Plain English

The most common of these words are:

77. Proper nouns, when made plural, generally follow the same rule as common nouns. Thus we write:

All the Smiths, the Joneses, both the Miss Johnsons, one of the Dr. Davidsons, and the Mrs. Wilsons, were present.

But to prevent the confusion and misunderstanding which might arise in changing the form of a proper noun, we do not change its form in writing the plurals; for example:

There were eight Henrys, kings of England.

The two Marys reigned in the kingdom.

It would be confusing to say eight Henries, the two Maries.

The title is made plural when several are referred to, thus:

78. The title is made plural when used with several names, thus:

Messrs. Brown and White.

Generals Lee and Grant.

Drs. Long and Larson.

79. In the case of nouns formed of two or more words, when the compound word is so familiar that the parts are not thought of separately the s is added to the whole compound word, as four-in-hands; forget-me-nots; court-yards; spoonfuls; green-houses; etc. But when one of the parts is more important than the others, the s is added to the more important part, thus:

mothers-in-law

commanders-in-chief

hangers-on

men-of-war

by-standers

attorneys-at-law

passers-by

step-sons

80. We have many words in our language taken from other languages. They do not form the plural in these languages as we do, and some of these words retain their foreign plurals. Some of the most commonly used of these nouns are the following:

81. The following nouns are treated as singular: news, pains (meaning care), acoustics, mathematics, economics, ethics, molasses, physics, politics, and other nouns ending in ics except athletics. With these always use the s-form of the verb. For example:

The news is distorted. Not, The news are distorted.

Economics is an important study. Not, Economics are, etc.

82. The following nouns are always plural:

alms

annals

amends

antipodes

bellows

billiards

clothes

dregs

eaves

fireworks

hysterics

measles

mumps

matins

nippers

nuptials

oats

premises

proceeds

pincers

riches

rickets

suds

scissors

thanks

tidings

tongs

trousers

vitals

victuals

vespers

With all these nouns always use the form of the verb which is used with the plural subject. Thus:

Alms are given.

Riches are easily lost.

83. The following nouns have the same form for both plural and singular, corps, cannon, deer, grouse, heathen, hose, means, odds, series, sheep, species, swine, vermin, wages. You can tell whether the singular or plural is meant by the meaning of the sentence. For example:

The cannon is loaded. Here we are speaking of one cannon.

The cannon used in the war are of tremendous size. Here we know are meant all the big guns used in the war.

When you say, The sheep is lost, we know you mean one sheep, but when you say, The sheep are in the pasture, we know you mean the entire drove.

84. When preceded by a numeral, the following nouns have the same form for both singular and plural. Without the numerals, the plural is formed by the adding of s; brace, couple, dozen, hundred, pair, score, thousand, yoke. For example:

Thousands enlisted.

Three thousand enlisted.

Dozens came at my call.

Two dozen came when I called.

GENDER

85. All of the changes we have studied so far have been for the purpose of indicating number; but among the nouns that name living beings, many change to show to which sex the object named belongs. These nouns change in form to distinguish between the masculine and the feminine. This is called gender.

Gender is the distinction in words that denotes sex.

The nouns that denote females are called feminine nouns.

The nouns that denote males are called masculine nouns.

86. The feminine form is generally made by the addition of ess to the masculine form. Thus:

87. Names of things without sex are, of course, of neither gender, and are called neuter nouns. Neuter means literally neither. Such nouns as mountain, iron, river, chair, are neuter.

Sometimes the feminine is an entirely different word from the masculine. Thus:

88. Many nouns that denote living beings apply alike to male and female, and are said to be of common gender. As woman enters more and more into the business world and pursues the same occupations as man, the change in form to denote the feminine is used less frequently, and what we have called the masculine form is used for both sexes, thus:

Poet, waiter, doctor, editor—these nouns are used for both men and women.

POSSESSIVE FORM

89. There is just one more change made in the form of a noun, and that is when we wish to show who or what owns or possesses a thing. Thus we write:

John's book.

The boy's hat.

And since this form of the noun denotes possession, it is called the possessive form. Some grammarians call this the possessive case.

The possessive form of nouns is made by adding an apostrophe and s, ('s); thus, day's, lady's, girl's, clerk's.

