Moore and Company's salesmen. Anderson, Barr, and Graham's policy. My sister-in-law's garden. Words like somebody else and anybody else form the genitive case by adding the apostrophe and s: Somebody else's book. (4) Nouns naming inanimate objects have no form for the genitive case. Do not say: The house's roof. Exceptions are: The day's work, for pity's sake. 6. Abbreviated and Clipped Nouns.-Abbreviated nouns are usually in bad taste in formal writing. Do not write Dep't., Sup't., B'ldg., Co., Prof. Clipped words like gent, ad, cap, pard (the word is partner, not pardner) are always in bad taste. The word 'phone seems to be coming into good use; telephone is preferable. EXERCISE 34 Write sentences using these words in the genitive case: 1. women 2. ladies 3. lady 4. child 5. children 6. Burns 7. Descartes 8. Kempis 9. Harper and Brothers 10. Brothers-in-law 11. William II 12. Someone else CHAPTER IV VERBS A verb is a word used to assert. It occurs in many forms: Birds fly; the birds flew; the birds have flown; the birds will fly. These many forms are derived from three chief forms, called principal parts. 1. Principal Parts.-The principal parts of a verb are the forms for the present tense, the past tense, and the past participle. Tense means time. A verb representing present time is in the present tense: I sing. A verb representing past time is in the past tense: I sang. The past participle will be explained morè fully later. It is enough to say now that it is the form of the verb used with have, has, had, or some form of the verb be: I have sung. The principal parts of sing, then, are sing, sang, sung. Many verbs form the past tense by adding ed, d, or t: Walked, spent. These verbs are said to be regular. Others form the past tense by an internal vowel change: Sang, swam, wrote. These verbs are said to be irregular. Learn the principal parts of the following common wet wet wet (1) Of most verbs ending in m or n, the past tense form in ed is better than that in t: Dreamed, burned, learned. (2) Do not confuse leave with let. Leave the house; let me go. (3) The pronunciation of says is sez. (4) The a of ate is pronounced like the a of late. (5) Monosyllabic verbs ending in a single consonant double the final consonant before a suffix: Stopped, shipping. Dissyllabic verbs ending in a single consonant and having the accent on the first syllable do not double the final consonant: Differed. Many verbs ending in double the consonant, but the single consonant is better: Marveled. Dissyllabic verbs ending in a single consonant preceded by a single vowel and having the accent on the second syllable double the final consonant before a suffix: Referred, impelled, forbidding. A verb that ends in two consonants does not double the final consonant: Walked, defeated. (6) A verb ending in e drops this vowel before a suffix: Pursuing, coming, owing, revolving. (7) The prefixes dis and mis are added to a verb without the adding or dropping of a letter, either in the prefix or in the main word: Dis appoint, mis spell. EXERCISE 35 Use the proper form of the past tense: 1. My grandfather (come) over to this country in 1870. 2. The boy (drink) the water from the palm of his hands. 3. The pipe (burst) during the freezing weather. 4. This is what he (do). 5. His sister read to him while he (eat) his lunch. 6. They (begin) to talk. 7. He (drag) the bags across the floor. 8. I (bid) him to write the letter. |