never inflected.

They came into use about the thirteenth century, but were not common until a century later.

161. The English is somewhat capricious in choosing between the inflected forms and those with more and most, so that no inflexible rule can be given as to the formation of the comparative and the superlative.

The general rule is, that monosyllables and easily pronounced words of two syllables add -er and -est; and other words are preceded by more and most.

But room must be left in such a rule for pleasantness of sound and for variety of expression.

To see how literary English overrides any rule that could be given, examine the following taken at random:—

From Thackeray: "The handsomest wives;" "the immensest quantity of thrashing;" "the wonderfulest little shoes;" "more odd, strange, and yet familiar;" "more austere and holy."

From Ruskin: "The sharpest, finest chiseling, and patientest fusing;" "distantest relationships;" "sorrowfulest spectacles."

Carlyle uses beautifulest, mournfulest, honestest, admirablest, indisputablest, peaceablest, most small, etc.

These long, harsh forms are usually avoided, but more and most are frequently used with monosyllables.

162. Expressions are often met with in which a superlative form does not carry the superlative meaning. These are equivalent usually to very with the positive degree; as,—

163. Among the variously derived adjectives now in our language there are some which may always be recognized as native English. These are adjectives irregularly compared.

Most of them have worn down or become confused with similar words, but they are essentially the same forms that have lived for so many centuries.

The following lists include the majority of them:—

Remarks on Irregular Adjectives.

164. (1) The word good has no comparative or superlative, but takes the place of a positive to better and best. There was an old comparative bet, which has gone out of use; as in the sentence (14th century), "Ich singe bet than thu dest" (I sing better than thou dost). The superlative I form was betst, which has softened to the modern best.

(2) In Old English, evil was the positive to worse, worst; but later bad and ill were borrowed from the Norse, and used as positives to the same comparative and superlative. Worser was once used, a double comparative; as in Shakespeare,—

(3) Little is used as positive to less, least, though from a different root. A double comparative, lesser, is often used; as,—

(4) The words much and many now express quantity; but in former times much was used in the sense of large, great, and was the same word that is found in the proverb, "Many a little makes a mickle." Its spelling has been micel, muchel, moche, much, the parallel form mickle being rarely used.

The meanings greater, greatest, are shown in such phrases as,—

The latter, meaning the largest part, is quite common.

(5) The forms elder, eldest, are earlier than older, oldest. A few other words with the vowel o had similar change in the comparative and superlative, as long, strong, etc.; but these have followed old by keeping the same vowel o in all the forms, instead of lenger, strenger, etc., the old forms.

(6) and (7) Both nigh and near seem regular in Modern English, except the form next; but originally the comparison was nigh, near, next. In the same way the word high had in Middle English the superlative hexte.

By and by the comparative near was regarded as a positive form, and on it were built a double comparative nearer, and the superlative nearest, which adds -est to what is really a comparative instead of a simple adjective.

(8) These words also show confusion and consequent modification, coming about as follows: further really belongs to another series,—forth, further, first. First became entirely detached from the series, and furthest began to be used to follow the comparative further; then these were used as comparative and superlative of far.

The word far had formerly the comparative and superlative farrer, farrest. In imitation of further, furthest, th came into the others, making the modern farther, farthest. Between the two sets as they now stand, there is scarcely any distinction, except perhaps further is more used than farther in the sense of additional; as, for example,—

(9) Latter and last are the older forms. Since later, latest, came into use, a distinction has grown up between the two series. Later and latest have the true comparative and superlative force, and refer to time; latter and last are used in speaking of succession, or series, and are hardly thought of as connected in meaning with the word late.

(10) Hinder is comparative in form, but not in meaning. The form hindmost is really a double superlative, since the m is for -ma, an old superlative ending, to which is added -ost, doubling the inflection. Hind-er-m-ost presents the combination comparative + superlative + superlative.

165. In List II. (Sec. 163) the comparatives and superlatives are adjectives, but they have no adjective positives.

The comparatives are so in form, but not in their meaning.

