Business English Part 27

28. He was lying face _down_ on He was lying face _downward_ on the gra.s.s. the gra.s.s.

CHAPTER VIII

THE VERB

VERBS may be _transitive_ or _intransitive_.

A verb is transitive when it needs an object to complete its meaning; that is, when the action pa.s.ses over (Latin, _transire_, to pa.s.s over) from the subject or doer to the object or receiver; as,

He _hit_ the ball.

A verb is intransitive when it needs no object to complete its meaning; as,

The crowd _cheered_.

Some intransitive verbs require a predicate noun or p.r.o.noun in the nominative case, or an adjective, to complete their meaning. They are the verbs _be_, _become_, _appear_, _seem_, _feel_, _taste_, _look_, _smell_; as,

_Adjective_: The berries taste _sour_.

_Noun_: John is my _brother_.

_p.r.o.noun_: It is _I_.

Such verbs are sometimes called _copulatives_.

=Exercise 98=

Tell whether each verb in the following sentences is transitive or intransitive and whether it is followed by a noun or a p.r.o.noun in the nominative or the objective case or by a complementary adjective.

1. Primitive people have left traces of very early commercial relations.

2. Explorers visited the Ohio valley and found articles of remote manufacture.

3. Checks and drafts are great conveniences to the business man.

4. The United States Supreme Court made a decision that labor unions are punishable under trust penalties.

5. A labor union is different from a trust.

6. This is the opinion of the labor leader.

7. What is your opinion?

8. The total value of merchandise sent to Latin-America from the United States exceeds that supplied by any other single country.

Write three sentences ill.u.s.trating transitive verbs.

Write three sentences ill.u.s.trating intransitive verbs.

Write three sentences ill.u.s.trating copulative verbs.

=Exercise 99--Voice=

Voice is that property of the verb that shows whether the subject acts or is acted upon. If the subject acts, the verb is in the _active voice_. If the subject is acted upon, the verb is in the _pa.s.sive voice_. Every sentence containing a transitive verb must have the following parts:

_Agent_(doer) _Action_ _Receiver_ The runaway horse injured John.

When the sentence is in the order shown above, the subject is the agent, and the verb expresses the action of the agent. When the sentence is written in this order, the verb is said to be in the _active voice_.

However, without changing the meaning of the sentence, we may change the order of the ideas; thus,

_Receiver_ _Action_ _Agent_ John was injured by the runaway horse.

The receiver of the action has become the subject, and the agent has become part of the predicate, being expressed in the phrase _by the runaway horse_. When the sentence is expressed in this order, the subject receiving or "suffering" the action, the verb is said to be in the _pa.s.sive voice_. Only transitive verbs, therefore, may be changed to the pa.s.sive voice.

NOTE.--There are certain intransitive verbs that sometimes have a preposition so closely connected with them that the two are treated almost like a transitive verb, and may be made pa.s.sive; as,

_Active_: The audience laughed _at_ the speaker.

_Pa.s.sive_: The speaker was laughed _at_ by the audience.

Write five sentences in the active voice.

Change them to the pa.s.sive voice.

In the sentences that you have written, is the active form of the verb or the pa.s.sive form better? Which is more direct in its wording? Which, then, is the better form to use regularly?

=Exercise 100--Number and Person=

The number of the verb is decided by the number of the subject. If the subject is a singular noun, or a p.r.o.noun that stands for a singular noun, it requires a singular verb; if the subject is plural, it requires a plural verb. As a rule, there is no difference between the singular and the plural forms of the verb except in the form for the third person singular; as,

I say We say You say You say He says They say

But as the third person of the verb is the one most often used, it must be carefully noted.

The following subjects of verbs are singular and require a singular verb to accompany them:

1. A collective noun that denotes a group of objects acting as one thing; as,

The crowd _is_ scattering.

2. A group of words which, like a collective noun, is plural in form but singular in meaning; as,

Thirty dollars _is_ what I paid for the ring.