How to Speak and Write Correctly by Joseph Devlin (short books for teens txt) 📕
Proper nouns are names applied to particular persons or places.
Common nouns are names applied to a whole kind or species.
Nouns are inflected by number, gender and case.
Number is that inflection of the noun by which we indicate whether it represents one or more than one.
Gender is that inflection by which we signify whether the noun is the name of a male, a female, of an inanimate object or something which has no distinction of sex.
Case is that inflection of the noun which denotes the state of the person, place or thing represented, as the subject of an affirmation or question, the owner or possessor of something mentioned, or the object of an action or of a relation.
Thus in the example, "John tore the leaves of Sarah's book," the distinction between book which represents only one object and leaves which repres
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PRESENT PERFECT TENSE
Sing. Plural 1st person If I have been loved If we have been loved 2nd person If you have been loved If you have been loved 3rd person If he has been loved If they have been loved
PAST PERFECT TENSE
Sing. Plural 1st person If I had been loved If we had been loved 2nd person If you had been loved If you had been loved 3rd person If he had been loved If they had been loved
INFINITIVES
Present Perfect To be loved To have been loved
PARTICIPLES
Present Past Perfect Being loved Been loved Having been loved
(N. B.—Note that the plural form of the personal pronoun, you, is used in the second person singular throughout. The old form thou, except in the conjugation of the verb “To Be,” may be said to be obsolete. In the third person singular he is representative of the three personal pronouns of the third person, He, She and It.)
ADVERB
An adverb is a word which modifies a verb, an adjective or another adverb. Thus, in the example—“He writes well,” the adverb shows the manner in which the writing is performed; in the examples—“He is remarkably diligent” and “He works very faithfully,” the adverbs modify the adjective diligent and the other adverb faithfully by expressing the degree of diligence and faithfulness.
Adverbs are chiefly used to express in one word what would otherwise require two or more words; thus, There signifies in that place; whence, from what place; usefully, in a useful manner.
Adverbs, like adjectives, are sometimes varied in their terminations to express comparison and different degrees of quality.
Some adverbs form the comparative and superlative by adding er and est; as, soon, sooner, soonest.
Adverbs which end in ly are compared by prefixing more and most; as, nobly, more nobly, most nobly.
A few adverbs are irregular in the formation of the comparative and superlative; as, well, better, best.
PREPOSITION
A preposition connects words, clauses, and sentences together and shows the relation between them. “My hand is on the table” shows relation between hand and table.
Prepositions are so called because they are generally placed before the words whose connection or relation with other words they point out.
CONJUNCTION
A conjunction joins words, clauses and sentences; as “John and James.” “My father and mother have come, but I have not seen them.”
The conjunctions in most general use are and, also; either, or; neither, nor; though, yet; but, however; for, that; because, since; therefore, wherefore, then; if, unless, lest.
INTERJECTION
An interjection is a word used to express some sudden emotion of the mind. Thus in the examples,—“Ah! there he comes; alas! what shall I do?” ah, expresses surprise, and alas, distress.
Nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs become interjections when they are uttered as exclamations, as, nonsense! strange! hail! away! etc.
We have now enumerated the parts of speech and as briefly as possible stated the functions of each. As they all belong to the same family they are related to one another but some are in closer affinity than others. To point out the exact relationship and the dependency of one word on another is called parsing and in order that every etymological connection may be distinctly understood a brief resume of the foregoing essentials is here given:
The signification of the noun is limited to one, but to any one of the kind, by the indefinite article, and to some particular one, or some particular number, by the definite article.
Nouns, in one form, represent one of a kind, and in another, any number more than one; they are the names of males, or females, or of objects which are neither male nor female; and they represent the subject of an affirmation, a command or a question,—the owner or possessor of a thing,—or the object of an action, or of a relation expressed by a preposition.
Adjectives express the qualities which distinguish one person or thing from another; in one form they express quality without comparison; in another, they express comparison between two, or between one and a number taken collectively,—and in a third they express comparison between one and a number of others taken separately.
Pronouns are used in place of nouns; one class of them is used merely as the substitutes of names; the pronouns of another class have a peculiar reference to some preceding words in the sentence, of which they are the substitutes,—and those of a third class refer adjectively to the persons or things they represent. Some pronouns are used for both the name and the substitute; and several are frequently employed in asking questions.
Affirmations and commands are expressed by the verb; and different inflections of the verb express number, person, time and manner. With regard to time, an affirmation may be present or past or future; with regard to manner, an affirmation may be positive or conditional, it being doubtful whether the condition is fulfilled or not, or it being implied that it is not fulfilled;—the verb may express command or entreaty; or the sense of the verb may be expressed without affirming or commanding. The verb also expresses that an action or state is or was going on, by a form which is also used sometimes as a noun, and sometimes to qualify nouns.