To plural nouns ending in s add only an apostrophe; thus, days', ladies', girls', clerks'.

When plural nouns do not end in s, their possessive forms are made by adding the apostrophe and s, the same as singular nouns, thus:

They make men's and women's shoes.

90. In words which end with a sound that resembles that of s, the apostrophe with s forms an additional syllable. Thus:

James's (pronounced James-ez.)

Mr. Lynch's (pronounced Lynch-ez.)

The only exception to the rule occurs when the addition of another s would make too many hissing sounds, then we add the apostrophe alone. Thus:

For goodness' sake.

In Jesus' name.

91. In forming the possessive of compound nouns, the possessive sign is always placed at the end, thus:

My son-in-law's sister.

The man-of-war's cannon.

92. When we wish to show that a thing belongs to two or more persons who are joint owners of it, we add the possessive sign to the last word only, thus:

Carson, Price and Scott's store.

Mason and Hamlin's pianos.

If it is a separate ownership that we wish to denote, we place the possessive sign after each name, thus:

Bring me John's and Mary's books.

Lee's and Grant's armies met in battle.

Remember that the noun has just three changes in form, one for the plural number, one to denote gender and one for the possessive form. Watch carefully your own language and that of your friends and note if these changes are correctly made.

Exercise 3

Write the plural form of each of the following:

ax

beef

chief

hero

knife

T

hoof

man-of-war

axis

basis

cherry

leaf

son-in-law

Mr. Smith

thief

Doctor Wood

alley

buffalo

chimney

staff

Frenchman

Miss Brown

ox

spoonful

alto

calf

cargo

two

3

tooth

foot

turkey

Exercise 4

Underscore the nouns in the following:

How many abstract nouns?

How many concrete?

How many singular?

How many plural?

FIVE AND FIFTYCharlotte Perkins GilmanIf fifty men did all the workAnd gave the price to five;And let those five make all the rules—You'd say the fifty men were fools,Unfit to be alive.And if you heard complaining criesFrom fifty brawny men,Blaming the five for graft and greed,Injustice, cruelty indeed—What would you call them then?Not by their own superior forceDo five on fifty live,But by election and assent—And privilege of government—Powers that the fifty give.If fifty men are really fools—And five have all the brains—The five must rule as now we find;But if the fifty have the mind—Why don't they take the reins?

Exercise 5

Select all the nouns in the following. Write their singular, plural and possessive forms. Decide whether they are abstract or concrete, common or proper or collective, masculine, feminine or neuter.

Brother!

Whoever you are, wherever you are on all the earth, I greet you.

I extend to you my right hand.

I make you a pledge.

Here is my pledge to you:—

I refuse to kill your father. I refuse to slay your mother's son. I refuse to plunge a bayonet into the breast of your sister's brother. I refuse to slaughter your sweetheart's lover. I refuse to murder your wife's husband. I refuse to butcher your little child's father. I refuse to wet the earth with blood and blind kind eyes with tears. I refuse to assassinate you and then hide my stained fists in the folds of any flag.

Will you thus pledge me and pledge all the members of our working class?—Kirkpatrick.

SPELLING

LESSON 4

Some of our consonants also have more than one sound. We have also certain combinations of consonants which represent one sound. This combination of two letters to represent one sound is called a digraph, as gh, in cough, ch in church. A digraph may either be a combination of two consonants or of two vowels or of a vowel and a consonant. The following table contains the consonants which have more than one sound:

c—k as in cat

c—s as in vice

g—j as in ginger

g—hard as in go

s—sh as in sure

s—zh as in usual

s—soft as in also

s—z as in does

x—soft as in extra

x—gz as in exist

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

Saturday

Permission

Asia

Attention

Marshall

Martial

PLAIN ENGLISH

LESSON 5

Dear Comrade:

We want to say just a word about the lesson assignment. This has been arranged on a schedule of days merely to assist 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 assignment 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 pronunciation.

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 flashing 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 ASSERTS

93. You remember when we studied sentences we found that we could not have a sentence without a verb or a word that asserts. The life of a sentence is the verb, for without the verb we cannot assert, question or command. It was on account of this importance that the Romans called the verb, verbum, which meant the word. Verbs, like nouns, are divided into classes.

