+56.  Inflection.+—­As is evident from the preceding paragraph, verbs have certain changes of form to indicate change of meaning.  Such a change or inflection, in the case of the noun, is called declension; in the case of the verb it is called conjugation.  Nouns are declined; verbs are conjugated.

+57.  Person and Number.+—­In Latin, or any other highly inflected language, there are many terminations to indicate differences in person and number, but in English there is but one in common use, s in the third person singular:  [He runs], St or est is used after thou in the second person singular:  [Thou lovest].

+58.  Agreement.+—­Verbs must agree with their subjects in person and number.  The following suggestions concerning agreement may be helpful:—­

1.  A compound subject that expresses a single idea takes a singular verb:  [Bread and milk is wholesome food].

2.  When the members of a compound subject, connected by neither ... nor, differ as regards person and number, the verb should agree with the nearer of the two:  [Neither they nor I am to blame].

3.  When the subject consists of singular nouns or pronouns connected by or, either ... or, neither ... nor, the verb is singular:  [Either this book or that is mine].

4.  Words joined to the subject by with, together with, as well as, etc., do not affect the number of the verb.  The same is true of any modifier of the subject:  [John, as well as the girls, is playing house.  One of my books is lying on the table.  Neither of us is to blame].

5.  When the article the precedes the word number, used as a subject, the verb should be in the singular; otherwise the verb is plural:  [The number of pupils in our schools is on the increase. A number of children have been playing in the sand pile].

6.  The pronoun you always takes a plural verb, even if its meaning is singular:  [You were here yesterday].

7.  A collective noun takes a singular or plural verb, according as the collection is thought of as a whole or as composed of individuals.

+59.  Tense.+—­The power of the verb to show differences of time is called tense.  Tense shows also the completeness or incompleteness of an act or condition at the time of speaking.  There are three primary tenses:  present, preterite (past), and future; and three secondary tenses for completed action:_present perfect, past perfect_ (pluperfect), and future perfect.

English has only two simple tenses, the present and the preterite:  I love, I loved.  All other tenses are formed by the use of the auxiliary verbs.  By combining the present and past tenses of will, shall, have, be, or do with those parts of the verb known as infinitives and participles, the various tenses of the complete conjugation of the verb are built up.  The formation of the preterite tense, and the consequent division of verbs into strong and weak, will be discussed later.