PREFACE.

THIS little book was written solely for the use of my own pupils, in despair of finding an English Grammar which would exactly supply their wants.

As it is intended for boys who are preparing for the public schools, I have, in compiling it, tried to keep three objects in view:-First, that it should not interfere with, but should rather facilitate the study of Latin and Greek: second, that it should be short: third, that it should be simple.

It seems to me that, although English may not be the best medium for conveying grammatical instruction, yet that, for many years of a child's life, it is the readiest and the most intelligible; and that, therefore, as the great aim of a teacher should be to cultivate the intelligence of his pupils, it is well to appeal as early as possible to the reason and understanding, by teaching the general principles of grammar through the mother tongue, which is to a child the only medium of thought.

I have tried to make the book as short as possible, because the time that can be devoted to the study of English Grammar

B

by boys who are to learn several other languages is necessarily short, and they cannot therefore learn more than the barest outline.

I have tried to make it simple, because it is intended to be put into the hands of little children, not only to be committed to memory, but to be understood.

I have adopted a tabular form whenever it seemed to me possible, because an appeal to the eye is always the readiest and surest method of instruction.

But my little book is not intended to supply the place of intelligence in the teacher, and I have therefore avoided much explanation, and have given few examples, thinking the lessons likely to be more lively and interesting, when the teacher is called upon to furnish the one, and the pupil the other. The book is meant simply to be a text-book in the hands of the pupils. E. D. H.

CHELTENHAM, JANUARY, 1864.

PART I.-ACCIDENCE.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY.

1 Grammar is the science of language.

We express our thoughts by means of sentences.

Sentences are composed of words.
Words are composed of letters.

2 There are twenty-six letters in the English language, viz., a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z. 3 Five of the letters are vowels; a, e, i, o, u.

4 The letters w and y are sometimes vowels and sometimes consonants; they are often called semi-vowels.

B2

5 The other letters are all consonants except h.

6 The consonants are subdivided into liquids and mutes.

7. The liquids are 1, m, n, r.

8 Ten of the mutes may be classified in the following

Th has two sounds, one sharp, as in THINK; the other flat, as in THIS.

9 Of the remaining five letters, c is redundant, as c softs, c hard=k; h is merely an aspirate, and the others are compound sounds; j=dzh; q=kw; x=ks.

10 A syllable consists of one or more letters pronounced with one effort of the voice. Every syllable must contain at least one vowel.

11 A diphthong is the blending of two vowels into one sound as ou in LOUD.