The superlatives show examples again of double inflection, and of comparative added to double-superlative inflection.

Examples (from Carlyle) of the use of these adjectives: "revealing the inner splendor to him;" "a mind that has penetrated into the inmost heart of a thing;" "This of painting is one of the outermost developments of a man;" "The outer is of the day;" "far-seeing as the sun, the upper light of the world;" "the innermost moral soul;" "their utmost exertion."

166. The ending -most is added to some words that are not usually adjectives, or have no comparative forms.

167. The adjectives in List III. are like the comparative forms in List II. in having no adjective positives. They have no superlatives, and have no comparative force, being merely descriptive.

Over is rarely used separately as an adjective.

CAUTION FOR ANALYZING OR PARSING.

168. Some care must be taken to decide what word is modified by an adjective. In a series of adjectives in the same sentence, all may belong to the same noun, or each may modify a different word or group of words.

For example, in this sentence, "The young pastor's voice was tremulously sweet, rich, deep, and broken," it is clear that all four adjectives after was modify the noun voice. But in this sentence, "She showed her usual prudence and her usual incomparable decision," decision is modified by the adjective incomparable; usual modifies incomparable decision, not decision alone; and the pronoun her limits usual incomparable decision.

Adjectives modifying the same noun are said to be of the same rank; those modifying different words or word groups are said to be adjectives of different rank. This distinction is valuable in a study of punctuation.

Exercise.

In the following quotations, tell what each adjective modifies:—

ADVERBS USED AS ADJECTIVES.

169. By a convenient brevity, adverbs are sometimes used as adjectives; as, instead of saying, "the one who was then king," in which then is an adverb, we may say "the then king," making then an adjective. Other instances are,—

HOW TO PARSE ADJECTIVES.

170. Since adjectives have no gender, person, or case, and very few have number, the method of parsing is simple.

In parsing an adjective, tell—

(1) The class and subclass to which it belongs.

(2) Its number, if it has number.

(3) Its degree of comparison, if it can be compared.

(4) What word or words it modifies.

MODEL FOR PARSING.

These truths are not unfamiliar to your thoughts.

These points out what truths, therefore demonstrative; plural number, having a singular, this; cannot be compared; modifies the word truths.

Unfamiliar describes truths, therefore descriptive; not inflected for number; compared by prefixing more and most; positive degree; modifies truths.

Exercise.

Parse in full each adjective in these sentences:—

ARTICLES.

171. There is a class of words having always an adjectival use in general, but with such subtle functions and various meanings that they deserve separate treatment. In the sentence, "He passes an ordinary brick house on the road, with an ordinary little garden," the words the and an belong to nouns, just as adjectives do; but they cannot be accurately placed under any class of adjectives. They are nearest to demonstrative and numeral adjectives.

172. The article the comes from an old demonstrative adjective (sē, sēo, ðat, later thē, thēo, that) which was also an article in Old English. In Middle English the became an article, and that remained a demonstrative adjective.

An or a came from the old numeral ān, meaning one.

Our expressions the one, the other, were formerly that one, that other; the latter is still preserved in the expression, in vulgar English, the tother. Not only this is kept in the Scotch dialect, but the former is used, these occurring as the tane, the tother, or the tane, the tither; for example,—

173. Ordinarily an is used before vowel sounds, and a before consonant sounds. Remember that a vowel sound does not necessarily mean beginning with a vowel, nor does consonant sound mean beginning with a consonant, because English spelling does not coincide closely with the sound of words. Examples: "a house," "an orange," "a European," "an honor," "a yelling crowd."

174. Many writers use an before h, even when not silent, when the word is not accented on the first syllable.

175. An article is a limiting word, not descriptive, which cannot be used alone, but always joins to a substantive word to denote a particular thing, or a group or class of things, or any individual of a group or class.

176. Articles are either definite or indefinite.

The is the definite article, since it points out a particular individual, or group, or class.

An or a is the indefinite article, because it refers to any one of a group or class of things.

