How to Speak and Write Correctly | Page 3

neuter and common. The
masculine gender denotes all those of the male kind, the feminine gender all those of the
female kind, the neuter gender denotes inanimate things or whatever is without life, and
common gender is applied to animate beings, the sex of which for the time being is
indeterminable, such as fish, mouse, bird, etc. Sometimes things which are without life as
we conceive it and which, properly speaking, belong to the neuter gender, are, by a figure
of speech called Personification, changed into either the masculine or feminine gender, as,
for instance, we say of the sun, He is rising; of the moon, She is setting.
Case is the relation one noun bears to another or to a verb or to a preposition. There are
three cases, the Nominative, the Possessive and the Objective. The nominative is the
subject of which we are speaking or the agent which directs the action of the verb; the
possessive case denotes possession, while the objective indicates the person or thing
which is affected by the action of the verb.
An
Article is a word placed before a noun to show whether the latter is used in a
particular or general sense. There are but two articles, a or an and the.
An Adjective is a word which qualifies a noun, that is, which shows some distinguishing
mark or characteristic belonging to the noun.
DEFINITIONS

A Pronoun is a word used for or instead of a noun to keep us from repeating the same
noun too often. Pronouns, like nouns, have case, number, gender and person. There are
three kinds of pronouns, personal, relative and adjective.
A verb is a word which signifies action or the doing of something. A verb is inflected by
tense and mood and by number and person, though the latter two belong strictly to the
subject of the verb.
An adverb is a word which modifies a verb, an adjective and sometimes another adverb.
A preposition serves to connect words and to show the relation between the objects
which the words express.
A conjunction is a word which joins words, phrases, clauses and sentences together.
An interjection is a word which expresses surprise or some sudden emotion of the mind.
THREE ESSENTIALS
The three essentials of the English language are: Purity, Perspicuity and Precision.
By Purity is signified the use of good English. It precludes the use of all slang words,
vulgar phrases, obsolete terms, foreign idioms, ambiguous expressions or any
ungrammatical language whatsoever. Neither does it sanction the use of any newly
coined word until such word is adopted by the best writers and speakers.
Perspicuity demands the clearest expression of thought conveyed in unequivocal
language, so that there may be no misunderstanding whatever of the thought or idea the
speaker or writer wishes to convey. All ambiguous words, words of double meaning and
words that might possibly be construed in a sense different from that intended, are strictly
forbidden. Perspicuity requires a style at once clear and comprehensive and entirely free
from pomp and pedantry and affectation or any straining after effect.
Precision requires concise and exact expression, free from redundancy and tautology, a
style terse and clear and simple enough to enable the hearer or reader to comprehend
immediately the meaning of the speaker or writer. It forbids, on the one hand, all long
and involved sentences, and, on the other, those that are too short and abrupt. Its object is
to strike the golden mean in such a way as to rivet the attention of the hearer or reader on
the words uttered or written.

CHAPTER II
ESSENTIALS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR
Divisions of Grammar--Definitions--Etymology.
In order to speak and write the English language correctly, it is imperative that the
fundamental principles of the Grammar be mastered, for no matter how much we may
read of the best authors, no matter how much we may associate with and imitate the best
speakers, if we do not know the underlying principles of the correct formation of
sentences and the relation of words to one another, we will be to a great extent like the
parrot, that merely repeats what it hears without understanding the import of what is said.
Of course the parrot, being a creature without reason, cannot comprehend; it can simply
repeat what is said to it, and as it utters phrases and sentences of profanity with as much
facility as those of virtue, so by like analogy, when we do not understand the grammar of
the language, we may be making egregious blunders while thinking we are speaking with
the utmost accuracy.
DIVISIONS OF GRAMMAR
There are four great divisions of Grammar, viz.:
Orthography, Etymology, Syntax, and Prosody.
Orthography treats of letters and the mode of combining them into words.
Etymology treats of