Chapter I (1)

you
he
she
it
we
they
me
him
her
us
them
my
your
his
her
its
our
their
that
which
who
whose
whom
what

Exercise 3

Underscore the pronouns in the following story:

A man in South Africa picked up a small piece of stone. It was dirty
and Rough.

"Make me beautiful," said the stone.

"I shall have to hurt you," said the man.

"Well, if it hurts me, I will bear it," said the stone.

So the man took it to a clever craftsman, who put it into a tight
vise, and cut it with his sharp instrument.

"Oh!" cried the stone.

And he ground it till the dust fell all about it.

"Oh!" cried the stone.

And he polished it very hard.

"Oh!" cried the stone.

And then he set it in a crown and sent it to the Queen. On a sunny day
she wore her crown, and the stone--it was a diamond--sparkled in long
rays of crimson and green and yellow and silvery white. And all the
people greeted their queen. She showed them her crown and they praised
the beautiful stone.

The training was hard, but the improvement was glorious.

PREPOSITIONS

+45.+ Notice the following sentences:

I want the book _on_ the box.
I want the book _under_ the box.
I want the book _in_ the box.
I want the book _beside_ the box.
I want the book _behind_ the box.
I want the book _beyond_ the box.

Do you notice any word in these sentences which does not belong to any of the classes of words which we have studied? _I_ is a pronoun, _want_ is a verb, _the_ is an adjective, _book_ is a noun, _the_ is an adjective, _box_ is a noun; but the words, _on_, _under_, _in_, _beside_, _behind_ and _beyond_ are not nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs or pronouns.

Yet would it be possible to express the meaning in these sentences without these words? Read the sentences without them, and you will see that no one could tell the relation which you wish to express between the _book_ and the _box_. And you will notice too that each word expresses a different relation, for it means one thing to say _on the box_ and another thing to say _in the box_, and so through the list.

+46.+ The words which are used to show this relation are called _prepositions_. The groups of words introduced by the preposition, like _on the box_ and _in the box_, and so on, are called prepositional phrases. The noun which follows a preposition as _box_ follows the prepositions _in_, _on_, _beside_, _beyond_, etc., is called the _object_ of the preposition.

_Preposition_ is a word which comes into our language from the Latin. It is formed from the Latin _pre_, which means _before_, and the Latin verb which means _to place_, so preposition means literally _to place before_. It is given this name because it is placed before the noun or pronoun which is its object. Therefore our definition of a preposition is as follows:

+47.+ +A preposition is a word that shows the relation of its object to some other word.+

+48.+ Either a noun or a pronoun may be the object of a preposition. Notice the following sentences:

Bring the book to me.
Lay the book on the table.
He will speak to you.
I will speak to the man.

In these sentences the noun _table_ is the object of the preposition _on_; the pronoun _me_ is the object of the preposition _to_; and in the last two sentences the pronoun _you_ and the noun _man_ are the objects of the preposition _to_.

+49.+ There are not many prepositions in the language and they are easily learned and easily distinguished. Here is a list of the most common and the most important prepositions. Use each one in a sentence.

at
across
around
about
among
above
against
along
behind
beside
between
below
beyond
by
before
beneath
down
for
from
in
into
off
on
over
to
toward
under
up
upon
with
within
without

Exercise 4

Underscore the prepositions in the following sentences:

He went to the door and looked out upon the field.
Over the river and through the woods, to Grandfather's house we go.
He saw them in the distance as they were coming toward him.
They went along the road, across the bridge, and hid among the trees
at the foot of the hill.
They came from Minneapolis down the river by boat.
The war between the classes is a struggle against exploitation.
The army was intrenched behind the barricades before dawn.
His claim was within the law but without justice.

CONJUNCTIONS

+50.+ We have found that the preposition is a very important connective word. It connects two words and shows what one of them has to do with the other, but the preposition is not the only connective word which we use in English. We have another part of speech which performs an important function as a connective word. Notice the following sentence:

Men and women struggle for their rights.

Can you find a word in this sentence which is a connective word besides the preposition _for_? Did you notice that little word _and_? The noun _men_ and the noun _women_ are both subjects of the verb _struggle_, and they are joined by this little connective word _and_. If we did not have this word we would have to use two sentences to express our thought, thus:

Men struggle for their rights.
Women struggle for their rights.

But with the use of this connective word _and_ we can combine these two sentences and express it all in one sentence:

Men _and_ women struggle for their rights.

This word is used in a different manner from the preposition. The preposition connects two words and makes one modify the other. When we say, _Get the book on the table_, the phrase _on the table_ designates the book just as much as if we had said, _Get the green book_. So the use of the preposition enables us to show the relation between two words and to make one word describe or modify the other.

+51.+ This little word _and_ in the sentence, _Men and women struggle for their rights_, is a connective word also, but it connects two words that are used in the same way, so it is a different sort of connective word from the preposition. Words used in this way are called _conjunctions_. Conjunction is a word which is taken from the Latin, being made up of the Latin word _con_, which means _together_, and the Latin verb _juncto_, which means _to join_. So conjunction means literally _to join together_.

+52.+ +A conjunction is a word that connects sentences or parts of sentences.+

Notice the following sentence:

The class struggle is waged on the political field and on the
industrial field.

Here we have the conjunction _and_ connecting the two phrases _on the_ _political field_ and _on the industrial field_. Without the use of this connective word, we would have to use two sentences to express these two thoughts:

The class struggle is waged on the political field.
The class struggle is waged on the industrial field.

+53.+ So a conjunction may be used to connect phrases as well as words.

Now notice the following sentences:

He will speak. I will listen.
He will speak, _and_ I will listen.
He will speak, _but_ I will listen.
He will speak, _if_ I will listen.
He will speak, _therefore_ I will listen.
He will speak, _because_ I will listen.
He will speak, _until_ I will listen.

