represent the speaker? Which does speaker, or the person spoken to? verb "shall go" refer to? "Went?" ence between "old" and "older"?

"you" represent, the What time does the What is the differ

Many of the foregoing words vary in form, to indicate a variation in their use; and they are said to have certain properties, and to be inflected. See "Properties," p. 324.

310. A property of a part of speech is a variation in its use and form.

311. Inflection is a variation in the form of a part of speech, to indicate a variation in its use.

312. Parts of speech may be inflected –

1. By adding one or more letters; as, book, books; slow, slower, slowest; die, dying, died.

2. By changing the vowel sound; as, man, men; come, came; begin, began, begun.

3. By using an additional word; as, go, shall go, may go, might have gone; slowly, more slowly, most slowly.

The third mode of inflection gives rise to properties that otherwise would not be found in English; e.g. passive voice, potential mood, the future tenses, the perfect tenses, the comparison of certain adjectives and adverbs, etc.

Some grammarians attempt to reject the third mode of inflection, but not always with success.

313. The inflection of nouns and pronouns is called declension. The inflection of verbs is called conjugation. The inflection of adjectives and adverbs is called comparison.

314. Verbals are inflected like verbs. Prepositions, conjunctions, responsives, and interjections are not inflected.

RULES FOR SPELLING

315. The following Rules for Spelling are of service in inflecting words:

Rule 1. Final e is dropped when a suffix beginning with a vowel is added; as, come, coming; love, lover; wise, wiser.

EXCEPTIONS.

- Final e is retained (1) after c and g when the suffix begins with a or o; as, changeable, peaceable; (2) after o, as shoeing; and (3) when it is needed to preserve the identity of the word; as, dyeing, singeing.

Rule 2. Final e is retained when a suffix beginning with a consonant is added; as, wise, wisely; pale, paleness.

EXCEPTIONS. - A few words drop e; as, true, truly; awe, awful; wise, wisdom, etc.

Rule 3. Final y preceded by a consonant is changed to i when a suffix not beginning with i is added; as, try, tried ; merry, merrily; happy, happier; dry, driest, drying.

EXCEPTIONS. Beauteous, bounteous, duteous, piteous, plenteous, shyness, slyly, spryer, etc.

Rule 4. Final y preceded by a vowel is not changed when a suffix is added; as, joy, joyful; day, daylight.

EXCEPTIONS. A few words take i: laid, lain, said, daily, paid, etc. Rule 5. The final consonant of a monosyllable, or a word accented on the last syllable, is doubled when a suffix beginning with a vowel is added, if the consonant is preceded by a single vowel; as, hot, hotter; fit, fitting; begin, beginning; prefer, preferred.

EXCEPTIONS. - The letters, x, k, and v are not doubled. is not doubled; as, gas, gases.

S in gas

Rule 6. The final consonant is not doubled when a suffix is added, if the consonant is not preceded by a single vowel, if the suffix does not begin with a vowel, or if the word is not accented on the last syllable; as, sail, sailing; hot, hotly; benefit, benefiting.

EXCEPTIONS. Crystalline, tranquillity. Some authors write traveller, cancelled, marvellous, worshipper, etc.

After vocals and subvocals, s has the sound of z. has the sound of t.

After aspirates, d

NOUNS AND PRONOUNS

NOUNS

316. A noun is a word used as a name.

Or, a noun is a word used to represent an object by naming it. 317. A word from another part of speech, a letter, a character, or a sign, is sometimes used as a noun; as, "Truly is an adverb." "A is a vowel." "Dot your i's." Every why hath a wherefore. Shakspere. ' is called "is the sign of addition. See also

a whole note."

219, 240, and 257.

66

318. Adjectives are frequently used as nouns; as, “The pure in heart." "The good die young."

When I say, "I will send James," what word do I use

to show which boy is meant?

Does the name "James"

distinguish James from other boys? When I say, "I will send a boy," does the name "boy" distinguish one boy from the others? Is the name "boy" common to all boys? Can the name "village" be applied to all villages? Can the name "Millersville" be applied to all villages? Why not? What is the difference between "city" and "Boston"?

320. Nouns are divided into two chief classes: proper nouns and common nouns.

321. A proper noun is a name given to an object to distinguish it from other objects of the same class. Illustrate.

322. Proper nouns, and adjectives derived from proper nouns, should begin with capital letters. Illustrate.

323. A common noun is a name that is common to all objects of the same kind or class. Illustrate..

324. Common nouns also include names of materials, or material nouns; as, gold, silver, cloud, rain, stone, rack, wheat, corn, etc.

Sun, earth, moon, world, are called common nouns. Why?

325. When a proper noun may be applied to each individual of a class of persons that resemble one another in certain qualities, it becomes a common noun; as, "Some mute, inglorious Milton here may rest." "The Germans are at work." (Several persons from Germany.) Cicero of his age." "A second Daniel."

"The

326. Many common nouns are derived from proper nouns; as, davy (a miner's lamp), from the name of the inventor, Sir Humphry Davy; morocco, china, from the

name of the country from which the article comes. Give other examples.

327. When a common noun is used to distinguish an object from others of the same class, it becomes a proper noun; as, "A drive in the Park."

328. A name that is given to a group of objects to distinguish it from other groups of the same class, is a proper noun; as, "The Germans are industrious." (The people of Germany.) "The Canaries."

329. A collective noun is the name of a collection considered as one object; as, pair, dozen, group, regiment, family, tribe, mob, jury, people, audience, committee, etc.

330. An abstract noun is the name of a quality or an action, which is considered without reference to the object to which it belongs; as, breadth, blackness, brightness, color, distance, weight, wealth, honesty, rapidity, death, etc. From what parts of speech are abstract nouns derived?

Collective nouns and abstract nouns are common nouns. Why?

EXERCISES

331. Write ten common nouns, and five proper nouns belonging to the class of objects named by each common noun, thus:

City; Boston, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Peking.

332. Point out the collective and abstract nouns in the following:

I. The discretion of a man deferreth his anger. - Prov. 2. O the blasting of the fever!-Longfellow.

xix. 11.

LYTE'S ADV. GR. AND COMP.- - 8

3. Six