OUTLINES

OF

ENGLISH GRAMMAR,

INCLUDING

ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES.

FOR THE USE OF JUNIOR PUPILS.

BY

DAVID DONALDSON, F.E.I.S.,

ENGLISH MASTER, GRAMMAR SCHOOL, PAISLEY,
CO-EDITOR OF "THE TROY BOOK."

LONDON AND GLASGOW:

WILLIAM COLLINS, SONS, & COMPANY.

1878.

30276

f

102

OUTLINES

OF

ENGLISH GRAMMAR.

ENGLISH GRAMMAR teaches to speak and write the English language correctly.

In the English language there are twenty-six letters, which together are called its Alphabet, and of which there are two forms.

Small letters: 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.

Capitals: 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.

The small letters are those generally used.

A Capital letter is used at the beginning of every sentence and proper name.

The pronoun I and the interjection O are written with capital letters.

Letters are divided into Vowels and Consonants.

A vowel is a letter which can be sounded by itself. A consonant is a letter which cannot be distinctly sounded without a vowel.

The vowels are a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes w and y. The remaining nineteen letters are consonants.

W and y are consonants when they begin a word or syllable ; as, Well, why, win, worth, yard, yellow, beyond. In all other cases they are vowels; as, Cow, how, now, boy, toy, playing.

EXERCISE I.

Name the Vowels in the following words:-Round, road, chair, head, full, draught, vein, view, lieutenant, speak, review, against, height, purlieu, myrrh, speech, poison, pigeon, mountain, adieu, yeoman, woman, decoy, hautboy.

Name the Consonants in the first ten words.

Words are divided into classes, according to the different purposes for which they are used.

There are eight classes of words, or, as they are commonly called, Parts of Speech, viz. :-Noun, Adjective, Pronoun, Verb, Adverb, Preposition, Conjunction, and Interjection.

I. THE NOUN.

A Noun is a word which is the name of a person, an animal, a place, or a thing; as, James, lion, London, book.

The noun is therefore the naming word.

EXERCISE II.

Write or mention twelve words which are names of persons, animals, places, and things.

Write or mention the names of things in a room, a garden, a school: five of each set.

There are two kinds of nouns,-Proper nouns and Common nouns.

Proper nouns are those that denote only one person or thing of a kind; as, John, Ann, London, Tweed, Magna Charta.

A proper noun may be a single word; as, Thames; or a number of words together; as, The Queen of Great Britain.

Common nouns are those that denote things of which there are many; as, Cat, dog, house, city, river.

Common means belonging to all things of the same kind.

EXERCISE III.

Point out the Nouns in the following sentences, and tell which are Proper and which Common:-Spring, summer, autumn, and winter are the four seasons of the year. The Alps separate France from Italy. Death is the wages of sin. Johnson the doctor is a brother of Johnson the lawyer. Officer, soldier, friend, and foe were all buried in one common grave. Ben An heaved high his forehead bare. Some mute, inglorious Milton here may rest. Sorrow and joy, hope and despair, were known

by all the Wilsons during the war.

It was at Waterloo that

Wellington defeated Napoleon, the Emperor of France.

EXERCISE IV.

Point out the Nouns in the Daily Reading Lesson, and tell which are Proper and which Common.*

Nouns are inflected to express Number, Gender, and Case.

NUMBER.

There are two numbers,-the Singular and the Plural. The noun is singular when it denotes a single object ; as, A book, a pen.

The noun is plural when it denotes more than one object; as, Books, pens.

EXERCISE V.

Of which Number is-Man, houses, horses, road, line, hands, rats, fox, gardens, flower, blossoms, map, river, mountains, apple, prince, princess, key, cities, council, picture, papers, feet, army, foot, horse, doors, hen, larks, box, form, grief?

EXERCISE VI.

Take the first five lines of the Daily Reading Lesson, point out the Nouns, and tell whether Proper or Common; when Common, tell whether Singular or Plural, and why.

FORMATION OF THE PLURAL.

The Plural is generally formed by adding s to the Singular; as, Book, books.

When the singular ends in ss, sh, ch soft, x, or o, the plural is formed by adding es; as, Kiss, kisses; fish, fishes; coach, coaches; fox, foxes; cargo, cargoes.

Nouns which end in ch hard, or sounding k, add 8 only; as, Monarch, monarchs.

* A few lines of each day's Reading Lesson should be set apart for this exercise.