An and a are different forms of the same word, the older ān.

USES OF THE DEFINITE ARTICLE.

177. The most common use of the definite article is to refer to an object that the listener or reader is already acquainted with; as in the sentence,—

178. The is often prefixed to the names of rivers; and when the word river is omitted, as "the Mississippi," "the Ohio," the article indicates clearly that a river, and not a state or other geographical division, is referred to.

179. When the is prefixed to a proper name, it alters the force of the noun by directing attention to certain qualities possessed by the person or thing spoken of; thus,—

180. The, when placed before the pluralized abstract noun, marks it as half abstract or a common noun.

181. When the precedes adjectives of the positive degree used substantively, it marks their use as common and plural nouns when they refer to persons, and as singular and abstract when they refer to qualities.

NOTE.—This is not to be confused with words that have shifted from adjectives and become pure nouns; as,—

182. The before class nouns may mark one thing as a representative of the class to which it belongs; for example,—

183. The is frequently used instead of the possessive case of the personal pronouns his, her, etc.

184. In England and Scotland the is often used where we use a, in speaking of measure and price; as,—

185. Sometimes the has a strong force, almost equivalent to a descriptive adjective in emphasizing a word,—

186. The, since it belongs distinctively to substantives, is a sure indication that a word of verbal form is not used participially, but substantively.

187. There is one use of the which is different from all the above. It is an adverbial use, and is spoken of more fully in Sec. 283. Compare this sentence with those above:—

Exercise.—Find sentences with five uses of the definite article.

USES OF THE INDEFINITE ARTICLE.

188. The most frequent use of the indefinite article is to denote any one of a class or group of objects: consequently it belongs to singular words; as in the sentence,—

189. When the indefinite article precedes proper names, it alters them to class names. The qualities or attributes of the object are made prominent, and transferred to any one possessing them; as,—

190. An or a before abstract nouns often changes them to half abstract: the idea of quality remains, but the word now denotes only one instance or example of things possessing the quality.

In the first sentence, instead of the general abstract notion of delight, which cannot be singular or plural, a delight means one thing delightful, and implies others having the same quality.

So a sorrow means one cause of sorrow, implying that there are other things that bring sorrow.

NOTE.—Some abstract nouns become common class nouns with the indefinite article, referring simply to persons; thus,—

191. An or a before a material noun indicates the change to a class noun, meaning one kind or a detached portion; as,—

192. In some cases an or a has the full force of the numeral adjective one. It is shown in the following:—

193. Often, also, the indefinite article has the force of each or every, particularly to express measure or frequency.

194. An or a is added to the adjectives such, many, and what, and may be considered a part of these in modifying substantives.

195. Not and never with a or an are numeral adjectives, instead of adverbs, which they are in general.

NOTE.—All these have the function of adjectives; but in the last analysis of the expressions, such, many, not, etc., might be considered as adverbs modifying the article.

196. The adjectives few and little have the negative meaning of not much, not many, without the article; but when a is put before them, they have the positive meaning of some. Notice the contrast in the following sentences:—

197. When the is used before adjectives with no substantive following (Sec. 181 and note), these words are adjectives used as nouns, or pure nouns; but when an or a precedes such words, they are always nouns, having the regular use and inflections of nouns; for example,—

Exercise.—Bring up sentences with five uses of the indefinite article.

HOW TO PARSE ARTICLES.

198. In parsing the article, tell—

(1) What word it limits.

(2) Which of the above uses it has.

Exercise.

Parse the articles in the following:—

VERBS AND VERBALS..

VERBS.

199. The term verb is from the Latin verbum meaning word: hence it is the word of a sentence. A thought cannot be expressed without a verb. When the child cries, "Apple!" it means, See the apple! or I have an apple! In the mariner's shout, "A sail!" the meaning is, "Yonder is a sail!"

Sentences are in the form of declarations, questions, or commands; and none of these can be put before the mind without the use of a verb.

200. The verb may not always be a single word. On account of the lack of inflections, verb phrases are very frequent. Hence the verb may consist of:

(1) One word; as, "The young man obeyed."