94. In some of our sentences the verb alone is enough to make a complete assertion, but in other sentences we use verbs that need to be followed by one or more words to complete the assertion. 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 assertion 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 classes 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 shines.

Water flows.

Men work.

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

The sun shines—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:

The corn grows.

The farmer grows corn.

In the sentence, Corn grows, grows is a complete verb. You could not say The corn grows—what? for it does not grow anything. It merely grows, and the verb grows in this sense is a complete verb. But in the sentence, The farmer grows corn, you are using the verb grows in a slightly different sense. It is an incomplete verb, for you do not mean, The farmer grows, but you mean that the farmer grows CORN.

Exercise 1

In the following sentences, underscore the complete verbs with one line, the incomplete with two lines. Ask the question what? after each verb to determine whether it is complete or incomplete.

He returned today.

He returned the book.

The rose smells sweet.

He smelled the rose.

The trees shake in the wind.

The wind shakes the trees.

The ship plows through the waves.

The farmer plows the field.

The birds sing sweetly.

They sang the Marseillaise.

He worries over the matter.

The matters worry him.

The table feels rough.

He feels the rough surface.

It tastes bitter.

He tasted the bitter dregs.

Exercise 2

Use the following verbs in sentences as both complete and incomplete verbs, as for example, The snow melts. The sun melts the snow.

melts

write

stopped

answer

rings

fall

see

strike

INCOMPLETE VERBS

98. Do you notice any difference in the two verbs in the following sentences:

The boy found the ball.

The earth is round.

In the sentence, The boy found the ball, the word ball tells what the boy found. The verb found expresses action; it tells what the boy does. Boy is the subject of the action—the one who performs the action. The word ball is the object of the action. It shows the receiver of the action. In the sentence, The earth is round, is does not express action. The earth is not doing anything, it simply is. The verb is expresses a state or condition and is incomplete, for you do not know what state or condition is expressed until we add the other word or words which describe the state or condition.

Notice the following sentences:

The earth is round.

The earth is our home.

The earth is a sphere.

The earth is large.

The words round, sphere, home and large, describe the earth which is the subject of the verb is.

99. So we have two classes of incomplete verbs, the verbs that express action and the verbs that express state or condition. The verbs which express action are called transitive verbs. Transitive is a word derived from the Latin, and means literally passing over.

100. So a transitive verb describes an action which passes over from the subject to the object. As for example in the sentence, The player struck the ball, struck is a transitive verb—a verb of action—describing the action of the subject, player, which passes over to the object, ball. Therefore we have our definition of a transitive verb:

A transitive verb is one that has a complement showing who or what receives the action expressed by the verb.

The complement or word that denotes the receiver of the action expressed by a transitive verb is called the object.

When you look up the meaning of verbs in your dictionary, you will find some verbs marked v.i., and some verbs marked v.t. V.t. is the abbreviation for verb transitive. Whenever you find a verb marked v.t., you know that it is a transitive verb, a verb of action, one which requires an object to complete its meaning. V.i. is the abbreviation for verb intransitive. Some grammarians use the term intransitive to include both complete and copulative verbs. We have used the terms complete and incomplete because they are much simpler and clearer in describing the two general classes of verbs, but you will remember that when you find verbs marked v.i. in the dictionary that these include complete and copulative verbs.

101. Now notice these sentences:

The earth is round.

The earth is a sphere.

In these sentences the verb is does not express action, but connects or couples the complements round and sphere with the subject earth. Verbs used in this way are called copulative verbs, from the word copula, which means to complete or to connect. The words round and sphere are not the objects of the verb, for they do not describe the receiver of any action. They are the words which describe the state or condition expressed in the verb is, and are called the attribute complement of the verb.

You note that this complement may be either an adjective or a noun. In the sentence, The earth is round, the adjective, round, is used as the complement; in the sentence, The earth is a sphere, the noun, sphere, is used as the complement. So we have our definition of copulative verbs.

102. Verbs that express state or condition are called copulative verbs.

The word or words that complete the meaning of an incomplete verb expressing state or condition, are called the complement, or attribute complement.

There are only a few of these copulative verbs. All forms of the verb, be; like am, is, are, was and were, and the verb phrases like must be, can be, will be, shall be, have been, had been, etc.; and the verbs seem, appear, become, look, feel, taste, sound and smell, are the principal copulative verbs.