+54.+ These _sentences_ are joined by different conjunctions, and the conjunction used alters the meaning of the sentence.

The conjunction is a very useful part of speech. Without it we would have many disconnected sentences requiring tiresome repetition of the same words. Like prepositions, there are not many conjunctions in English and they are readily recognized.

+55.+ We will study about these conjunctions at length in later lessons. If you consult the following list of those most commonly used, you can easily pick out the conjunctions in your reading:

and
as
as if
after
although
as soon as
because
besides
before
but
either
for
hence
in order that
lest
neither
nor
or
since
still
so
then
though
that
than
therefore
till
until
unless
while
whether
yet

The seven classes of words which we have studied make up all of our sentences. The hundreds of words which we use in forming our sentences and expressing our thoughts belong to these seven classes. They are either nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, prepositions or conjunctions.

Exercise 5

Underscore the conjunctions in the following sentences. Notice whether they connect words or phrases or sentences.

1. We cannot win unless we are organized.
2. Books and music are true friends.
3. Men, women and children work under conditions neither proper nor
just.
4. We must educate and organize.
5. The workers on the farms and in the factories must be united.
6. Winter has come and the birds are going South.
7. We have been ignorant, therefore we have been exploited.
8. We must learn before we can teach.
9. We do not understand the situation, because we do not know the
facts.
10. Do you know whether these statements are true or false?

IT CAN BE DONE

Somebody said that it couldn't be done,
But he, with a chuckle, replied
That "maybe it couldn't," but he would be one
Who wouldn't say so till he tried.
So he buckled right in, with a trace of a grin
On his face. If he worried he hid it.
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn't be done--and he did it.

Somebody scoffed, "Oh, you'll never do that;
At least no one ever has done it."
But he took off his coat and he took off his hat,
And the first thing we knew he'd begun it;
With the lift of his chin, and a bit of a grin,
Without any doubting or quiddit,
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn't be done--and he did it.

There are thousands to tell you it can not be done;
There are thousands to prophesy failure;
There are thousands to point out to you, one by one,
The dangers that wait to assail you.
But buckle right in, with a lift of your chin,
Then take off your coat and go to it;
Just start in to sing as you tackle the thing
That "can not be done,"--and you'll do it.

INTERJECTIONS

+56.+ There is another class of words which we use _with_ sentences, but which are really not _parts_ of the sentences. They are emotional expressions which seem to belong more to the natural language than to the invented language. For example:

Oh! You hurt me!
Aha! Now I have you.

_Oh_, used in this way, is very apt to sound like a groan, and _aha_ like a shout of triumph. These words do not really belong in the construction of the sentence. The sentence would be complete without them, but they are thrown in to express the emotion which accompanies the thought. We call expressions such as these _interjections_. Interjection is from the Latin and means literally _thrown into the midst of_. It comes from the Latin word _inter_, which means _between_, and the Latin verb _jecto_, _to throw_, so it literally means _to throw between_.

Some of these words imitate sounds, as for example:

Bang! There goes another shot.
Ding-dong! There goes the first bell.

We do not use interjections very frequently in writing on scientific subjects that express deep thought, but you will find them often used in poetry, fiction, oratory or any emotional writing. Therefore we have our definition of an interjection:

+57.+ +An interjection is an exclamatory word or phrase used to express feeling or to imitate some sound.+

+58.+ Following is a list of commonly used interjections. Use them in sentences of your own.

oh
hello
bravo
ahoy
aha
hurrah
bow wow
ssh
alas
hist
whirr
pshaw
fie
whoa
ding-dong
rub-a-dub

Exercise 6

Mark the interjections in the following sentences. Notice those which express emotion and those which imitate sound.

1. Oh! Is it possible.
2. Hurrah! We have good news at last.
3. Whirr! Whirr! goes the giant machine.
4. Come! Keep up your courage.
5. What! I cannot believe it.
6. Courage! We shall yet win.
7. Bravo! Let those words ring down the centuries.
8. Ding-dong! the bells ring out the hour!

SPELLING

LESSON 3

Since there are forty-two elementary sounds used in the formation of our words and only twenty-six letters to represent these sounds, some of these letters must necessarily represent more than one sound.

Of the forty-two elementary sounds, eighteen are vowel sounds, but we have only five vowels with which to represent these sounds, so each vowel has several different sounds.

Therefore we must have a key to pronunciation to indicate the various sounds which are represented by these letters used in forming the words. When you look up words in your dictionary you will find the vowels marked by certain signs to indicate the pronunciation. These signs are called diacritical marks.

The following table gives the diacritical marks for the vowels. Study this table and learn to pronounce the words you look up. When you have determined the correct pronunciation of the word, repeat it over to yourself aloud a number of times until you have accustomed your ear to the correct pronunciation.

Different dictionaries use different keys to pronunciation. This table is taken from the dictionary which we are using in connection with this course--Winston's New Universal Self-Pronouncing Dictionary.

Key to Pronunciation

[=a] as in _late_, _fade_.
ä as in _mar_, _father_.
[.a] as in _mask_, _dance_.
a as in _cat_, _had_.
aw as in _awl_, _fall_.
[=e] as in _he_, _feet_.
[~e] as in _her_, _verge_.
e as in _let_, _men_.
[=i] as in _line_, _time_.
i as in _tin_, _little_.
[=o] as in _vote_, _home_.
ô as in _orb_, _form_.
o as in _lot_, _odd_.
oi as in _oil_, _join_.
[=oo] as in _moon_, _school_.
oo as in _cook_, _foot_.
ou as in _out_, _house_.
[=u] as in _mute_, _unit_.
u as in _nut_, _drum_.

