Plain English Part 15

The following table gives the digraphs most commonly used:

ng--as in _ring_, _tongue_ ch--as in _church_ and _much_ ch--k as in _chasm_ ch--sh as in _chagrin_ th--as in _then_, _those_ th--as in _thin_ and _worth_ ce--sh as in _ocean_ ci--sh as in _special_ dg--j as in _edge_ gh--f as in _rough_ ph--f as in _sylph_ qu--kw as in _quart_ qu--k as in _conquer_ sh--as in _shall_ si--sh as in _tension_ si--zh as in _vision_ ti--sh as in _motion_

The use of these digraphs gives us a number of additional sounds. Notice the use of the consonants which have more than one sound and also the digraphs in the spelling lesson for the week. Mark the consonants and digraphs.

+Monday+

Commence Certain General Gradual Sugar

+Tuesday+

Soldier Season Pleasure Exact Exercise

+Wednesday+

Singular Chemistry Chapter Machine Changing

+Thursday+

Theory Thither Ocean Racial Budget

+Friday+

Philosophy Enough Quorum Bouquet Phonetic

+Sat.u.r.day+

Permission Asia Attention Marshall Martial

PLAIN ENGLISH

LESSON 5

Dear Comrade:

We want to say just a word about the lesson a.s.signment. This has been arranged on a schedule of days merely to a.s.sist you in systematizing your time and making the most of the leisure at your disposal. It is not intended that you should slavishly follow it. We thoroughly believe in individuality and all that contributes toward its development. But we are also confident that many foolish things are done in the name of liberty. Whenever we set ourselves to the performance of any task we necessarily limit our activities in some other direction. Power comes by concentration of force. Whenever we combine with others for the accomplishment of any purpose, it becomes necessary to have some plan of action and we give and take for the end which we have in view. The musician because he follows the law of harmony in music has not given up his liberty. He has only found a new freedom which enables him to make glorious music where only discord reigned before. System in our work does not mean loss of liberty or of individuality but only finding a channel through which individuality can flow into the great ocean of real freedom.

So use this suggestive lesson a.s.signment to meet your own need and find expression for your real individuality in full freedom.

This is the first of several lessons concerning verbs. The verb is perhaps the most difficult part of speech to thoroughly master, so do not be discouraged if there are some parts of this lesson you do not understand. Succeeding lessons will clear up these difficult points.

Keep your eyes open as you read every day, and be careful of your spelling and p.r.o.nunciation.

Some of us mis-spell the common words which we see and use every day. In a student's letter we recently noted that, with our letter before him in which the word was printed in large type and correctly spelled, he spelled College, _Colledge_.

Do not be satisfied with half-way things or less than that which is worthy of you. Demand the best for yourself. Read aloud this little verse from the Good Grey Poet, Walt Whitman:

"O, the joy of a manly self-hood; To be servile to none, to defer to none, not to any tyrant known or unknown, To walk with erect carriage, a step springy and elastic, To look with calm gaze or with a flas.h.i.+ng eye, To speak with a full and sonorous voice out of a broad chest, To confront with your personality all the other personalities of the earth."

Yours for Education,

THE PEOPLE'S COLLEGE.

THE WORD THAT a.s.sERTS

+93.+ You remember when we studied sentences we found that we could not have a sentence without a verb or a word that a.s.serts. The life of a sentence is the verb, for without the verb we cannot a.s.sert, question or command. It was on account of this importance that the Romans called the verb, _verb.u.m_, which meant the word. Verbs, like nouns, are divided into cla.s.ses.

+94.+ In some of our sentences the verb alone is enough to make a complete a.s.sertion, but in other sentences we use verbs that need to be followed by one or more words to complete the a.s.sertion. Notice the following sentences:

The boy ran.

The boy found the ball.

The earth revolves.

The earth is round.

Do you notice any difference in the verbs used in these sentences?

Notice that the verbs _ran_ and _revolves_ make the complete a.s.sertion about their subjects. Notice the verbs _found_ and _is_. These are not complete without the addition of the words _ball_ and _round_. If we say _The boy found_, _The earth is_, you at once ask, _The boy found WHAT?_ _The earth is WHAT?_ The sense is incomplete without the addition of these words _ball_ and _round_. A part of the thought is unexpressed; but when we say _The boy found the ball_, _The earth is round_, the sense is complete.

So we have two cla.s.ses of verbs, _COMPLETE AND INCOMPLETE VERBS_.

+95.+ +An incomplete verb is one that requires the addition of one or more words to complete its meaning.+

+The word or words added to an incomplete verb to complete its meaning are called the complement.+

+A complete verb is one that requires no complement to complete its meaning.+

+96.+ You can readily tell when a verb is complete and when it is incomplete by asking the question _What?_ If you put the question _what_ after the verb, and it makes a sensible question the verb is _incomplete_. For example:

Farmers raise--_what?_ The employer discharged--_what?_ We were--_what?_ The earth is--_what?_

If the question _what?_ does not make sense after the verb, then the verb is _complete_. For example:

The sun s.h.i.+nes.

Water flows.

Men work.

The question _what_ after these verbs would not make sense, as:

The sun s.h.i.+nes--_what?_ Men work--_what?_ Water flows--_what?_

So these verbs are _complete_ verbs.

+97.+ The same verb, however, may be complete or incomplete, according to the way in which it is used. For example: