Plain English

Exercise 5

Write each of the following four sentences in the six time-forms, or tenses,—present, past, future, present perfect, past perfect and future perfect, as follows:

Present—Labor creates all wealth.

Past—Labor created all wealth.

Future—Labor will create all wealth.

Present Perfect—Labor has created all wealth.

Past Perfect—Labor had created all wealth.

Future Perfect—Labor will have created all wealth.

1. Hope stirs us to action.

2. Human progress is our business.

3. The majority demand justice.

4. The workers fight all the battles.

SPELLING

LESSON 7

The division of words into syllables is quite important as an aid to pronunciation. It is also a very important matter to understand in our written speech for it is often necessary to divide a word at the end of a line. If the word is not properly divided, it is much more difficult to read and understand. The hyphen is used to divide words into syllables when carrying a portion to the next line.

When you must divide a word at the end of a line divide it only between syllables. Never divide a word of one syllable, no matter how long it may be. If you cannot get all of it on the line, write it all on the next line. Do not divide a short word of two syllables if you can avoid it and never divide such a word when it leaves only one letter on the line or only one letter to be carried over to the next line, as for example: luck-y, a-loud, etc.

When two or more vowels are used together to make one sound they should never be separated by the hyphen, as for example, joy-ous, anx-ious, trail, dis-course, de-feat, boor-ish.

When two or more vowels placed together are not used to form one sound then these vowels may be divided, as for example, tri-al, co-or-di-nate, he-ro-ic.

Look up the words in this week's lesson in the dictionary carefully and divide into syllables. Notice specially the division of words into syllables where the word contains a diphthong and where it contains two vowels written together which are not diphthongs. Notice also the words which have a single vowel as the first or last syllable.

Monday

Museum

Creatures

Peaceable

Accruing

Already

Tuesday

Persuade

Trivial

Plague

Alert

Inquiry

Wednesday

Piteous

Patriot

Poetry

Evil

Business

Thursday

Obey

Breathe

Society

Ether

Sociable

Friday

Idealism

Pledge

Ache

Acre

Pronunciation

Saturday

Idle

Idol

Mutual

Wealthy

Neighbors

PLAIN ENGLISH

LESSON 8

Dear Comrade:

You have often read the words organic and inorganic but did you ever stop to think of the meaning of these words? We say a body is organic—a rock is inorganic; one grows from within, the other is built from without. A tree is organic; it grows. A house is inorganic; it is built. The house was never a baby house, growing from a tiny house to a large one. But the tree was once a baby tree, a sapling, and grew branch by branch to its present height. So we have two classes of things—those which grow and those which are made.

Language belongs to the class of things which grows. It is organic. We have even used the same terms in speaking about language that we use in talking of a tree. We use the words ROOT, STEM and BRANCH to describe its growth.

Language, too, has its different terms of life like a tree, its youth, its maturity, its old age, its death.

So we have dead languages like Latin and Greek—languages which are no longer living,—no longer serving mankind. But these dead languages have left living children, languages that have descended from them.

The Italian language for example is the child, the descendant of the classical Latin. We have many words in our English language from these dead languages. About five-sevenths of the words in our English are from these classical languages. The remaining two-sevenths are from the Anglo-Saxon. We use the Anglo-Saxon words more frequently, however, in our every day speech.

And it is interesting to note that our best poetry—that which stirs our blood and touches our hearts—is written in the strong forceful Anglo-Saxon words.

These words we are studying have been through some interesting experiences as they have passed from race to race down to us and the history of life is mirrored in their changes. How much more interesting they seem when we know something of their sources, just as we are more interested in a man when we know something of his boyhood and youth and the experiences through which he has passed.

You may think that the study of verbs is rather difficult and involved, but it is more simple in English than in any other language. There are fewer changes in the verb form in order to express time and person. Do not rely on the memorizing of the rules. Rules never made one a fluent speaker. Write sentences in which the correct form is used. Read aloud from the best authors until the sound of the words is familiar and they come readily to the tongue. We have used for the exercises in these lessons excerpts from the best authors.

Study these exercises carefully and note the use of the different verbs especially, this week. Verbs, like all else, are yours to command. Command them.

Yours for Education,THE PEOPLE'S COLLEGE.

PROGRESSIVE VERB PHRASES

132. We have learned how to form the three principal time forms, present, past and future and the perfect or completed form of each of the three, present perfect, past perfect and future perfect. And still we have such a wonderful language that we can express other shades of meaning in time.

133. There is still another phase of action which we must have a verb phrase to express. Suppose you want to describe something you are now doing and are continuing to do, something not yet completed. To say, I do it now, is not satisfactory. Instead we say, I am doing it now.