Affirmations are modified by adverbs, some of which can be inflected to express different degrees of modification.
Words are joined together by conjunctions; and the various relations which one thing bears to another are expressed by ‘prepositions. Sudden emotions of the mind, and exclamations are expressed by interjections.
Some words according to meaning belong sometimes to one part of speech, sometimes to another. Thus, in “After a storm comes a calm,” calm is a noun; in “It is a calm evening,” calm is an adjective; and in “Calm your fears,” calm is a verb.
The following sentence containing all the parts of speech is parsed etymologically:
“I now see the old man coming, but, alas, he has walked with much difficulty.”
I, a personal pronoun, first person singular, masculine or feminine gender, nominative case, subject of the verb see.
now, an adverb of time modifying the verb see.
see, an irregular, transitive verb, indicative mood, present tense, first person singular to agree with its nominative or subject I.
the, the definite article particularizing the noun man.
old, an adjective, positive degree, qualifying the noun man.
man, a common noun, 3rd person singular, masculine gender, objective case governed by the transitive verb see.
coming, the present or imperfect participle of the verb “to come” referring to the noun man.
but, a conjunction.
alas, an interjection, expressing pity or sorrow.
he, a personal pronoun, 3rd person singular, masculine gender, nominative case, subject of verb has walked.
has walked, a regular, intransitive verb, indicative mood, perfect tense, 3rd person singular to agree with its nominative or subject he.
with, a preposition, governing the noun difficulty.
much, an adjective, positive degree, qualifying the noun difficulty.
difficulty, a common noun, 3rd person singular, neuter gender, objective case governed by the preposition with.
N.B.—_Much_ is generally an adverb. As an adjective it is thus compared:
Positive Comparative Superlative much more most
Different Kinds—Arrangement of Words—Paragraph
A sentence is an assemblage of words so arranged as to convey a determinate sense or meaning, in other words, to express a complete thought or idea. No matter how short, it must contain one finite verb and a subject or agent to direct the action of the verb.
“Birds fly;” “Fish swim;” “Men walk;”—are sentences.
A sentence always contains two parts, something spoken about and something said about it. The word or words indicating what is spoken about form what is called the subject and the word or words indicating what is said about it form what is called the predicate.
In the sentences given, birds, fish and men are the subjects, while fly, swim and walk are the predicates.
There are three kinds of sentences, simple, compound and complex.
The simple sentence expresses a single thought and consists of one subject and one predicate, as, “Man is mortal.”
A compound sentence consists of two or more simple sentences of equal importance the parts of which are either expressed or understood, as, “The men work in the fields and the women work in the household,” or “The men work in the fields and the women in the household” or “The men and women work in the fields and in the household.”
A complex sentence consists of two or more simple sentences so combined that one depends on the other to complete its meaning; as; “When he returns, I shall go on my vacation.” Here the words, “when he returns” are dependent on the rest of the sentence for their meaning.
A clause is a separate part of a complex sentence, as “when he returns” in the last example.
A phrase consists of two or more words without a finite verb.
Without a finite verb we cannot affirm anything or convey an idea, therefore we can have no sentence.
Infinitives and participles which are the infinite parts of the verb cannot be predicates. “I looking up the street” is not a sentence, for it is not a complete action expressed. When we hear such an expression as “A dog running along the street,” we wait for something more to be added, something more affirmed about the dog, whether he bit or barked or fell dead or was run over.
Thus in every sentence there must be a finite verb to limit the subject.
When the verb is transitive, that is, when the action cannot happen without affecting something, the thing affected is called the object.
Thus in “Cain killed Abel” the action of the killing affected Abel. In “The cat has caught a mouse,” mouse is the object of the catching.
ARRANGEMENT OF WORDS IN A SENTENCE
Of course in simple sentences the natural order of arrangement is subject—verb—object. In many cases no other form is possible. Thus in the sentence “The cat has caught a mouse,” we cannot reverse it and say “The mouse has caught a cat” without destroying the meaning, and in any other form of arrangement, such as “A mouse, the cat has caught,” we feel that while it is intelligible, it is a poor way of expressing the fact and one which jars upon us more or less.
In longer sentences, however, when there are more words than what are barely necessary for subject, verb and object, we have greater freedom of arrangement and can so place the words as to give the best effect. The proper placing of words depends upon perspicuity and precision. These two combined give style to the structure.
Most people are familiar with Gray’s line in the immortal Elegy—“The ploughman homeward
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