Practical Grammar and Composition | Page 4

men who do not try to be honest. 6. Men may come, and men may go, but I go on forever. 7. He works hard, and rests little. 8. She is still no better, but we hope that there will be a change. 9. Let each speak for himself. 10. It was I who told him to go. 11. To live an honest life should be the aim of every one. 12. Who it really was no one knew, but all believed it to have been him. 13. In city and in country people think very differently. 14. To be or not to be, that is the question. 15. In truth, I think that I saw a brother of his in that place. 16. By a great effort he managed to make headway against the current. 17. Beyond this, I have nothing to say. 18. That we are never too old to learn is a true saying. 19. Full often wished he that the wind might rage. 20. Lucky is he who has been educated to bear his fate. 21. It is I whom you see. 22. The study of history is a study that demands a well-trained memory. 23. Beyond the city limits the trains run more rapidly than they do here. 24. Alas! I can travel no more. 25. A lamp that smokes is a torture to one who wants to study.
EXERCISE 2
(1) Write a list of six examples of every part of speech.
(2) Write eight sentences, each containing an attribute complement. Use adjectives, nouns, and pronouns.
(3) Write eight sentences, each containing an object complement.
(4) Write five sentences, in each using some form of the verb TO BE, followed by an adverbial modifier.
CHAPTER II
NOUNS
9. A noun has been defined as a word used as the name of something. It may be the name of a person, a place, a thing, or of some abstract quality, such as, justice or truth.
10. COMMON AND PROPER NOUNS. A PROPER NOUN is a noun that names some particular or special place, person, people, or thing. A proper noun should always begin with a capital letter; as, English, Rome, Jews, John. A COMMON NOUN is a general or class name.
11. INFLECTION DEFINED. The variation in the forms of the different parts of speech to show grammatical relation, is called INFLECTION. Though there is some inflection in English, grammatical relation is usually shown by position rather than by inflection.
The noun is inflected to show number, case, and gender.
12. NUMBER is that quality of a word which shows whether it refers to one or to more than one. SINGULAR NUMBER refers to one. PLURAL NUMBER refers to more than one.
13. PLURALS OF SINGULAR NOUNS ARE FORMED ACCORDING TO THE FOLLOWING RULES:
1. Most nouns add s to the singular; as, boy, boys; stove, stoves.
2. Nouns ending in s, ch, sh, or x, add es to the singular; as, fox, foxes; wish, wishes; glass, glasses; coach, coaches.
3. Nouns ending in y preceded by a vowel (a, e, i, o, u) add s; as, valley, valleys, (soliloquy, soliloquies and colloquy, colloquies are exceptions). When y is preceded by a consonant (any letter other than a vowel), y is changed to i and es is added; as, army, armies; pony, ponies; sty, sties.
4. Most nouns ending in f or fe add s, as, scarf, scarfs; safe, safes. A few change f or fe to v and add es; as, wife, wives; self, selves. The others are: beef, calf, elf, half, leaf, loaf, sheaf, shelf, staff, thief, wharf, wolf, life. (Wharf has also a plural, wharfs.)
5. Most nouns ending in o add s; as, cameo, cameos. A number of nouns ending in o preceded by a consonant add es; as, volcano, volcanoes. The most important of the latter class are: buffalo, cargo, calico, echo, embargo, flamingo, hero, motto, mulatto, negro, potato, tomato, tornado, torpedo, veto.
6. Letters, figures, characters, etc., add the apostrophe and s ('s); as, 6's, c's, t's, that's.
7. The following common words always form their plurals in an irregular way; as, man, men; ox, oxen; goose, geese; woman, women; foot, feet; mouse, mice; child, children; tooth, teeth; louse, lice.
COMPOUND NOUNS are those formed by the union of two words, either two nouns or a noun joined to some descriptive word or phrase.
8. The principal noun of a compound noun, whether it precedes or follows the descriptive part, is in most cases the noun that changes in forming the plural; as, mothers-in-law, knights-errant, mouse-traps. In a few compound words, both parts take a plural form; as, man-servant, men-servants; knight-templar, knights-templars.
9. Proper names and titles generally form plurals in the same way as do other nouns; as, Senators Webster and Clay, the three Henrys. Abbreviations of titles are little used in the plural, except Messrs. (Mr.), and Drs. (Dr.).
10. In