You have by the verb phrase, am doing, described a progressive action, an action going on in the present. You may also want to describe what you were doing yesterday, an action that continued or progressed in the past. You would not say, I built the house yesterday but, I was building the house yesterday. Again you may want to describe an action which will be progressing or going on in the future. You do not say, I shall build the house next week but, I shall be building the house next week.

So we have progressive verb phrases.

134. The present progressive describes an action as continuing or progressing in the present.

It is formed by using the present time form of the verb be and the present participle.

You remember that the present participle is formed by adding ing to the simple form of the verb.

135. The past progressive time form describes an action which was continuing or progressing in the past. It is formed by using the past time form of the verb be and the present participle.

136. The future progressive describes an action which will be progressing or going on in the future. It is formed by using the future time form of the verb be and the present participle.

137. The perfect time forms also have a progressive form. There is a difference of meaning in the present perfect and its progressive form. You say for instance, I have tried all my life to be free. You mean you have tried until the present time and the inference is that now you have ceased to try. But, if you say, I have been trying all my life to be free, we understand that you have tried and are still trying.

138. So we have the present perfect progressive which describes an action which progressed in the past and continued up to the present time. It is formed by using the present perfect form of the verb be and the present participle.

139. The past perfect progressive describes an action which was continuing or progressing at some past time. It is formed by using the past perfect time form of the verb be and the present participle.

140. The future perfect progressive describes an action which will be progressing at some future time. It is formed by using the future perfect time form of the verb be and the present participle.

Exercise 1

In the following sentences mark all the progressive forms, and note whether they are present, past, future, present perfect, past perfect or future perfect.

1. The old order is passing.

2. Men will be struggling for freedom so long as slavery exists.

3. The class struggle has been growing more intense as wealth has accumulated.

4. The workers are realizing their power.

5. He had been talking for an hour when we arrived.

6. Next Monday I shall have been working for one year.

7. The workers will be paying interest on war debts for generations to come unless they repudiate.

8. While Marx was writing his books, he lived in abject poverty.

9. The Industrial Relations Commission has been investigating industrial conditions.

10. Ferrer was martyred because the Modern Schools were educating the people.

11. The nations of Europe had been preparing for war for many years.

ACTIVE AND PASSIVE

141. Notice carefully the following sentences; select the subjects in these sentences which show who or what performed the action; select the subjects that show who or what receives the action. Do you notice any difference in the meaning of these sentences? Do you notice any difference in their form?

The engine struck the man.

The man was struck by the engine.

The system enslaves men.

Men are enslaved by the system.

Leaders often betray the people.

The people are often betrayed by leaders.

Let us look carefully at the first two sentences. You remember when we studied transitive verbs we found that every transitive verb had an object which was the receiver of the action expressed in the verb. Now you notice in this first sentence, The engine struck the man, we have the transitive verb struck. Engine is the subject of the verb and man is the object of the verb, the receiver of the action expressed by the verb struck.

Now in the sentence, The man was struck by the engine, we have the same thought expressed but in a different manner. The word man, which was the object of the verb struck in the first sentence, has now become the subject of the sentence, and we have changed our verb form from struck to was struck. In the first sentence of the subject, engine was the actor. In the second sentence, The man was struck by the engine, the subject of the sentence, man, is the receiver of the action expressed in the verb.

142. So we have thus changed the verb form from struck to was struck to indicate that the subject of the verb is the receiver of the action. Struck is called the active form of the verb because the subject of the verb is the actor. Was struck is called the passive form of the verb because the subject receives the action. Passive means receiving. In the passive form the subject is the receiver of the action expressed in the verb.

143. You remember that complete verbs have no object or complement, therefore it would follow that they cannot be put in the passive form for there is no object to become the receiver of the action. Take the complete verb, sleep, for example. We do not sleep anything, hence sleep has no passive form for there is no object which can be used as the subject, the receiver of the action.

Only transitive verbs can be put into the passive form. Remember that a transitive verb in the passive form is one that represents its subject as receiving the action.

The present, past, future and all the perfect time forms of transitive verbs can be changed from active to passive. The progressive time forms can be changed into the passive, but it makes an awkward construction and should be avoided as much as possible. Occasionally, however, we find it worth our while to use these forms, as for example:

The book is being written by the man.

This is the passive form of the present progressive, The man is writing a book.

The book was being written by the man.

This is the passive form of the past progressive, The man was writing the book.

144. The future progressive passive is awkward, and the present and past progressive forms are the only forms we find used in the passive. The best writers use them sparingly for we can usually say the same thing by using the active form of the verb and have a sentence which sounds much better.

Exercise 2

All the verbs in the following sentences are transitive verbs in the active form. Rewrite each sentence, putting the verb into the passive form and making the object of the active verb the subject of the passive verb; as, for example, the first sentence should be rewritten as follows:

War on Russia was declared by Germany on August 1, 1914.

