Word Study and English Grammar by Frederick W. Hamilton (free novel reading sites TXT) π
Illiterate people sometimes try to make their speech more forceful by combining the two methods of comparison in such expressions as more prettier, most splendidest. Such compounds should never be used.
Some adjectives are not compared. They are easily identified by their meaning. They indicate some quality which is of such a nature that it must be possessed fully or not at all, yearly, double, all. Some adjective
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God forgive him.
O, that my brother were here.
The subjunctive is sometimes used to express condition,
Had you not been a coward, you would not have run away.
The imperative mood indicates a command,
Put that on the press.
The subject of the imperative mood is only expressed when it is emphatic,
Go thou and do likewise.
Older grammarians speak of a fourth mood called potential. The present tendency among grammarians is to treat these forms separately. They are verb phrases which express ability, possibility, obligation, or necessity. They are formed by the use of the auxiliary verbs may, can, must, might, could, would, and should, with the infinitive without to.
May is used (a) to show that the subject is permitted to do something, "You may go out," or (b) to indicate possibility or doubtful intention, "I may not go to work tomorrow."
Can is used to show that the subject is able to do something, "I can feed a press." These two forms are often confused, with results which would be ridiculous if they were not too common to attract attention. The confusion perhaps arises from the fact that the ability to do a thing often appears to depend on permission to do it. "May I see a proof?" means "Have I permission, or will you allow me, to see a proof?" and is the proper way to put the question. The common question, "Can I see a proof?" is absurd. Of course you can, if you have normal eyesight.
Must shows necessity or obligation.
You must obey the rules of the office.
Ought which is sometimes confounded with must in phrases of this sort expresses moral obligation as distinguished from necessity.
You ought to obey the rules of the office,
indicates that it is your duty to obey because it is the right thing to do even though no penalty is attached.
You must obey the rules of the office,
indicates that you will be punished if you do not obey.
Those forms of the verb which express the time of the action are called tenses. No particular difficulty attends the use of the tenses except in the case of shall and will and should and would.
Shall and will are used as follows: In simple statements to express mere futurity, use shall in the first person, will in the second and third; to express volition, promise, purpose, determination, or action which the speaker means to control use will in the first person, shall in the second and third.
The following tables should be learned and practiced in a large variety of combinations.
Futurity Volition, etc. I shall We shall I will We will You will You will You shall You shall He will They will He shall They shall
A good example of the misuse of the words is found in the old story of the foreigner who fell into the water and cried out in terror and despair "I will drown, nobody shall help me."
In asking questions, for the first person always use shall, for the second and third use the auxiliary expected in the answer.
Futurity Shall I (I shall) Shall we (We shall) Shall you (I shall) Shall you (We shall) Will he (He will) Will they (They will)In all other cases, as in subordinate clauses shall is used in all persons to express mere futurity, will to express volition, etc.
In indirect discourse, when the subject of the principal clause is different from the noun clause, the usage is like that in direct statement, for example,
The teacher says that James will win the medal. (futurity),
but when the subject of the principal clause is the same as that of the noun clause, the usage is like that in subordinate clauses,
The teacher says that he shall soon resign. (futurity).
Exceptions. Will is often used in the second person to express an official command.
You will report to the superintendent at once.
Shall is sometimes used in the second and third persons in a prophetic sense.
Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.
The use of should and would is in general the same as that of shall and will in indirect statement.
Futurity I should We would You would You should He would They shouldIn asking questions use should in the first person to express mere futurity and would to express volition, etc; in the second and third persons use the form that is expected in the answer.
Futurity Should I (I should) Should we (We should) Should You (I should) Should You (We should) Would he (He would) Would they (They would)
In subordinate clauses should is used in all persons to express futurity, would to express volition, etc.
In indirect discourse the usage is similar to that in direct statement.
The teacher said that John would win the medal.
Exceptions. Should is often used to express moral obligation.
You should be honest under all conditions.
Would is sometimes used to express frequentive action.
He would walk the floor night after night.
Mistakes are often made in the use of compound tenses on account of failure to grasp the meaning of the words used.
I should have liked to have seen you,
is correct grammar but probably not correct statement of fact, as it states a past desire to have done something at a period still further remote, that is to say, "I should have liked (yesterday) to have seen you (day before yesterday)." What is generally meant is either "I should have liked to see you," that is "I (then) wished to see you," or "I should like to have seen you," that is "I (now) wish I had seen you (then)."
Every word has its own value and nearly all our mistakes arise from lack of regard for the exact value of the words to be used.