The spelling lesson for this week is composed of words containing the different vowel sounds. Look up in your dictionary and mark all the _a's_ in Monday's lesson, all the _e's_ in Tuesday's lesson, all the _i's_ in Wednesday's lesson, all the _o's_ in Thursday's lesson, and all the _u's_ in Friday's lesson. In Saturday's lesson note the use of _w_ and _y_ as vowels.

+Monday+

Pause
Adjective
Lazy
Quality
Advance

+Tuesday+

Resemble
Descend
Adverb
Interjection
Complete

+Wednesday+

Limit
Define
Distinct
Imprison
Civilize

+Thursday+

Form
Footsteps
Proof
Report
Common

+Friday+

Union
Under
Unusual
Summer
Commune

+Saturday+

Comply
Employ
Vowel
News
Lawful

PLAIN ENGLISH

LESSON 4

Dear Comrade:

We are studying in this lesson a most interesting part of our language, the words that are the names of things. If we could trace these names of things and the order and time of their coming into the language of men we would have a progressive history of mankind. Way back yonder in the dim dawn of history, men lived upon fruit and nuts. They had no knowledge of the use of fire and could not use foods that required cooking. They communicated with one another by signs. Then they discovered fire and invented the bow and arrow. They could now use fish and flesh for food and they commenced to use articulate speech. This stage has been called the Middle Stage of Savagery. With the invention of the bow and arrow, began the third stage of savagery which merged into the first stage of barbarism with the invention of pottery.

There are three stages of barbarism before we come to the beginning of the era of civilization which begins with the use of the phonetic alphabet and the production of literary records. All tribes that have never attained the art of pottery are classed as savages and those who possess this art but have never attained a phonetic alphabet and the use of writing are classed as barbarians. Civilization began with the spoken and written language and it has been well said that all that separates us from savagery is a wall of books. It is upon the accumulated wisdom of the past that we build. Without this we would be helpless.

So these various names of things have come to us with developing evolving life. As the men of the past gained a knowledge of the use of fire, as they learned to bake the clay and make various utensils; to heat and forge the iron into weapons; to conquer nature in all her phases, to feed the race, to clothe the race, to shelter the race more adequately, our language has grown in volume, strength and beauty.

The study of words and their uses is of great importance to you. Master the few rules necessary and watch your words daily. We are living in an age full of wondrous things and yet many of us have almost as limited a vocabulary as the men of those bygone days, who had never dreamed of the marvels that are commonplace to us.

As you use your dictionary watch closely the meaning of the words and choose the words that most aptly express your ideas. Listen to good English spoken as often as you can. _Read_ good English. Mark the difference between good and bad English and gradually you will find yourself using good English naturally and continually.

Yours for Education,

THE PEOPLE'S COLLEGE.

CLASSES OF NOUNS

+59.+ We have learned that the words in a sentence are classified according to the work which each word does. The words which assert are called verbs; the words which are the names of things are called nouns. But now we shall see that these words are again divided into classes according to the _special_ work which they perform. Just as we may gather the people of the world into one great class, the working class, then classify them according to the industry in which they work, thus some are farmers, some teachers, some factory workers; then each class may be subdivided according to the special work which they perform, as truck farmers, high school teachers, machinists, etc.

So we find that nouns are divided into classes according to their meaning in the sentence.

In the sentence, _Lincoln was a man of the people_, we have two nouns referring to the same person, _Lincoln_ and _man_, but they are different kinds of names. The word _man_ is a name that may apply to any one of a million persons but the name _Lincoln_ applies to one person only. Some nouns, then, represent a thing as being of a certain kind or class, without showing which particular one is meant. Other nouns are names given to designate a particular individual. These are called _common_ and _proper_ nouns.

+60.+ +A proper noun is a special name meant for only one person, place or thing.+

All other nouns are common nouns.

+A common noun is a name which belongs to all things of a class of objects.+

+Every proper noun should begin with a capital letter.+

Indicate the proper nouns in the following list by drawing a line under the letters that ought to be capitals:

king
month
city
france
dog
virginia
war
wilson
november
doctor
colonel
napoleon
chicago
governor
independence day
freedom
ocean
atlantic ocean
thanksgiving
thanksgiving day
uncle william
thursday
week
general sherman
karl marx
union
labor
united mine workers
newspaper
the daily call

Write the special or _proper_ names of several individuals in each of the following classes:--as city,--Chicago, New York, etc.

River, king, author, country, state, inventor, martyr, month, book, college.

COLLECTIVE NOUNS

+61.+ Some nouns are the names of groups or collections of things and are called collective nouns.

Many soldiers taken together form collectively an _army_--a number of sheep form a _drove_. Many of these group or collective nouns will readily occur to your mind.

+A collective noun is one that in the singular form, denotes a number of separate persons or things.+

Exercise 1

Opposite each of the following collective nouns, write the name of the individuals represented by the collection; as an army of _soldiers_; a swarm of _bees_; a flock of _birds_.

A gang of......
A committee of......
A herd of......
A drove of......
A hive of......
A corps of......
A suite of......
A group of......
A class of......
A multitude of......

Fill the following blanks with appropriate collective nouns.

A......of horses.
A......of sailors.
A......of wolves.
A......of savages.
A......of singers.
A......of girls.
A......of ships.
A......of quail.
A......of birds.
A......of workers.

ABSTRACT NOUNS

+62.+ When primitive man began to name the objects about him, doubtless he first named the things which he could see, hear, taste, smell and touch,--the objects which he could perceive by the five senses. Then gradually he came to understand that these objects had certain qualities which he could consider apart from the object itself.

He hunted among the stones to find those which were suitable for making his arrow-heads. For this purpose he needed the hardest stone which he could find, so _hardness_ became something which he could think of as something apart from the object itself.

