3. By a noun, pronoun, or adjective, being prefixed to the noun; as,

27. Case expresses the relation of nouns and pronouns to other words in a sentence.

28. The Nominative Case simply expresses the name of a thing, or the subject of a verb.

29. The Possessive Case expresses the relation of property or possession, or the possessor or owner of a thing.

(For the regular manner of forming the possessive case, see page 8th, numbers 25 and 27.)

30. Some nouns, which end in double s, form the possessive case, by adding an apostrophe only; as, "For goodness' sake; for righteousness' sake."

31. Other nouns, ending with double s, form the possessive regularly;、 as, "The witness's testimony."

32. Some nouns, which end in ience, also, form the possessive, by adding an apostrophe only; as, "For conscience' sake; for patience'

sake.'

33. In poetry, the additional s is frequently omitted, but the apostrophe is retained; as,

Oh! who that gallant spirit shall resume.

Leap from Eurotas' banks, and call thee from the tomb?

34. When terms signifying a naine and an office are connected, the apostrophe and s should be annexed to the name of the person; as, “I left the volume at Smith's, the bookseller."

35. The Objective Case expresses the object of an active verb, a participle, or a preposition.

ADJECTIVES.†

36. The word adjective means joined to. For this reason, those words which are joined to nouns and pronouns, to express their kind, number, or quality, are called Adjectives.

* See page 8, No. 23.

† See page 9, No. 29.

37. Comparison expresses the quantity, or the degree of the quality expressed by the adjective.

38. The Positive Degree expresses the simple quality.

39. The Comparative Degree increases the quality.

40. The Superlative Degree increases the quality to the greatest extent 41. Adjectives are sometimes compared by decreasing the quality, in the following manner; as,

Positive.
Favourable,
Prudent,

Comparative.
Less favourable,
Less prudent,

Superlative.
Least favourable.
Least prudent.

42. Some adjectives do not admit of comparison; as, two, second, right, true, immortal, infinite, perfect, universal, &c.

43. Some adjectives are used in only two degrees; namely, the comparative and the superlative; as,

44. Some adjectives are of the comparative degree; as, anterior, posterior, interior, senior, junior, major, minor.

45. Adjectives of two syllables, ending in y, or silent e, are generally compared by er and est; as,

Superlative.

Amplest.

Happiest.

Noblest.

Politest.

PRONOUNS.*

46. The word pronoun means for the noun. For this reason, those words which stand for the noun, are called Pronouns; and they are used to prevent the frequent repetition of the nou. Thus, in the sentences, "Gilbert Ainslie was a poor man and Gilbert Ainslie had been a poor man all the days of Gilbert Ainslie's life; the days were not few, for Gilbert Ainslie's thin hair was now waxing gray. Gilbert Ainslie had been born and bred on the small moorland farm, the farm Gilbert Ainslie now occupied; and Gilbert Ainslie hoped to die there, as Gilbert Ainslie's father and grandfather had done before Gilbert Ainslie."-The use of the pronoun will be seen, by employing it, instead of repeating the noun. The above sentence will then be as follows:-" Gilbert Ainslie was a poor man, and he had been a poor man all the days of his life, which were not few, for his thin hair was now waxing gray. He had been born and bred on the small moorland farm which he now occupied, and he hoped to die there, as his father and grandfather had done before him." 47. Although, in the previous parts of this book, a list of the several kinds of pronouns has been given (see page 11, No. 41; page 12, Nos. 48 and 49; page 13, No. 54), it remains to be observed, that any word may be called a pronoun, which stands instead of a noun, and supplies its place.

48. Personal Pronouns are those which show the person of the nouns for which they stand; and they are never used in the same part of the sentence with the noun which they represent.

* See page 11, No. 39.

49. Relative Pronouns are those which stand for a noun or phrase, which is expressed in some member of the same sentence. (See page 12, No. 49; page 69, Nos. 104 and 105; page 70, No. 106; and pages 72 and 74, No: 109.)

50. The relative pronoun who stands for those nouns only which mean persons; as, "He is a friend, who is faithful in adversity."

51. The relative pronoun which stands for animals, and objects of the neuter gender; as, "This is the bird which sung; That is the tree which produces no fruit."

52. The pronoun which is used instead of who, when children are spoken of; as, "The child which I saw; The infant which was here." 53. The pronoun that stands either for persons, animals or objects of the neuter gender; and it is used to prevent the too frequent repetition of who or which; as, "He that acts wisely, deserves praise; Modesty is a quality that highly adorns a woman; The horse that I bought."

54. Adjective pronouns* are those pronouns which are sometimes joined to nouns, and sometimes stand by themselves; the noun to which they belong being understood; as, "This man is more intelligent than that" (man). (See page 13, No. 54.)

55. The word own is frequently joined to some of the pronouns, for the sake of emphasis. They then become compound adjective pronouns; as, “This is my own book." The following is a list of them: my own, thy own, his own, her own, its own, our own, your own, their

own.

56. The adjective pronouns this and that have each a plural number. These is the plural of this; and those is the plural of that. This and that are joined to nouns of the singular number only; these and those, only to plural nouns.