Where a participial construction is used as the object of a verb, the noun or pronoun in the object should be in the possessive case and not in the objective. You should not say, "I object to him watching me," but "I object to his watching me."
Care should be taken not to give objects to passive verbs. The very common expression "The man was given a chance" is incorrect. It should be "A chance was given to the man."
Care should also be taken to avoid the omission of the prepositions which are needed with certain verbs, for example, "beware the dog," "What happened him" should be "beware of the dog," "What happened to him."
On the other hand superfluous prepositions are sometimes used in such phrases as consider of, accept of and the like.
Such errors are to be avoided by careful study of the meaning of words and careful observation of the best written and spoken speech.
Pronouns
Pronouns are substitutes for nouns. They are labor saving devices. We could say everything which we need to say without them, but at the expense of much repetition of longer words. A child often says "John wants Henry's ball" instead of "I want your ball." Constant remembrance of this simple fact, that a pronoun is only a substitute for a noun, is really about all that is needed to secure correct usage after the pronouns themselves have once become familiar. A construction which appears doubtful can often be decided by substituting nouns for pronouns and vice versa.
A very common error is the use of the plural possessive pronouns with the words any, every, each, somebody, everybody, and nobody, all of which are always singular.
We could accomplish this if every one would do their part.
is wrong. It should be
We could accomplish this if every one would do his part.
Another common mistake is the confusion of the nominative and objective cases in objective clauses where two pronouns or a noun and a pronoun occur.
All this was done for you and I.
is a very common but entirely inexcusable mistake. One would hardly think of saying
"All this was done for I."
I saw John and he leaving the shop.
is almost equally common and quite equally bad. Do not allow yourself to be confused by a double object.
In general great care should be taken to avoid ambiguity in the use of pronouns. It is very easy to multiply and combine pronouns in such a way that while grammatical rules may not be broken the reader may be left hopelessly confused. Such ambiguous sentences should be cleared up, either by a rearrangement of the words or by substitution of nouns for some of the pronouns.
Adverbs
An adverb is a helper to a verb, "I fear greatly," "that press works badly." Adverbs modify or help verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs just as adjectives modify nouns and pronouns. The use of adverbs presents some difficulties, mainly arising from the adverbial use of many other parts of speech and from the close relation between adverbs and adjectives.
It should never be forgotten that while adverbs never modify nouns or pronouns, adjectives never modify anything but nouns or pronouns. Remembrance of this simple fact will settle most questions as to the use of adverbs or adjectives. Careful observation and care in forming correct habits of expression will do the rest.
Do not multiply negatives. They cancel each other like the factors in an arithmetical problem. "He never did wrong" is correct in statement and clear in meaning. "He never did nothing wrong" does not add force, it reverses the meaning. The negatives have cancelled each other and you are saying "He did wrong." "He never did nothing wrong to nobody" leaves us with an odd negative and brings us back to the first statement, very badly expressed.
Prepositions
A preposition is a hook for a noun or pronoun to hang on. It usually precedes the noun or pronoun which hangs, or depends upon it, as indicated by its name which is derived from the Latin pre-before and pono-I place.
John is behind the press.
I shall work until Sunday.
A preposition shows the relation of a noun or pronoun used as its object to some other word or words in the sentence or, as it has been otherwise stated, makes the noun or pronoun to which it is joined equivalent to an adjective or an adverb. The expression "John is behind the press" is equivalent to an adjective describing John. That is, he is "John behind-the-press." Prepositions are governing words and the words governed by or depending on them are always in the objective case.
Conjunctions
A conjunction is the coupling link between the parts of a train of thought. It is of no purpose whatever except to connect.
I am cold and hungry and tired and I am going home.
Care should be taken to avoid confusing and and but and and and or.
He sees the right and does the wrong.
should be
He sees the right but does the wrong.
The ideas are contrasted, not associated.
I did not see Thomas and John.
should be
I did not see Thomas or John.
The first phrase means that I did not see them together, it says nothing about seeing them separately.
Eitherβor and neitherβnor are called correlative conjunctions. They should always be paired in this way. Neither should never be paired with or nor either with nor. Each member of the pair should be placed in the same relative position, that is before the same part of speech.
I could neither see him nor his father.
is wrong. It should be
I could see neither him nor his father.
This rule applies to all other correlatives, that is since they are correlatives in form they should be correlatives in position also. It is correct to say
It belongs both to you and to me.
or
It belongs to both
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