(2) Several words of verbal nature, making one expression; as, (a) "Some day it may be considered reasonable," (b) "Fearing lest he might have been anticipated."

(3) One or more verbal words united with other words to compose one verb phrase: as in the sentences, (a) "They knew well that this woman ruled over thirty millions of subjects;" (b) "If all the flummery and extravagance of an army were done away with, the money could be made to go much further;" (c) "It is idle cant to pretend anxiety for the better distribution of wealth until we can devise means by which this preying upon people of small incomes can be put a stop to."

In (a), a verb and a preposition are used as one verb; in (b), a verb, an adverb, and a preposition unite as a verb; in (c), an article, a noun, a preposition, are united with verbs as one verb phrase.

201. A verb is a word used as a predicate, to say something to or about some person or thing. In giving a definition, we consider a verb as one word.

Now, it is indispensable to the nature of a verb that it is "a word used as a predicate." Examine the sentences in Sec. 200: In (1), obeyed is a predicate; in (2, a), may be considered is a unit in doing the work of one predicate; in (2, b), might have been anticipated is also one predicate, but fearing is not a predicate, hence is not a verb; in (3, b), to go is no predicate, and not a verb; in (3, c), to pretend and preying have something of verbal nature in expressing action in a faint and general way, but cannot be predicates.

In the sentence, "Put money in thy purse," put is the predicate, with some word understood; as, "Put thou money in thy purse."

VERBS CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO MEANING AND USE.

TRANSITIVE AND INTRANSITIVE VERBS.

202. By examining a few verbs, it may be seen that not all verbs are used alike. All do not express action: some denote state or condition. Of those expressing action, all do not express it in the same way; for example, in this sentence from Bulwer,—"The proud lone took care to conceal the anguish she endured; and the pride of woman has an hypocrisy which can deceive the most penetrating, and shame the most astute,"—every one of the verbs in Italics has one or more words before or after it, representing something which it influences or controls. In the first, lone took what? answer, care; endured what? anguish; etc. Each influences some object, which may be a person, or a material thing, or an idea. Has takes the object hypocrisy; can deceive has an object, the most penetrating; (can) shame also has an object, the most astute.

In each case, the word following, or the object, is necessary to the completion of the action expressed in the verb.

All these are called transitive verbs, from the Latin transire, which means to go over. Hence

203. A transitive verb is one which must have an object to complete its meaning, and to receive the action expressed.

204. Examine the verbs in the following paragraph:—

In this there are some verbs unlike those that have been examined. Sprang, or sprang up, expresses action, but it is complete in itself, does not affect an object; hastened is similar in use; had been expresses condition, or state of being, and can have no object; had sufficed means had been sufficient, and from its meaning cannot have an object.

Such verbs are called intransitive (not crossing over). Hence

205. An intransitive verb is one which is complete in itself, or which is completed by other words without requiring an object.

206. Many verbs can be either transitive or intransitive, according to their use in the sentence, It can be said, "The boy walked for two hours," or "The boy walked the horse;" "The rains swelled the river," or "The river swelled because of the rain;" etc.

The important thing to observe is, many words must be distinguished as transitive or intransitive by use, not by form.

207. Also verbs are sometimes made transitive by prepositions. These may be (1) compounded with the verb; or (2) may follow the verb, and be used as an integral part of it: for example,—

Exercises.

(a) Pick out the transitive and the intransitive verbs in the following:—

(b) Bring up sentences with five transitive and five intransitive verbs.

VOICE, ACTIVE AND PASSIVE.

208. As has been seen, transitive verbs are the only kind that can express action so as to go over to an object. This implies three things,—the agent, or person or thing acting; the verb representing the action; the person or object receiving the act.

In the sentence, "We reached the village of Sorgues by dusk, and accepted the invitation of an old dame to lodge at her inn," these three things are found: the actor, or agent, is expressed by we; the action is asserted by reached and accepted; the things acted upon are village and invitation. Here the subject is represented as doing something. The same word is the subject and the agent. This use of a transitive verb is called the active voice.