57. When the pronouns this and that are both used in the same sentence, and each refers to some noun before them, this means the latter, or last-mentioned, and that the former, or first-mentioned; as, "Wealth and poverty are both temptations; that (namely, wealth) tends to excite pride; this (namely, poverty) tends to excite discontent."

PREPOSITIONS.†

58. The word preposition means placed before. Prepositions are those words which are placed before nouns and pronouns, to show the relation between them and other words in the sentence.

59. A preposition must always govern a noun or pronoun in the objective case; and whenever a word usually included among the prepositions has no objective case, expressed or understood, it becomes an adverb.

60. Participles, and sometimes other parts of speech, are used as prepositions; as, excepting, respecting, touching, concerning, according, except, save, but, &c.

CONJUNCTIONS.‡

61. The word conjunction means joining together. Conjunctions are those words which are used to join together the several words and members of a sentence.

*The adjective pronouns may be thus subdivided :

The Possessive; my, thy, his, her, our, your, their.
The Distributive; each, every, either.

The Demonstrative; this, that, these, those, former, latter,
The Indefinitive; some, other, another, any, one, all, such.

+ See page 14, No. 56,

See page 15, No. 59.

62. Those words which are connected or joined together by a conjunction, are usually parsed alike; and it will be seen by the following example, that conjunctions very often unite sentences, when they appear to unite only words. Thus, "I gave the book to John or Charles :" this form of expression contains two distinct sentences; namely, “ I gave the book to John, or, I gave the book to Charles." The words John and Charles, which are connected together by the conjunction in the first sentence, it appears, are both governed by the preposition in the two distinct sentences.

63. The conjunction but is improperly used in connection with that, in negative sentences; as, "I cannot deny but that I was justly condemned." The word but means except: the meaning of the sentence, therefore, is, "I can deny nothing except that I was unjustly condemned; but I can deny that."

INTERJECTIONS.*

64. Interjections are words or sounds uttered to express some feeling of the inind.

65. The word interjection means thrown into; and those words which are" thrown into " the different parts of a sentence, to express sudden emotions, are therefore called Interjections. Many of them are mere sounds, and cannot be expressed by letters.

VERBS.+

Such sen

66. A Passive Verb can never govern an objective case. tences as the following, although sometimes used by good writers, are incorrect, and should be altered. "She was taught musick; He was forgiven the offence; He was allowed his demand; He was asked a question." It should be, "Musick was taught (to) her; The offence was forgiven (to) him; His demand was allowed (to) him," &c.

67. Defective Verbs are those which are not used in all the moods and tenses; as, ought, quoth, beware, &c.

68. There are a few words which are called Impersonal Verbs, because they have no nominative case, or, if any, a pronoun which merely expresses a state of things; as, methinks, beware, as follows, as appears, it rains, it snows, it freezes, it hails, it lightens, it thunders.

MOODS AND TENSES.‡

69. There are two things which are to be particularly noticed in a verb;-first, the manner in which it is used-and, second, the time which it expresses.

70. Mood shows the manner in which the verb is used.

71. Tense shows the time which the verb expresses.

72. The Indicative Mood§ expresses an assertion, or a question.

73. The Subjunctive Mood expresses a condition, supposition, or doubt, &c., and always has a conjunction before it, expressed or understood.

74. A verb in the subjunctive mood never occurs alone. There must always be another verb in the sentence, expressed or understood, before or after it.

* See page 15, No. 61.
See page 18, Nos. 73 and 74.

† See page 17, No. 65.
See page 17, No. 75.

75. The Potential Mood expresses ability, power, liberty, willingness, or necessity. It sometimes expresses a question.

76. The potential mood may be known by the following signs, or auxiliary verbs, some one of which is found in every tense of this mood; namely, may, can, must, might, could, would, should.*

77. The Imperative Mood expresses a command, a request, a per

mission.

78. The Infinitive Mood expresses the verb in a general or unlimited manner, without any distinction of number or person.

79. The infinitive mood always has the sign to before it, expressed or understood.

80. Participlest are words derived from verbs, having part of the properties of verbs, and part of the properties of adjectives.

81. The present participle of an active verb is sometimes used in a passive sense; as, "The king of Spain was improving at the last dates ;" The house is building" (not being built).

TENSES.

82. Tense shows the time which the verb expresses. (See No. 71.) 83. The Present Tense represents present time.

84. The Imperfect Tense represents past time, indefinitely.

85. The Perfect Tense expresses past time, definitely.

86. The Pluperfect Tense expresses time which passed before some other past time.

87. The Future Tense expresses future time.

88. The Future Perfect Tense expresses time which will be past at some future time.

89. Those tenses which have an auxiliary verb‡ in them are called compound tenses. The other tenses are called simple tenses.

90. The Present and Imperfect Tenses of the Indicative and Subjunctive Moods of active and neuter verbs, are sometimes formed by the auxiliary verbs do and did, in the following manner; as,

See page 27. The potential mood is converted into the subjunctive, by placing the conjunctions if, though, unless, &c. before it; as, "If I could deceive him, I would not attempt it; Though he should strike, he cannot harm." The indicative mood is also frequently used by good writers for the subjunctive; as, "If he rises," &c.

See page 62, Nos. 89 and 90, and page 63, No. 91.
See page 82, Nos. 117 and 118.