He saw the men about him and found a name for them. Then he knew that some men were stronger than others, so _strength_ was a quality which he could consider apart from the man himself.

These men performed certain actions; they ran, they climbed,--so _running_ and _climbing_ became actions which he could think of as something apart from any individual.

He noted too that men lived in certain conditions; for example, some men were free, some were slaves, so he came to think of _slavery_ and _freedom_ as conditions which could be thought of as something apart from the individual.

So we draw away, or separate certain ideas; the _quality_ from the thing which has it and the _action_ from the thing which does it and the _condition_ from the thing which is in it. These nouns which are used to describe these qualities, actions or conditions are called _abstract_ nouns. Abstract is a word derived from the Latin _abs_, _away from_, and _tractus_, _drawn_, so it literally means _drawn away from_.

The nouns which are names of things which we can see, hear, taste, smell and touch or perceive by any of the five senses are called _concrete_ nouns.

+63.+ +A concrete noun is the name of an object which may be perceived by one or more of the five senses.+

+An abstract noun is the name of a quality, a condition or an action.+

+64.+ You remember we found in the study of adjectives that we have a class of adjectives which are used to describe the qualities of objects, as for example--_good_, _noble_, _honest_, _true_, _wise_, etc. Since abstract nouns are the names of qualities, many of our abstract nouns are formed from adjectives. Study carefully the following list of adjectives and nouns. Note that the word is an _adjective_ when it is used with a noun to _describe_ certain qualities. It is a _noun_ when it is used by itself to _name_ that quality.

+Adjectives+ +Abstract Nouns+

1. honest honesty
2. pure purity
3. true truth
4. strong strength
5. wise wisdom
6. good goodness
7. bold boldness
8. just justice
9. silent silence
10. wide width
11. patient patience
12. stupid stupidity

+65.+ You will notice that another use of abstract nouns is to name actions. The verb is the part of speech which expresses action, therefore many abstract nouns are formed from verbs. Notice the following list:

+Verbs+ +Abstract Nouns+

1. learn learning
2. invent invention
3. choose choice
4. defend defense
5. try trial
6. judge judgment
7. read reading
8. please pleasure
9. elect election
10. move motion

+66.+ An abstract noun is also the name of a condition. These nouns are derived from the concrete noun which is the name of the person or thing which is _in_ the condition.

+Concrete Nouns+ +Abstract Nouns+

1. slave slavery
2. friend friendship
3. thief theft
4. man manhood
5. child childhood
6. leader leadership
7. hero heroism
8. martyr martyrdom

Exercise 2

Form abstract nouns from the following adjectives, verbs and nouns.

long
simple
rapid
lovely
loyal
fresh
prove
sing
run
behave
believe
reflect
write
child
agent
infant
rascal
clerk
president
coward

NUMBER FORM

+67.+ So we find that we classify our nouns according to the special work which they do. Now sometimes we find it necessary to change the form of the noun to make it express our thought. Thus we say, _book_, _man_, _boy_, _knife_, when we wish to express the idea of only one of each object mentioned. But when we wish to express the idea of more than one of them, we say, _books_, _men_, _boys_, _knives_.

We say, _The boy calls_; _the boys call_. The form of the noun _boy_ is changed by adding an _s_ to it. The meaning has also changed. _Boy_ denotes one lad; _boys_ denotes two or more lads. Any change in form and meaning of words is called _inflection_. The change to denote more than one object is called _number_. The word _boy_, denoting _one_ is in the _singular number_; the word _boys_, denoting _more than one_ is in the _plural number_.

+68.+ +Inflection is a change in the form of a word to denote a different application or use.+

+Number is the form of a noun which shows whether it denotes one or more than one.+

+The singular number denotes one thing.+

+The plural number denotes more than one thing.+

There are a few rules governing the formation of plurals which we must know, and these rules are of great assistance in correct spelling.

+69.+ Most nouns form their plural by adding _s_--thus:

boat
boats

day
days

book
books

boy
boys

Long ago in early English all plurals were formed by adding _es_, and you will read in the first translation of the Bible, for instance, such words as _bird-es_, _cloud-es_. Later the _e_ was dropped and _s_ added to the singular without an increase of syllables. But when the singular ends in an _s_ sound, the original syllable _es_ is retained, for two hissing sounds will not unite.

+70.+ So nouns ending in _s_, _x_, _z_, _sh_ or soft _ch_, form the plural by adding _es_ to the singular. These words end with a sound so much like that of _s_ that we cannot pronounce the plural easily without making another syllable. Thus:

class
classes

tax
taxes

topaz
topazes

wish
wishes

ditch
ditches

+71.+ In words ending with the _s_ sound but with a final _e_, only _s_ is added to form the plural, but in pronouncing the word we then have two syllables, thus:

house
houses

place
places

size
sizes

cage
cages

niche
niches

+72.+ Letters, figures, signs, etc., are made plural by adding an apostrophe and the letter _s_ ('s), thus:

Cross your t's and dot your i's.
Do you know the table of 4's?

While most of our nouns form their plural in this regular way by adding _s_ or _es_, there are some nouns that form their plural by some other change in the form of the word.

+73.+ Notice the following list of words and their plurals:

fly
flies
city
cities
key
keys
day
days
story
stories
enemy
enemies
tray
trays
boy
boys

These nouns all end in _y_, yet they form the plural differently. Some simply add _s_ and the rest change the _y_ to _i_ and add _es_. Can you discover the reason?

Wherever the _y_ is preceded by a vowel, as _e_ in _key_, _a_ in _tray_, _o_ in _boy_, the plural is formed by adding _s_. But when the _y_ is preceded by a consonant, as _l_ in _fly_, _r_ in _story_, _t_ in _city_, and _m_ in _enemy_, the _y_ is changed to _i_ and _es_ added in forming the plural.

