Practical Grammar and Composition Part 12

24. There isn't no use of his objecting to it.

25. There shan't none of them go along with us.

26. Don't never do that again.

27. We could not find but three specimens of the plant.

28. He wasn't scarcely able to walk.

29. He hasn't none of his work prepared.

47. THE ARTICLES. _A, an_, and _the_, are called Articles. _A_ and _an_ are called the INDEFINITE ARTICLES, because they are used to limit the noun to any one thing of a cla.s.s; as, _a book, a chair_.

But _a_ or _an_ is not used to denote the whole of that cla.s.s; as, _Silence is golden_, or, _He was elected to the office of President_.

_The_ is called the DEFINITE ARTICLE because it picks out some one definite individual from a cla.s.s.

In the sentence, _On the street are A brick and A stone house_, the article is repeated before each adjective; the effect of this repet.i.tion is to make the sentence mean two houses. But, in the sentence, _On the street is A brick and stone house_, since the article is used only before the first of the two adjectives, the sentence means that there is only one house and that it is constructed of brick and stone.

Where two nouns refer to the same object, the article need appear only before the first of the two; as, _G.o.d, the author and creator of the universe_. But where the nouns refer to two different objects, regarded as distinct from each other, the article should appear before each; as, _He bought a horse and a cow_.

_A_ is used before all words except those beginning with a vowel sound. Before those beginning with a vowel sound _an_ is used.

If, in a succession of words, one of these forms could not be used before all of the words, then the article must be repeated before each. Thus, one should say, _AN ax, A saw, and AN adze_ (not _An ax, saw and adze_), _made up his outfit_. Generally it is better to repeat the article in each case, whether or not it be the same.

Do not say, _kind of A HOUSE_. Since _a house_ is singular, it can have but one kind. Say instead, a _kind of house, a sort of man_, etc.

EXERCISE 27

_Correct the following where you think correction is needed:_

1. Where did you get that kind of a notion?

2. She is an eager and an ambitious girl.

3. He received the degree of a Master of Arts.

4. The boy and girl came yesterday.

5. Neither the man nor woman was here.

6. He was accompanied by a large and small man.

7. He planted an oak, maple and ash.

8. The third of the team were hurt.

9. The noun and verb will be discussed later.

10. I read a Pittsburg and Philadelphia paper.

11. Read the third and sixth sentence.

12. Read the comments in a monthly and weekly periodical.

13. He is dying from the typhoid fever.

14. He was elected the secretary and the treasurer of the a.s.sociation.

15. What sort of a student are you?

16. He is a funny kind of a fellow.

17. Bring me a new and old chair.

18. That is a sort of a peculiar idea.

19. He was operated upon for the appendicitis.

20. Lock the cat and dog up.

48. No adverb necessary to the sense should be omitted from the sentence. Such improper omission is frequently made when _very_ or _too_ are used with past participles that are not also recognized as adjectives; as,

Poor: I am _very insulted_. He was _too wrapped_ in thought to notice the mistake.

Right: I am _very much insulted_. He was _too much wrapped_ in thought to notice the mistake.

EXERCISE 28

_Write sentences containing the following adjectives and adverbs.

Be sure that they are used correctly._

Both, each, every, only, evidently, hard, latest, awful, terribly, charming, charmingly, lovely, brave, perfect, straight, extreme, very, either, neither, larger, oldest, one, none, hardly, scarcely, only, but, finally, almost, ever, never, new, newly, very.

CHAPTER V

VERBS

49. A VERB has already been defined as a word stating something about the subject. Verbs are inflected or changed to indicate the time of the action as past, present, or future; as, _I talk, I talked, I shall talk_, etc. Verbs also vary to indicate completed or incompleted action; as, _I have talked, I shall have talked_, etc. To these variations, which indicate the time of the action, the name TENSE is given.

The full verbal statement may consist of several words; as, _He MAY HAVE GONE home_. Here the verb is _may have gone_. The last word of such a verb phrase is called the PRINc.i.p.aL VERB, and the other words the AUXILIARIES. In the sentence above, _go (gone)_ is the princ.i.p.al verb, and _may_ and _have_ are the auxiliaries.

50. In constructing the full form of the verb or verb phrase there are three distinct parts from which all other forms are made. These are called the PRINc.i.p.aL PARTS.

The First Princ.i.p.al Part, since it is the part by which the verb is referred to as a word, may be called the NAME-FORM. The following are name-forms: _do, see, come, walk, pa.s.s_.

The Second Princ.i.p.al Part is called the PAST TENSE. It is formed by adding _ed_ to the name-form; as, _walked, pushed, pa.s.sed_.

These verbs that add _ed_ are called Regular Verbs. The verb form is often entirely changed; as, _done (do), saw (see), came (come)_.

These verbs are called Irregular Verbs.

The Third Princ.i.p.al Part is called the PAST PARTICIPLE. It is used mainly in expressing completed action or in the pa.s.sive voice.

In regular verbs the past participle is the same in form as the past tense. In irregular verbs it may differ entirely from both the name-form and the past tense, or it may resemble one or both of them. Examples: _done (do, did), seen (see, saw), come (come, came), set (set, set)_.

51. THE NAME-FORM, when unaccompanied by auxiliaries, is used with all subjects, except those in the third person singular, to a.s.sert action in the present time or present tense; as, _I go, We come, You see, Horses run_.

The name-form is also used with various auxiliaries (_may, might, can, must, will, should, shall_, etc.) to a.s.sert futurity, determination, possibility, possession, etc. Examples: _I may go, We shall come, You can see, Horses should run_.

By preceding it with the word _to_, the name-form is used to form what is called the PRESENT INFINITIVE; as, _I wish to go, I hope to see_.

What may be called the S-FORM of the verb, or the SINGULAR form, is usually constructed by adding _s_ or _es_ to the name-form.

The s-form is used with singular subjects in the third person; as, _He goes, She comes, It runs, The dog trots_.

The s-form is found in the third personal singular of the present tense. In other tenses, if present at all, the s-form is in the auxiliary, where the present tense of the auxiliary is used to form some other tense of the princ.i.p.al verb. Examples: _He has_ (present tense), _He has gone_ (perfect tense), _He has been seen_.

Some verbs have no s-form; as, _will, shall, may_. The verb _be_ has two irregular s-forms: _Is_, in the present tense, and _was_ in the past tense. The s-form of _have_ is _has_.

52. The past tense always stands alone in the predicate; i. e., IT SHOULD NEVER BE USED WITH ANY AUXILIARIES. To use it so, however, is one of the most frequent errors in grammar. The following are past tense forms: _went, saw, wore, tore_. To say, therefore, _I have saw, I have went, It was tore, They were wore_, would be grossly incorrect.

53. The third princ.i.p.al part, the past participle, on the other hand, CAN NEVER BE USED AS A PREDICATE VERB WITHOUT AN AUXILIARY.

The following are distinctly past participle forms: _done, seen, sung_, etc. One could not then properly say, _I seen, I done, I sung_, etc.

The distinction as to use with and without auxiliaries applies, of course, only to irregular verbs. In regular verbs, the past tense and past participle are always the same, and so no error could result from their confusion.