The Grammar of English Grammars eBook

Goold Brown
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 4,149 pages of information about The Grammar of English Grammars.

The Grammar of English Grammars eBook

Goold Brown
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 4,149 pages of information about The Grammar of English Grammars.

6.  How can we distinguish a PARTICIPLE?  By observing its derivation from the verb, and then placing it after to be or having; as, To be writing, Having written—­To be walking, Having walked—­To be weeping, Having wept—­To be studying, Having studied.  Of simple participles, there are twice as many as there are of simple or radical verbs; and the possible compounds are not less numerous than the simples, but they are much less frequently used.

7.  How can we distinguish an ADVERB?  By observing that it answers to the question, When?  Where?  How much? or How?—­or serves to ask it; as, “He spoke fluently.” How did he speak? Fluently.  This word fluently is therefore an adverb:  it tells how he spoke.  Of adverbs, there are about two thousand six hundred; and four fifths of them end in ly.

8.  How can we distinguish a CONJUNCTION?  By observing what words or terms it joins together, or to what other conjunction it corresponds; as, “Neither wealth nor honor can heal a wounded conscience.”—­Dillwyn’s Ref., p. 16.  Or, it may be well to learn the whole list at once:  And, as, both, because, even, for, if, that, then, since, seeing, so:  Or, nor, either, neither, than, though, although, yet, but, except, whether, lest, unless, save, provided, notwithstanding, whereas. Of conjunctions, there are these twenty-nine in common use, and a few others now obsolete.

9.  How can we distinguish a PREPOSITION?  By observing that it will govern the pronoun them, and is not a verb or a participle; as, About them—­above them—­across them—­after them—­against them—­amidst them—­among them—­around them—­at them—­Before them—­behind them—­below them—­beneath them—­beside them—­between them—­beyond them—­by them—­For them—­from them—­In them—­into them, &c.  Of the prepositions, there are about sixty now in common use.

10.  How can we distinguish an INTERJECTION?  By observing that it is an independent word or sound, uttered earnestly, and very often written with the note of exclamation; as Lo! behold! look! see! hark! hush! hist! mum! Of interjections, there are sixty or seventy in common use, some of which are seldom found in books.

OBS. 2.—­An accurate knowledge of words, and of their changes, is indispensable to a clear discernment of their proper combinations in sentences, according to the usage of the learned.  Etymology, therefore, should be taught before syntax; but it should be chiefly taught by a direct analysis of entire sentences, and those so plainly written that the particular effect of every word may be clearly distinguished, and the meaning, whether intrinsic or relative, be discovered with precision.  The parts of speech

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The Grammar of English Grammars from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.