when the subject is merely spoken of; and in the second person, when the subject is spoken to; and in the first person, when it names the speaker as such.”—­Nutting cor. “With us, no nouns are literally of the masculine or the feminine gender, except the names of male and female creatures.”—­Dr. Blair cor. “The apostrophe is a little mark, either denoting the possessive case of nouns, or signifying that something is shortened:  as, ’William’s hat;’—­’the learn’d,’ for ‘the learned.’”—­Inf.  S. Gram. cor. “When a word beginning with a vowel coupled with one beginning with a consonant, the indefinite article must not be repeated, if the two words be adjectives belonging to one and the same noun; thus, ’Sir Matthew Hale was a noble and impartial judge;’—­’Pope was an elegant and nervous writer.’”—­Maunder cor.[555] “W and y are consonants, when they precede a vowel heard in the same syllable:  in every other situation, they are vowels.”—­L.  Mur. et al. cor. See Inst., p. 16. “The is not varied before adjectives and substantives, let them begin as they will.”—­Bucke cor. “A few English prepositions, and many which we have borrowed from other languages, are often prefixed to words, in such a manner as to coalesce with them, and to become parts of the compounds or derivatives thus formed.”—­Lowth cor. “H, at the beginning of syllables not accented, is weaker, but not entirely silent; as in historian, widowhood.”—­Rev. D. Blair cor. “Not every word that will make sense with to before it, is a verb; for to may govern nouns, pronouns, or participles.”—­Kirkham cor. “Most verbs do, in reality, express actions; but they are not intrinsically the mere names of actions:  these must of course be nouns.”—­Id. “The nominative denotes the actor or subject; and the verb, the action which is performed or received by this actor or subject.”—­Id. “But if only one creature or thing acts, more than one action may, at the same instant, be done; as, ’The girl not only holds her pen badly, but scowls and distorts her features, while she writes.’”—­Id. “Nor is each of these verbs of the singular number because it denotes but one action which the girl performs, but because the subject or nominative is of the singular number, and the words must agree.”—­Id. “And when I say, ’Two men walk,’ is it not equally apparent, that walk is plural because it agrees with men?”—­Id. “The subjunctive mood is formed by using the simple verb in a suppositive sense, and without personal inflection.”—­Beck cor. “The possessive case of nouns, except in