1. Germany declared war on Russia, August 1, 1914.

2. Who will sign the Emancipation Proclamation of the Proletariat?

3. Marx and Engels wrote the Communist Manifesto.

4. Spain murdered Francisco Ferrer, October 13, 1909.

5. We celebrate the first of May as International Labor Day.

6. The people of Paris stormed the Bastille, July 14, 1789.

7. Wat Tyler was leading the English workers in rebellion against the King when the Mayor of London stabbed him in 1381.

8. The Inquisition burned Bruno at the stake for heresy in 1600.

9. The Paris Commune followed the German siege of Paris in 1871.

SUMMARY

145. Now let us take the verb see and name all the time forms which we can describe with the changes in the verb forms which we have learned to make and also with the verb phrases which we can construct with the help of the verbs, be, have, shall and will.

First, we want to express the present, what is happening now, and we want to put it in both the active and passive forms, so we say:

Note that the only change in the verb form in the present ACTIVE is the s-form for the third person singular. In the present passive the only change is the special form of the verb be for the first and third persons, singular.

When we want to tell what occurred yesterday or some time in the past, stated in the active and passive form, we say:

We have one other division of time which we must express—the future. Primitive man doubtless lived principally in the present, but with the development of memory and the means of recording events by a written language, he was able to make the deeds and achievements of the past a vital part of his life. But not until the faculty of thinking developed was the mind able to project itself into the future and make tomorrow the hope of today. Future time expresses hope, desire, growth.

Then you remember we had to devise a way of describing an action perfected or completed at the present or at some time in the past or at some time in the future—so we have present perfect, past perfect and future perfect.

146. But these are not all the phases of time which we can express. We have progressive, continuous action. So each of these six time forms has a progressive form.

Only the Present and Past Progressive forms have a passive form. The rest of the Progressive forms are expressed in the active forms only.

Exercise 3

Write the four following sentences in their active and passive forms, as the sentence, War sweeps the earth, is written.

1. Education gives power.

2. Knowledge frees men.

3. Labor unions help the workers.

4. The people seek justice.

Exercise 4

Underscore all the verbs and verb phrases in the following quotation. Write all the time forms of the transitive verb, lose, as the time forms of the verb see are written in the foregoing table.

When we study the animal world and try to explain to ourselves that struggle for existence which is maintained by each living being against adverse circumstances and against its enemies, we realize that the more the principles of solidarity and equality are developed in an animal society, and have become habitual to it, the more chance it has of surviving and coming triumphantly out of the struggle against hardships and foes. The more thoroughly each member of the society feels his solidarity with each other member of the society, the more completely are developed in all of them those two qualities which are the main factors of all progress; courage, on the one hand, and, on the other, free individual initiative. And, on the contrary, the more any animal society, or little group of animals, loses this feeling of solidarity—which may chance as the result of exceptional scarcity or else of exceptional plenty—the more the two other factors of progress, courage and individual initiative, diminish; in the end they disappear, and the society falls into decay and sinks before its foes. Without mutual confidence no struggle is possible; there is no courage, no initiative, no solidarity—and no victory!—Kropotkin.

SPELLING

LESSON 8

In pronouncing words of more than one syllable we always lay a little greater stress upon one syllable of the word; that is, that syllable receives the emphasis of the voice so as to make it more prominent than the other syllables. This is called accent, and the syllable which receives the special stress is called the accented syllable.

Accent is the stress of the voice upon one syllable of the word.

You will notice when you look up the pronunciation of words in your dictionary that a little mark called the accent mark is placed after the accented syllable, as for example: di-vide'.

Many words differ in meaning according to which syllable receives the accent. Our spelling lesson for this week contains a number of these words.

These words, when accented on the first syllable, are nouns; when accented on the second syllable, they are verbs.

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

PLAIN ENGLISH

LESSON 9

Dear Comrade:

You have been studying several weeks now in this Plain English Course and we trust you are enjoying the unfolding of the powers of expression. We have been necessarily studying rules to some extent but you have seen how these grew out of the need for expression. We have been breaking the sentence up into its different parts. First we had the names of things and now we are studying the words used to tell what these things do and are—namely verbs. And as our life has grown complex and our powers of thinking diversified covering the whole range of time, past, present and future, we have had to invent many forms of the verb to express it all.

Now do not try to commit these facts concerning the verb to memory. You are not studying English in order to know rules. You are studying English that you may be able to say and write the things you think. So first of all, think, think! That is your inalienable right! Do not accept anything just by blind belief. Think it out for yourself. Study until you see the 'why' of it all. "Independent thinking has given us the present, and we will forever continue to make tomorrow better than today. The right to think is inalienable, or a man is a machine. Thought is life or a human soul is a thing."

And do not lack the courage of your own thoughts. You do not need to cringe or apologize to any man. "Our life is not an apology but a life." Dare to think and dare to express and live your thought.