+If the singular ends in _y_ after a consonant, change _y_ to _i_ and add _es_ in the plural.+

+74.+ There are thirteen nouns ending in _f_ and three in _fe_ which form the plural in _ves_. They are:

beef beeves
calf calves
elf elves
half halves
leaf leaves
loaf loaves
self selves
sheaf sheaves
shelf shelves
staff staves
thief thieves
wharf wharves
wolf wolves
knife knives
life lives
wife wives

All other nouns in _f_ or _fe_ are regular; adding only _s_, to form the plural.

+75.+ About forty nouns ending in _o_ after a consonant form the plural in _es_. The most common ones are:

buffalo
cargo
potato
tomato
negro
veto
cargo
echo
calico
embargo
hero
mulatto
mosquito
motto
tornado
volcano
torpedo
flamingo

Most nouns ending in _o_ form the plural regularly, adding only _s_, as _pianos_, _banjos_, _cameos_, etc.

+76.+ A few words form their plurals by a change in the word and without adding _s_ or _es_.

The most common of these words are:

man men
goose geese
ox oxen
woman women
foot feet
mouse mice
brother brethren
tooth teeth
child children
louse lice

+77.+ Proper nouns, when made plural, generally follow the same rule as common nouns. Thus we write:

All the Smiths, the Joneses, both the Miss Johnsons, one of the Dr.
Davidsons, and the Mrs. Wilsons, were present.

But to prevent the confusion and misunderstanding which might arise in changing the form of a proper noun, we do not change its form in writing the plurals; for example:

There were eight Henrys, kings of England.
The two Marys reigned in the kingdom.

It would be confusing to say _eight Henries_, the _two Maries_.

The title is made plural when several are referred to, thus:

Mr. Hayes The Messrs. Hayes
Miss Smith The Misses Smith

+78.+ The title is made plural when used with several names, thus:

Messrs. Brown and White.
Generals Lee and Grant.
Drs. Long and Larson.

+79.+ In the case of nouns formed of two or more words, when the compound word is so familiar that the parts are not thought of separately the _s_ is added to the whole compound word, as _four-in-hands_; _forget-me-nots_; _court-yards_; _spoonfuls_; _green-houses_; etc. But when one of the parts is more important than the others, the _s_ is added to the more important part, thus:

mothers-in-law
commanders-in-chief
hangers-on
men-of-war
by-standers
attorneys-at-law
passers-by
step-sons

+80.+ We have many words in our language taken from other languages. They do not form the plural in these languages as we do, and some of these words retain their foreign plurals. Some of the most commonly used of these nouns are the following:

+Singular+ +Plural+

alumnus alumni
analysis analyses
axis axes
datum data
erratum errata
ellipsis ellipses
appendix appendices
bacterium bacteria
basis bases
crisis crises
parenthesis parentheses
radius radii
terminus termini
hypothesis hypotheses
larva larvae
madame mesdames
memorandum memoranda
phenomenon phenomena
stratum strata
thesis theses

+81.+ The following nouns are treated as singular: _news_, _pains_ (meaning care), _acoustics_, _mathematics_, _economics_, _ethics_, _molasses_, _physics_, _politics_, and other nouns ending in _ics_ except _athletics_. With these always use the s-form of the verb. For example:

The news _is_ distorted. Not, The news _are_ distorted.
Economics _is_ an important study. Not, Economics _are_, etc.

+82.+ The following nouns are always plural:

alms
annals
amends
antipodes
bellows
billiards
clothes
dregs
eaves
fireworks
hysterics
measles
mumps
matins
nippers
nuptials
oats
premises
proceeds
pincers
riches
rickets
suds
scissors
thanks
tidings
tongs
trousers
vitals
victuals
vespers

With all these nouns always use the form of the verb which is used with the plural subject. Thus:

Alms are given.
Riches are easily lost.

+83.+ The following nouns have the same form for both plural and singular, _corps_, _cannon_, _deer_, _grouse_, _heathen_, _hose_, _means_, _odds_, _series_, _sheep_, _species_, _swine_, _vermin_, _wages_. You can tell whether the singular or plural is meant by the meaning of the sentence. For example:

_The cannon is loaded._ Here we are speaking of _one_ cannon.

_The cannon used in the war are of tremendous size._ Here we know are meant all the big guns used in the war.

When you say, _The sheep is lost_, we know you mean _one_ sheep, but when you say, _The sheep are in the pasture_, we know you mean the entire drove.

+84.+ When preceded by a numeral, the following nouns have the same form for both singular and plural. Without the numerals, the plural is formed by the adding of _s_; _brace_, _couple_, _dozen_, _hundred_, _pair_, _score_, _thousand_, _yoke_. For example:

Thousands enlisted.
Three thousand enlisted.
Dozens came at my call.
Two dozen came when I called.

GENDER

+85.+ All of the changes we have studied so far have been for the purpose of indicating number; but among the nouns that name living beings, many change to show to which sex the object named belongs. These nouns change in form to distinguish between the masculine and the feminine. This is called _gender_.

+Gender is the distinction in words that denotes sex.+

+The nouns that denote females are called feminine nouns.+

+The nouns that denote males are called masculine nouns.+

+86.+ The feminine form is generally made by the addition of _ess_ to the masculine form. Thus:

prince princess
master mistress
host hostess
count countess
tiger tigress
lion lioness
actor actress
god goddess

+87.+ Names of things without sex are, of course, of neither gender, and are called _neuter nouns_. Neuter means literally _neither_. Such nouns as _mountain_, _iron_, _river_, _chair_, are neuter.

