VARIETY OF EXPRESSION

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Which sentence expresses the thought with more force?

The exclamatory form is often used to express a sudden burst of feeling or emotion.

Rewrite the following paragraph, using declarative sentences instead of exclamatory, and tell which form of expression is the better suited for such a description:

What a charm there is connected with the great mountains! How the mind is filled with their vast solitude! How the inward eye is fixed on their silent, their sublime, their everlasting peaks! How our hearts bound to the music of their solitary cries, to the tinkle of their gushing rills, to the sound of their cataracts! How inspiring are the odors that breathe from the upland turfs, from the rock-hung flower, from the hoary and solemn pine! How beautiful are those lights and shadows thrown abroad, and the fine transparent haze which is diffused over the valleys and lower slopes as over the vast inimitable picture! - WILLIAM HOWITT.

Change the following from the declarative to the exclamatory form of expression, and tell which form is more suitable for this narrative:

Our ship leaps and careers gracefully along. With her white wings and her tall tapering masts she is a beautiful, dancing fairy.

I love the bounding, dashing, roaring sea. Gallantly we ride in this skeleton ship, while the sunlight glints gaily on white mast and slender spar. Gallantly we ride over wave and hollow, over foam and rainbow, now perched upon the white ridge; now plunging down, down into the measureless trough, which seems yawning to engulf us forever.

LESSON XXXVIII

PRONOUNS - PERSONAL

You have learned that pronouns are used to take the place of nouns. They are very convenient words as they enable us to avoid the awkward repetition of nouns, and thus make our language more smooth and pleasant to the

ear.

Write the following personal pronouns, arranging them in three columns. In the first put those that indicate the person speaking, in the second those that indicate the person spoken to, and in the third those that indicate the person spoken about.

The pronouns that show by their form that the speaker is meant are said to be in the first person.

The pronouns that show by their form that the person spoken to is meant are said to be in the second person.

The pronouns that show by their form that the person or thing spoken about is meant are said to be in the third person.

AGREEMENT OF THE PRONOUN WITH ITS ANTECEDENT

1. Milton wrote his greatest poem after he became blind. 2. Queen Victoria was crowned when she was eighteen years old.

PRONOUNS - PERSONAL

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3. The United States helped the Cubans in their struggle for liberty.

4. Esop's fables are still read and quoted because they contain well-established truths.

What is their

number? Of

Name the pronouns in the first sentence. antecedent? Is it of singular or plural what number are the pronouns he and his? Name the pronoun in the second sentence. antecedent? Of what number is it? Of what number is

What is its

Name the pronoun in the third sentence. Give its antecedent. Are these words of singular or plural number? Of what number are the pronoun and its antecedent in the fourth sentence?

In these examples it will be seen that the pronoun that is used for a noun of the singular number is itself of the singular number, and a pronoun that is used for a noun of the plural number is of the plural number.

This is always the case and gives the rule:

A pronoun must agree with its antecedent in number.

1. He always came to school early.

2. The teacher praised him for his punctuality.

What is the subject of the first sentence?

How is the pronoun him used in the second sentence?

What form has the pronoun his in the same sentence?

You find that the pronouns he, him, his, which refer to the same person, have different forms according to the relation in which they stand to the other words in the sentence. When the relation is that of subject, the form he is used; when that of object, him is used; and when used to denote ownership or possession, his is used.

Most personal pronouns have different forms to indicate their relation to the other words in the sentence.

The relation of the personal pronoun to the other words in the sentence, as indicated by its different forms, is called Case. When the pronoun is the subject of a verb, or is used in the predicate with a copula and indicates the same person or thing as the subject, it is in the nominative case.

It, they, are examples.

When a pronoun is the object of a verb or a preposition, it is in the objective case and has the objective form.

Me, him, her, them, are examples.

When a pronoun has the possessive form it is said to be in the possessive case.

My, his, her, its, their, are examples.

The person, number, gender, and case of the personal pronouns are shown in the following table :

Select the pronouns in the following, give the antecedent, and tell the person, number, gender, and case of each.

The more we know about plants and flowers, the more we enjoy looking at them.

If a starfish loses an arm, a new one will grow in its place.

Milton wrote his greatest poem after he became blind. The lion said that he was very sick and begged the fox to come into the den and see him.

"So I would," said the fox, "but I notice that all of the footprints point into the den and there are none that point out of it."

Mary, my advice to you is, always do what you believe to be right.

Men who climb high will have many blasts to shake them.

Cromwell, I did not think to shed a tear in all my miseries; but thou hast forced me out of thine honest truth to play the woman.

Let's dry our eyes, and thus far hear me, Cromwell,

Mark but my fall and that that ruined me.

- WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.