209. The active voice is that form of a verb which represents the subject as acting; or

The active voice is that form of a transitive verb which makes the subject and the agent the same word.

210. Intransitive verbs are always active voice. Let the student explain why.

211. In the assertion of an action, it would be natural to suppose, that, instead of always representing the subject as acting upon some person or thing, it must often happen that the subject is spoken of as acted upon; and the person or thing acting may or may not be expressed in the sentence: for example,—

Here the subject infractions does nothing: it represents the object toward which the action of are punished is directed, yet it is the subject of the same verb. In the first sentence the agent is not expressed; in the second, fear is the agent of the same action.

So that in this case, instead of having the agent and subject the same word, we have the object and subject the same word, and the agent may be omitted from the statement of the action.

Passive is from the Latin word patior, meaning to endure or suffer; but in ordinary grammatical use passive means receiving an action.

212. The passive voice is that form of the verb which represents the subject as being acted upon; or—

The passive voice is that form of the verb which represents the subject and the object by the same word.

Exercises.

(a) Pick out the verbs in the active and the passive voice:—

(b) Find sentences with five verbs in the active and five in the passive voice.

MOOD.

213. The word mood is from the Latin modus, meaning manner, way, method. Hence, when applied to verbs,—

Mood means the manner of conceiving and expressing action or being of some subject.

214. There are three chief ways of expressing action or being:—

(1) As a fact; this may be a question, statement, or assumption.

(2) As doubtful, or merely conceived of in the mind.

(3) As urged or commanded.

INDICATIVE MOOD.

215. The term indicative is from the Latin indicare (to declare, or assert). The indicative represents something as a fact,—

(1) By declaring a thing to be true or not to be true; thus,—

(2) By assuming a thing to be true without declaring it to be so. This kind of indicative clause is usually introduced by if (meaning admitting that, granting that, etc.), though, although, etc. Notice that the action is not merely conceived as possible; it is assumed to be a fact: for example,—

(3) By asking a question to find out some fact; as,—

216 .The indicative mood is that form of a verb which represents a thing as a fact, or inquires about some fact.

SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD.

217. Subjunctive means subjoined, or joined as dependent or subordinate to something else.

If its original meaning be closely adhered to, we must expect every dependent clause to have its verb in the subjunctive mood, and every clause not dependent to have its verb in some other mood.

But this is not the case. In the quotation from Hamilton (Sec. 215, 2) several subjoined clauses introduced by if have the indicative mood, and also independent clauses are often found having the verb in the subjunctive mood.

Three cautions will be laid down which must be observed by a student who wishes to understand and use the English subjunctive:—

(1) You cannot tell it always by the form of the word. The main difference is, that the subjunctive has no -s as the ending of the present tense, third person singular; as, "If he come."

(2) The fact that its clause is dependent or is introduced by certain words will not be a safe rule to guide you.

(3) The meaning of the verb itself must be keenly studied.

218. The subjunctive mood is that form or use of the verb which expresses action or being, not as a fact, but as merely conceived of in the mind.

Subjunctive in Independent Clauses.

I. Expressing a Wish.

219. The following are examples of this use:—

II. A Contingent Declaration or Question.

220. This really amounts to the conclusion, or principal clause, in a sentence, of which the condition is omitted.

Subjunctive in Dependent Clauses.

I. Condition or Supposition.

221. The most common way of representing the action or being as merely thought of, is by putting it into the form of a supposition or condition; as,—

Here no assertion is made that the two things are the same; but, if the reader merely conceives them for the moment to be the same, the writer can make the statement following. Again,—

STUDY OF CONDITIONAL SENTENCES.

222. There are three kinds of conditional sentences:—

(1) Those in which an assumed or admitted fact is placed before the mind in the form of a condition (see Sec. 215, 2); for example,—

(2) Those in which the condition depends on something uncertain, and may or may not be regarded true, or be fulfilled; as,—

(3) Suppositions contrary to fact, which cannot be true, or conditions that cannot be fulfilled, but are presented only in order to suggest what might be or might have been true; thus,—

Exercise.