Sometimes the feminine is an entirely different word from the masculine. Thus:

king queen
lord lady
man woman
youth maiden
sir madam
stag hind

+88.+ Many nouns that denote living beings apply alike to male and female, and are said to be of _common gender_. As woman enters more and more into the business world and pursues the same occupations as man, the change in form to denote the feminine is used less frequently, and what we have called the masculine form is used for both sexes, thus:

_Poet_, _waiter_, _doctor_, _editor_--these nouns are used for both men and women.

POSSESSIVE FORM

+89.+ There is just one more change made in the form of a noun, and that is when we wish to show who or what owns or possesses a thing. Thus we write:

John's book.
The boy's hat.

And since this form of the noun denotes possession, it is called the _possessive form_. Some grammarians call this the possessive case.

The possessive form of nouns is made by adding an apostrophe and _s_, ('s); thus, _day's_, _lady's_, _girl's_, _clerk's_.

To plural nouns ending in _s_ add only an apostrophe; thus, _days'_, _ladies'_, _girls'_, _clerks'_.

When plural nouns do not end in _s_, their possessive forms are made by adding the apostrophe and _s_, the same as singular nouns, thus:

They make _men's_ and _women's_ shoes.

+90.+ In words which end with a sound that resembles that of _s_, the apostrophe with _s_ forms an additional syllable. Thus:

James's (pronounced James-ez.)
Mr. Lynch's (pronounced Lynch-ez.)

The only exception to the rule occurs when the addition of another _s_ would make too many hissing sounds, then we add the apostrophe alone. Thus:

For goodness' sake.
In Jesus' name.

+91.+ In forming the possessive of compound nouns, the possessive sign is always placed at the end, thus:

My son-in-law's sister.
The man-of-war's cannon.

+92.+ When we wish to show that a thing belongs to two or more persons who are joint owners of it, we add the possessive sign to the last word only, thus:

Carson, Price and Scott's store.
Mason and Hamlin's pianos.

If it is a separate ownership that we wish to denote, we place the possessive sign after each name, thus:

Bring me John's and Mary's books.
Lee's and Grant's armies met in battle.

Remember that the noun has just _three_ changes in form, one for the plural number, one to denote gender and one for the possessive form. Watch carefully your own language and that of your friends and note if these changes are correctly made.

Exercise 3

Write the plural form of each of the following:

ax
beef
chief
hero
knife
T
hoof
man-of-war
axis
basis
cherry
leaf
son-in-law
Mr. Smith
thief
Doctor Wood
alley
buffalo
chimney
staff
Frenchman
Miss Brown
ox
spoonful
alto
calf
cargo
two
3
tooth
foot
turkey

Exercise 4

Underscore the nouns in the following:

How many abstract nouns?

How many concrete?

How many singular?

How many plural?

FIVE AND FIFTY

_Charlotte Perkins Gilman_

If fifty men did all the work
And gave the price to five;
And let those five make all the rules--
You'd say the fifty men were fools,
Unfit to be alive.

And if you heard complaining cries
From fifty brawny men,
Blaming the five for graft and greed,
Injustice, cruelty indeed--
What would you call them then?

Not by their own superior force
Do five on fifty live,
But by election and assent--
And privilege of government--
Powers that the fifty give.

If fifty men are really fools--
And five have all the brains--
The five must rule as now we find;
But if the fifty have the mind--
Why don't they take the reins?

Exercise 5

Select all the nouns in the following. Write their singular, plural and possessive forms. Decide whether they are abstract or concrete, common or proper or collective, masculine, feminine or neuter.

Brother!

Whoever you are, wherever you are on all the earth, I greet you.

I extend to you my right hand.

I make you a pledge.

Here is my pledge to you:--

I refuse to kill your father. I refuse to slay your mother's son. I
refuse to plunge a bayonet into the breast of your sister's brother. I
refuse to slaughter your sweetheart's lover. I refuse to murder your
wife's husband. I refuse to butcher your little child's father. I
refuse to wet the earth with blood and blind kind eyes with tears. I
refuse to assassinate you and then hide my stained fists in the folds
of _any_ flag.

Will you thus pledge me and pledge all the members of our working
class?--_Kirkpatrick._

SPELLING

LESSON 4

Some of our consonants also have more than one sound. We have also certain combinations of consonants which represent one sound. This combination of two letters to represent one sound is called a digraph, as _gh_, in _cough_, _ch_ in _church_. A digraph may either be a combination of two consonants or of two vowels or of a vowel and a consonant. The following table contains the consonants which have more than one sound:

c--k as in _cat_
c--s as in _vice_
g--j as in _ginger_
g--_hard_ as in _go_
s--sh as in _sure_
s--zh as in _usual_
s--_soft_ as in _also_
s--z as in _does_
x--_soft_ as in _extra_
x--gz as in _exist_

The following table gives the digraphs most commonly used:

ng--as in _ring_, _tongue_
ch--as in _church_ and _much_
ch--k as in _chasm_
ch--sh as in _chagrin_
th--as in _then_, _those_
th--as in _thin_ and _worth_
ce--sh as in _ocean_
ci--sh as in _special_
dg--j as in _edge_
gh--f as in _rough_
ph--f as in _sylph_
qu--kw as in _quart_
qu--k as in _conquer_
sh--as in _shall_
si--sh as in _tension_
si--zh as in _vision_
ti--sh as in _motion_

The use of these digraphs gives us a number of additional sounds. Notice the use of the consonants which have more than one sound and also the digraphs in the spelling lesson for the week. Mark the consonants and digraphs.

