(10) Give instances of, (a) Nouns which have no singular. (11) Name Nouns which have been borrowed from the Greek, and the Latin, and the modern Italian language; and give their plurals. (12) Give the plurals of, Motto, datum, cloth, index, brother, die, genius, pea, penny, apparatus, formula, iris. Mention the two forms of the plural where such exist, and give their different meanings. (13) Comment on the words, Alms, riches, eaves, brethren, children, kine. (14) Give rules for the formation of the plural of compound words, and write down the plurals of,— Blackbird, paymaster, attorney-general, court-martial, handful, knight-templar, lord-lieutenant, lord-justice, looker-on, son-in-law. IV. CASE.-(15) Define as clearly as you can what is meant by the case and declensions of Nouns, and write down the forms for the cases in the singular and plural of the following Nouns, Brother, footman, Mussulman, princess, lady, valley. (16) How would you make clear to young children the absurdity of such definitions as,— "The nominative case does something; The possessive case owns something; The objective case has something done to it" The (17) How is the possessive case denoted in English? What does genitive mean? Addison observes, single letter s, on many occasions, does the office of a whole word, and represents the his or her of our forefathers." Explain and illustrate the confusion involved in this statement. (18) Introduce the following words into sentences, putting each of them into the possessive case, Lycurgus, Socrates, Cyclops, Paris, highness, conscience, (19) What do you mean by the nominative absolute, and the nominative of address? Give illustrations of the use of the nominative absolute, and state what appears to be the function of most of the phrases in which the nominative absolute occurs. (20) How many cases were there in old English? What remains have we of the inflections of these cases at the present time? How would you think it necessary to modify the definition of case which has reference to form, in order to make it applicable to case as denoted in our language at the present time? THE VERB. I. CLASSES. (21) Name the different kinds of Verbs, and state what is meant by the terms voice, mood, tense, number, and person, when applied to Verbs. (22) Write down, with examples, a list of Verbs that take two nominatives, one as subject the other as predicate. What are such Verbs called? (23) What are Regular, Irregular, Defective, and Impersonal Verbs? Give examples of each. (24) What are those Verbs usually called which form the past tense by a change of the root-vowel? Are tell and sell of that class? Mention the various classifications of English Verbs. (25) Give a list of the principal Defective Verbs, and comment fully on the Verb must. (26) Enumerate our principal Auxiliary Verbs, and classify them. (27) How do Strong Verbs form their past tenses, and generally, also, their past participles? Take as examples,Blow, shake, drink, fight, creep, lose. Give a list of Verbs which are weak in their past tense, but strong in their past participles. (28) What attempts have been made to classify the English Irregular Verbs? Supply a brief classified list of these Verbs. (29) Classify the English Auxiliary Verbs, and state which of them are defective, and which of them may be used as Principal Verbs. (30) Define the terms transitive and intransitive, and give examples of Verbs of each class. (31) Explain the difference between a Transitive Verb and a Verb in the active voice. Which of the following Verbs are transitive? "Lay the book down;" "He was sent to school;" "He sleeps soundly;""They will be dismissed;" "He ran home." II. VOICE.-(32) Define the terms,— Voice, active voice, passive voice, middle voice. What is the auxiliary of voice? and with what part of the Principal Verb is this always joined ? (33) What class of Verbs may be put in the passive voice? Change all the Verbs in the following sentence into the passive voice, "The Persians attacked the Greeks again, but they did not make any impression on the little army." How have the subjects and objects been affected by this change? (34) Give instances of Intransitive Verbs used in the passive voice. (35) Give the passive participles, perfect and imperfect, of the following Verbs, Strike, kill, cut, fight, write, see. III. MOOD.-(36) Define the term mood. State the moods of an English Verb, and define, with examples,— Subjunctive mood, infinitive mood, verbal noun. (37) Name three auxiliaries of mood, and conjugate them. (38) What was the original meaning of the Verbs,— Shall, can, may, ought? Give the present and the past tense of the Verb to wit. (39) When are shall and will auxiliaries of mood? Give examples. (40) What words frequently introduce clauses in which the Verb is in the subjunctive mood? Give examples. (41) What objections are there to the recognition of the so-called potential mood? (42) Give a list of the Principal Verbs which are followed by the infinitive without to, and introduce them into sentences. IV. TENSE.—(43) Define tense, and write down the tenses of the Verbs, Strike, swing, sing, tear, split, cut, creep, eat, hew, lie, lay. past (44) Explain how it comes about that the past tense of Verbs like keep and weep got to be pronounced and written kept and wept, instead of keeped and weeped. (45) Give the past tenses of the following Verbs, and conjugate fully one of those marked in italics,— Work, begin, cleave, choose, know, show, throw, wear, stride. (46) Give the past tenses of the following Verbs, and account, if you can, for any anomalies in the changes which these Verbs undergo, Work, seethe, eat, go, buy, lay, lie, clothe, catch, cleave, shut, flee, fly. (47) Give a list of Verbs which have two perfects; one formed by means of the Verb to have, and the other by means of the Verb to be. Is there any difference in the signification of these perfects; if so, what is it? (48) Give a simple classification of the tenses, and mention the auxiliaries of tense. V. GERUNDS and PARTICIPLES.-(49) What do you mean by gerund? Give every form of the gerund formed from the Verb strike, which can possibly occur. (50) Give any peculiarities connected with the use of the gerund in the construction of sentences which may occur to you. (51) What are participles, and to what use are they applied in the formation of sentences? (52) Give every form of the participle formed from the following Verbs, which can possibly occur,— Begin, throw, rise, raise, sit, set, gird, fly, chide. (53) Classify the participles formed from the Transitive Verb kill, and also those formed from the Intransitive Verb run. (54) Into what parts of a Verb does the participle in ed, formed from a Transitive Verb, enter? VI. CONJUGATION. (55) What do you mean by conjugating a Verb? Conjugate the Verb to strike in the passive voice, giving the infinitive, imperative, and the participles. (56) Conjugate in the active voice the Verbs strike and lay. (57) What is the difference between conjugation in English and conjugation in other languages, say the Latin? (58) Comment on the forms, "I strike," "Do strike;" "I am striking," "I am about to strike;" in connection with conjugation. THE ADJECTIVE. I. CLASSES, &c.-(59) Give a definition of an Adjective, and show the absurdity of the definition, "The Adjective qualifies or describes the Noun." (60) Classify the Adjectives, giving as many as you can of each class. |