Word Study and English Grammar Part 4

We could accomplish this if every one would do his part.

Another common mistake is the confusion of the nominative and objective cases in objective clauses where two p.r.o.nouns or a noun and a p.r.o.noun occur.

All this was done for you and I.

is a very common but entirely inexcusable mistake. One would hardly think of saying

"All this was done for I."

I saw John and he leaving the shop.

is almost equally common and quite equally bad. Do not allow yourself to be confused by a double object.

In general great care should be taken to avoid ambiguity in the use of p.r.o.nouns. It is very easy to multiply and combine p.r.o.nouns in such a way that while grammatical rules may not be broken the reader may be left hopelessly confused. Such ambiguous sentences should be cleared up, either by a rearrangement of the words or by subst.i.tution of nouns for some of the p.r.o.nouns.

_Adverbs_

An adverb is a helper to a verb, "I fear greatly," "that press works badly." Adverbs modify or help verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs just as adjectives modify nouns and p.r.o.nouns. The use of adverbs presents some difficulties, mainly arising from the adverbial use of many other parts of speech and from the close relation between adverbs and adjectives.

It should never be forgotten that while adverbs never modify nouns or p.r.o.nouns, adjectives never modify anything but nouns or p.r.o.nouns.

Remembrance of this simple fact will settle most questions as to the use of adverbs or adjectives. Careful observation and care in forming correct habits of expression will do the rest.

Do not multiply negatives. They cancel each other like the factors in an arithmetical problem. "He never did wrong" is correct in statement and clear in meaning. "He never did nothing wrong" does not add force, it reverses the meaning. The negatives have cancelled each other and you are saying "He did wrong." "He never did nothing wrong to n.o.body" leaves us with an odd negative and brings us back to the first statement, very badly expressed.

_Prepositions_

A preposition is a hook for a noun or p.r.o.noun to hang on. It usually precedes the noun or p.r.o.noun which hangs, or depends upon it, as indicated by its name which is derived from the Latin _pre_-before and _pono_-I place.

John is behind the press.

I shall work until Sunday.

A preposition shows the relation of a noun or p.r.o.noun used as its object to some other word or words in the sentence or, as it has been otherwise stated, makes the noun or p.r.o.noun to which it is joined equivalent to an adjective or an adverb. The expression "John is behind the press" is equivalent to an adjective describing John. That is, he is "John behind-the-press." Prepositions are governing words and the words governed by or depending on them are always in the objective case.

_Conjunctions_

A conjunction is the coupling link between the parts of a train of thought. It is of no purpose whatever except to connect.

I am cold and hungry and tired and I am going home.

Care should be taken to avoid confusing _and_ and _but_ and _and_ and _or_.

He sees the right and does the wrong.

should be

He sees the right but does the wrong.

The ideas are contrasted, not a.s.sociated.

I did not see Thomas and John.

should be

I did not see Thomas or John.

The first phrase means that I did not see them together, it says nothing about seeing them separately.

_Either_--_or_ and _neither_--_nor_ are called correlative conjunctions.

They should always be paired in this way. _Neither_ should never be paired with _or_ nor _either_ with _nor_. Each member of the pair should be placed in the same relative position, that is before the same part of speech.

I could neither see him nor his father.

is wrong. It should be

I could see neither him nor his father.

This rule applies to all other correlatives, that is since they are correlatives in form they should be correlatives in position also. It is correct to say

It belongs both to you and to me.

or

It belongs to both you and me.

but not

It belongs both to you and me.

_Interjections_

An interjection is a word or sound expressing emotion only such as a shout, a groan, a hiss, a sob, or the like, such as _Oh_, _alas_, _hush_.