+Monday+

Commence
Certain
General
Gradual
Sugar

+Tuesday+

Soldier
Season
Pleasure
Exact
Exercise

+Wednesday+

Singular
Chemistry
Chapter
Machine
Changing

+Thursday+

Theory
Thither
Ocean
Racial
Budget

+Friday+

Philosophy
Enough
Quorum
Bouquet
Phonetic

+Saturday+

Permission
Asia
Attention
Marshall
Martial

PLAIN ENGLISH

LESSON 5

Dear Comrade:

We want to say just a word about the lesson assignment. This has been arranged on a schedule of days merely to assist you in systematizing your time and making the most of the leisure at your disposal. It is not intended that you should slavishly follow it. We thoroughly believe in individuality and all that contributes toward its development. But we are also confident that many foolish things are done in the name of liberty. Whenever we set ourselves to the performance of any task we necessarily limit our activities in some other direction. Power comes by concentration of force. Whenever we combine with others for the accomplishment of any purpose, it becomes necessary to have some plan of action and we give and take for the end which we have in view. The musician because he follows the law of harmony in music has not given up his liberty. He has only found a new freedom which enables him to make glorious music where only discord reigned before. System in our work does not mean loss of liberty or of individuality but only finding a channel through which individuality can flow into the great ocean of real freedom.

So use this suggestive lesson assignment to meet your own need and find expression for your real individuality in full freedom.

This is the first of several lessons concerning verbs. The verb is perhaps the most difficult part of speech to thoroughly master, so do not be discouraged if there are some parts of this lesson you do not understand. Succeeding lessons will clear up these difficult points. Keep your eyes open as you read every day, and be careful of your spelling and pronunciation.

Some of us mis-spell the common words which we see and use every day. In a student's letter we recently noted that, with our letter before him in which the word was printed in large type and correctly spelled, he spelled College, _Colledge_.

Do not be satisfied with half-way things or less than that which is worthy of you. Demand the best for yourself. Read aloud this little verse from the Good Grey Poet, Walt Whitman:

"O, the joy of a manly self-hood;
To be servile to none, to defer to none, not to any tyrant known or
unknown,
To walk with erect carriage, a step springy and elastic,
To look with calm gaze or with a flashing eye,
To speak with a full and sonorous voice out of a broad chest,
To confront with your personality all the other personalities of the
earth."

Yours for Education,

THE PEOPLE'S COLLEGE.

THE WORD THAT ASSERTS

+93.+ You remember when we studied sentences we found that we could not have a sentence without a verb or a word that asserts. The life of a sentence is the verb, for without the verb we cannot assert, question or command. It was on account of this importance that the Romans called the verb, _verbum_, which meant the word. Verbs, like nouns, are divided into classes.

+94.+ In some of our sentences the verb alone is enough to make a complete assertion, but in other sentences we use verbs that need to be followed by one or more words to complete the assertion. Notice the following sentences:

The boy ran.
The boy found the ball.
The earth revolves.
The earth is round.

Do you notice any difference in the verbs used in these sentences? Notice that the verbs _ran_ and _revolves_ make the complete assertion about their subjects. Notice the verbs _found_ and _is_. These are not complete without the addition of the words _ball_ and _round_. If we say _The boy found_, _The earth is_, you at once ask, _The boy found WHAT?_ _The earth is WHAT?_ The sense is incomplete without the addition of these words _ball_ and _round_. A part of the thought is unexpressed; but when we say _The boy found the ball_, _The earth is round_, the sense is complete.

So we have two classes of verbs, _COMPLETE AND INCOMPLETE VERBS_.

+95.+ +An incomplete verb is one that requires the addition of one or more words to complete its meaning.+

+The word or words added to an incomplete verb to complete its meaning are called the complement.+

+A complete verb is one that requires no complement to complete its meaning.+

+96.+ You can readily tell when a verb is complete and when it is incomplete by asking the question _What?_ If you put the question _what_ after the verb, and it makes a sensible question the verb is _incomplete_. For example:

Farmers raise--_what?_
The employer discharged--_what?_
We were--_what?_
The earth is--_what?_

If the question _what?_ does not make sense after the verb, then the verb is _complete_. For example:

The sun shines.
Water flows.
Men work.

The question _what_ after these verbs would not make sense, as:

The sun shines--_what?_
Men work--_what?_
Water flows--_what?_

So these verbs are _complete_ verbs.

+97.+ The same verb, however, may be complete or incomplete, according to the way in which it is used. For example:

The corn grows.
The farmer grows corn.

In the sentence, _Corn grows_, _grows_ is a complete verb. You could not say _The corn grows--what?_ for it does not grow anything. It merely grows, and the verb _grows_ in this sense is a complete verb. But in the sentence, _The farmer grows corn_, you are using the verb _grows_ in a slightly different sense. It is an _incomplete verb_, for you do not mean, _The farmer grows_, but you mean that _the farmer grows CORN_.

Exercise 1

In the following sentences, underscore the complete verbs with one line, the incomplete with two lines. Ask the question _what?_ after each verb to determine whether it is complete or incomplete.

He returned today.
He returned the book.
The rose smells sweet.
He smelled the rose.
The trees shake in the wind.
The wind shakes the trees.
The ship plows through the waves.
The farmer plows the field.
The birds sing sweetly.
They sang the Marseillaise.
He worries over the matter.
The matters worry him.
The table feels rough.
He feels the rough surface.
It tastes bitter.
He tasted the bitter dregs.

Exercise 2

Use the following verbs in sentences as both complete and incomplete verbs, as for example, _The snow melts._ _The sun melts the snow._

melts
write
stopped
answer
rings
fall
see
strike

INCOMPLETE VERBS

+98.+ Do you notice any difference in the two verbs in the following sentences:

The boy found the ball.
The earth is round.

In the sentence, _The boy found the ball_, the word _ball_ tells _what_ the boy _found_. The verb _found_ expresses action; it tells what the boy _does_. _Boy_ is the subject of the action--the one who performs the action. The word _ball_ is the _object_ of the action. It shows the receiver of the action. In the sentence, _The earth is round_, _is_ does not express action. The earth is not doing anything, it simply _is_. The verb _is_ expresses a state or condition and is incomplete, for you do not know what state or condition is expressed until we add the other word or words which describe the state or condition.

Notice the following sentences:

The earth is round.
The earth is our home.
The earth is a sphere.
The earth is large.

The words _round_, _sphere_, _home_ and _large_, describe the earth which is the subject of the verb _is_.

+99.+ So we have two classes of incomplete verbs, the verbs that express action and the verbs that express state or condition. The verbs which express action are called _transitive_ verbs. Transitive is a word derived from the Latin, and means literally _passing over_.

+100.+ So a transitive verb describes an action which _passes over_ from the subject to the object. As for example in the sentence, _The player struck the ball_, _struck_ is a transitive verb--a verb of action--describing the action of the subject, _player_, which passes over to the object, _ball_. Therefore we have our definition of a transitive verb:

+A transitive verb is one that has a complement showing who or what receives the action expressed by the verb.+

+The complement or word that denotes the receiver of the action expressed by a transitive verb is called the object.+

When you look up the meaning of verbs in your dictionary, you will find some verbs marked _v.i._, and some verbs marked _v.t._ _V.t._ is the abbreviation for _verb transitive_. Whenever you find a verb marked _v.t._, you know that it is a transitive verb, a verb of action, one which requires an object to complete its meaning. _V.i._ is the abbreviation for _verb intransitive_. Some grammarians use the term _intransitive_ to include both _complete_ and _copulative_ verbs. We have used the terms complete and incomplete because they are much simpler and clearer in describing the two general classes of verbs, but you will remember that when you find verbs marked _v.i._ in the dictionary that these include _complete_ and _copulative_ verbs.

+101.+ Now notice these sentences:

The earth is round.
The earth is a sphere.

In these sentences the verb _is_ does not express action, but _connects_ or _couples_ the complements _round_ and _sphere_ with the subject _earth_. Verbs used in this way are called _copulative_ verbs, from the word _copula_, which means to _complete_ or to _connect_. The words _round_ and _sphere_ are not the objects of the verb, for they do not describe the receiver of any action. They are the words which describe the state or condition expressed in the verb _is_, and are called the attribute complement of the verb.

You note that this complement may be either an adjective or a noun. In the sentence, _The earth is round_, the adjective, _round_, is used as the complement; in the sentence, _The earth is a sphere_, the noun, _sphere_, is used as the complement. So we have our definition of copulative verbs.

+102.+ +Verbs that express state or condition are called copulative verbs.+

+The word or words that complete the meaning of an incomplete verb expressing state or condition, are called the complement, or attribute complement.+

There are only a few of these copulative verbs. All forms of the verb, _be_; like _am_, _is_, _are_, _was_ and _were_, and the verb phrases like _must be_, _can be_, _will be_, _shall be_, _have been_, _had been_, etc.; and the verbs _seem_, _appear_, _become_, _look_, _feel_, _taste_, _sound_ and _smell_, are the principal copulative verbs.

Exercise 3

Study carefully the following sentences. Note whether the complement of the copulative verb is an adjective or a noun. Draw one line under each _adjective_ used as a complement and two lines under each _noun_ used as a complement.

The day is beautiful.
I am weary and tired.
The men were soldiers.
The tasks seem endless.
All men must be free.
The workers have been slaves.
The burden becomes heavier every day.
The children feel happy and care-free.
Evolution is the development of life.
Grammar is the study of words and their use.
Knowledge is freedom.
The music sounds sweet on the midnight air.
He looks well today.
The dregs taste bitter.
The incense smells sweet.

Exercise 4

Complete the following sentences by adding an object or a complement.

1. Perseverance in your study will bring.......
2. The great need of the working class is.......
3. We shall never acknowledge.......
4. By the sweat of no other's brow shalt thou eat.......
5. The Revolutionary fathers founded.......
6. The workers demand.......
7. Labor's only road to freedom is.......
8. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are.......
9. If you struggle, you will gain.......
10. An incomplete verb requires.......
11. The complement of a transitive verb is called.......
12. The complement of a copulative verb may be either......or.......

+103. There are two classes of verbs, complete and incomplete.+

+A complete verb is one that requires no complement.+

+An incomplete verb is one that requires a complement to complete its meaning.+

+Incomplete verbs are of two kinds: 1. Those that express action; 2. Those that express state or condition.+

+Incomplete verbs that express action are called transitive verbs.+

+Incomplete verbs that express state or condition are called copulative verbs.+

+The complement or the word that denotes the receiver of the action expressed in a transitive verb is called the object.+

+The word or words that complete the meaning of a copulative verb are called the complement, or attribute complement.+

+The same verb may be complete or incomplete, according to the way in which it is used.+

Exercise 5

In the following sentences draw a single line under the complete verbs and a double line under the incomplete verbs. Then determine whether the incomplete verbs are transitive or copulative verbs, and draw a line through the object or the complement.

1. Some plants are poisonous.
2. A rolling stone gathers no moss.
3. Perseverance brings success.
4. Delays are dangerous.
5. A man's actions show his character.
6. He looks well and feels stronger.
7. The snows come and the flowers fade.
8. Labor creates all wealth.
9. Labor must be free.
10. The boy writes well.
11. The man wrote a letter.
12. The skies are clear.
13. The hail destroyed the wheat.
14. No man is ever too old to learn.
15. Competition makes enemies.
16. Co-operation makes friends.
17. Competition breeds hatred.
18. Co-operation breeds good will.
19. Competition ensures war.
20. Co-operation ensures peace.

Exercise 6