Word Study and English Grammar Part 13

may might ..... quoth must ..... beware .....

shall should methinks methought will would

All the participles are wanting in defective verbs.

The verb _ought_, when used to express past duty or obligation, is followed by what is called the perfect infinitive--a use peculiar to itself because _ought_ has no past form.

_Example:_ I ought _to have gone_ yesterday.

Other verbs expressing past time are used in the past tense followed by the root infinitive.

_Example:_ I intended _to go_ yesterday.

SUPPLEMENTARY READING

Composition and Rhetoric. By Lockwood and Emerson. Ginn & Co., Boston.

The Art of Writing and Speaking the English Language. By Sherwin Cody.

The Old Greek Press, Chicago.

The Writer's Desk Book. By William Dana Orcutt. Frederick Stokes Company, New York.

A Manual for Writers. By John Matthews Manly and John Arthur Powell. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

Any good Grammar.

Putnam's Word Book. By Louis A. Flemming. G. P. Putnam's Sons, Chicago.

(For reference.)

QUESTIONS

In addition to the questions here given there should be constant and thorough drill in the use of grammatical forms and the choice of words.

Frequent short themes should be required. In these themes attention should be given to grammatical construction, choice of words, spelling, capitalization, punctuation, sentence construction, and paragraphing.

1. Why is the subject important?

2. How many families of words are there, and what are they?

3. What is a noun?

4. What are the three things about a noun which indicates its relation to other words?

5. How many numbers are there, and what do they mean?

6. How do ordinary nouns form their plurals?

7. How do compound nouns form their plurals?

8. What is one very important use of number?

9. What can you say of the use of the verb with collective nouns?

10. What is case?

11. How many cases are there, and what does each indicate?

12. What can you say about the relation of a noun to a preposition?

13. Are prepositions ever omitted, and why?

14. How are the nominative and objective cases distinguished?

15. How is the possessive case formed in the plural?

16. Do possessive p.r.o.nouns take an apostrophe?

17. What is _it's_?

18. How are compound nouns, appositives, etc., treated in the possessive?

19. What is an adjective?

20. What do degrees indicate, and how many are there?

21. How are adjectives compared?

22. When should the long form of comparison be used and when the short?

23. What danger attends the use of _most_?

24. Give two irregular adjectives and compare them.

25. Should the two methods of comparison ever be combined?

26. Why are some adjectives never compared?

27. What is an article?

28. How many articles are there?

29. What kinds of articles are there?