In the following conditional clauses, tell whether each verb is indicative or subjunctive, and what kind of condition:—

II. Subjunctive of Purpose.

223. The subjunctive, especially be, may, might, and should, is used to express purpose, the clause being introduced by that or lest; as,—

III. Subjunctive of Result.

224. The subjunctive may represent the result toward which an action tends:—

IV. In Temporal Clauses.

225. The English subjunctive, like the Latin, is sometimes used in a clause to express the time when an action is to take place.

V. In Indirect Questions.

226. The subjunctive is often found in indirect questions, the answer being regarded as doubtful.

VI. Expressing a Wish.

227. After a verb of wishing, the subjunctive is regularly used in the dependent clause.

VII. In a Noun Clause.

228. The noun clause, in its various uses as subject, object, in apposition, etc., often contains a subjunctive.

This subjunctive is very frequent after verbs of commanding.

VIII. Concessive Clauses.

229. The concession may be expressed—

(1) In the nature of the verb; for example,—

(2) By an indefinite relative word, which may be

(a) Pronoun.

(b) Adjective.

(c) Adverb.

Prevalence of the Subjunctive Mood.

230. As shown by the wide range of literature from which these examples are selected, the subjunctive is very much used in literary English, especially by those who are artistic and exact in the expression of their thought.

At the present day, however, the subjunctive is becoming less and less used. Very many of the sentences illustrating the use of the subjunctive mood could be replaced by numerous others using the indicative to express the same thoughts.

The three uses of the subjunctive now most frequent are, to express a wish, a concession, and condition contrary to fact.

In spoken English, the subjunctive were is much used in a wish or a condition contrary to fact, but hardly any other subjunctive forms are.

It must be remembered, though, that many of the verbs in the subjunctive have the same form as the indicative. Especially is this true of unreal conditions in past time; for example,—

IMPERATIVE MOOD.

231. The imperative mood is the form of the verb used in direct commands, entreaties, or requests.

232. The imperative is naturally used mostly with the second person, since commands are directed to a person addressed.

(1) Command.

(2) Entreaty.

(3) Request.

But the imperative may be used with the plural of the first person. Since the first person plural person is not really I + I, but I + you, or I + they, etc., we may use the imperative with we in a command, request, etc., to you implied in it. This is scarcely ever found outside of poetry.

Usually this is expressed by let with the objective: "Let us go." And the same with the third person: "Let him be accursed."

Exercises on the Moods.

(a) Tell the mood of each verb in these sentences, and what special use it is of that mood:—

(b) Find sentences with five verbs in the indicative mood, five in the subjunctive, five in the imperative.

TENSE.

233. Tense means time. The tense of a verb is the form or use indicating the time of an action or being.

Old English had only two tenses,—the present tense, which represented present and future time; and the past tense. We still use the present for the future in such expressions as, "I go away to-morrow;" "If he comes, tell him to wait."

But English of the present day not only has a tense for each of the natural time divisions,—present, past, and future,—but has other tenses to correspond with those of highly inflected languages, such as Latin and Greek.

The distinct inflections are found only in the present and past tenses, however: the others are compounds of verbal forms with various helping verbs, called auxiliaries; such as be, have, shall, will.

234. Action or being may be represented as occurring in present, past, or future time, by means of the present, the past, and the future tense. It may also be represented as finished in present or past or future time by means of the present perfect, past perfect, and future perfect tenses.

Not only is this so: there are what are called definite forms of these tenses, showing more exactly the time of the action or being. These make the English speech even more exact than other languages, as will be shown later on, in the conjugations.

PERSON AND NUMBER.

235. The English verb has never had full inflections for number and person, as the classical languages have.

When the older pronoun thou was in use, there was a form of the verb to correspond to it, or agree with it, as, "Thou walkest," present; "Thou walkedst," past; also, in the third person singular, a form ending in -eth, as, "It is not in man that walketh, to direct his steps."

But in ordinary English of the present day there is practically only one ending for person and number. This is the third person, singular number; as, "He walks;" and this only in the present tense indicative. This is important in questions of agreement when we come to syntax.

CONJUGATION.

236. Conjugation is the regular arrangement of the forms of the verb in the various voices, moods, tenses, persons, and numbers.

In classical languages, conjugation means joining together the numerous endings to the stem of the verb; but in English, inflections are so few that conjugation means merely the exhibition of the forms and the different verb phrases that express the relations of voice, mood, tense, etc.

237. Verbs in modern English have only four or five forms; for example, walk has walk, walks, walked, walking, sometimes adding the old forms walkest, walkedst, walketh. Such verbs as choose have five,—choose, chooses, chose, choosing, chosen (old, choosest, chooseth, chosest).

The verb be has more forms, since it is composed of several different roots,—am, are, is, were, been, etc.

238. INFLECTIONS OF THE VERB BE.

Indicative Mood.

Subjunctive Mood.

Imperative Mood.

239. This conjugation is pieced out with three different roots: (1) am, is; (2) was, were; (3) be.

Instead of the plural are, Old English had beoth and sind or sindon, same as the German sind. Are is supposed to have come from the Norse language.

The old indicative third person plural be is sometimes found in literature, though it is usually a dialect form; for example,—

240. The forms of the verb be have several uses:—

(1) As principal verbs.

(2) As auxiliary verbs, in four ways,—

(a) With verbal forms in -ing (imperfect participle) to form the definite tenses.

(b) With the past participle in -ed, -en, etc., to form the passive voice.

(c) With past participle of intransitive verbs, being equivalent to the present perfect and past perfect tenses active; as,

(d) With the infinitive, to express intention, obligation, condition, etc.; thus,

241. INFLECTIONS OF THE VERB CHOOSE.

Indicative Mood.

Subjunctive Mood.

Imperative Mood.

FULL CONJUGATION OF THE VERB CHOOSE.

242. In addition to the above inflected forms, there are many periphrastic or compound forms, made up of auxiliaries with the infinitives and participles. Some of these have been indicated in Sec. 240, (2).

The ordinary tenses yet to be spoken of are made up as follows:—

(1) Future tense, by using shall and will with the simple or root form of the verb; as, "I shall be," "He will choose."

(2) Present perfect, past perfect, future perfect, tenses, by placing have, had, and shall (or will) have before the past participle of any verb; as, "I have gone" (present perfect), "I had gone" (past perfect), "I shall have gone" (future perfect).

(3) The definite form of each tense, by using auxiliaries with the imperfect participle active; as, "I am running," "They had been running."

(4) The passive forms, by using the forms of the verb be before the past participle of verbs; as, "I was chosen," "You are chosen."

243. The following scheme will show how rich our language is in verb phrases to express every variety of meaning. Only the third person, singular number, of each tense, will be given.

ACTIVE VOICE.

NOTE.—Since participles and infinitives are not really verbs, but verbals, they will be discussed later (Sec. 262).

PASSIVE VOICE.

Also, in affirmative sentences, the indicative present and past tenses have emphatic forms made up of do and did with the infinitive or simple form; as, "He does strike," "He did strike."

[Note to Teacher.—This table is not to be learned now; if learned at all, it should be as practice work on strong and weak verb forms. Exercises should be given, however, to bring up sentences containing such of these conjugation forms as the pupil will find readily in literature.]

VERBS CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO FORM.

244. According to form, verbs are strong or weak.

A strong verb forms its past tense by changing the vowel of the present tense form, but adds no ending; as, run, ran; drive, drove.

A weak verb always adds an ending to the present to form the past tense, and may or may not change the vowel: as, beg, begged; lay, laid; sleep, slept; catch, caught.

245. TABLE OF STRONG VERBS.

NOTE. Some of these also have weak forms, which are in parentheses