Part 6

1. Some plants are poisonous. 2. A rolling stone gathers no moss. 3. Perseverance brings success. 4. Delays are dangerous. 5. A man's actions show his character. 6. He looks well and feels stronger. 7. The snows come and the flowers fade. 8. Labor creates all wealth. 9. Labor must be free. 10. The boy writes well. 11. The man wrote a letter. 12. The skies are clear. 13. The hail destroyed the wheat. 14. No man is ever too old to learn. 15. Competition makes enemies. 16. Co-operation makes friends. 17. Competition breeds hatred. 18. Co-operation breeds good will. 19. Competition ensures war. 20. Co-operation ensures peace.

Exercise 6

In the following quotation all of the verbs are printed in _italics_. Determine whether they are complete or incomplete verbs. If incomplete, determine whether they are transitive or copulative verbs. Draw a line under the object of every transitive verb and two lines under the complement of every copulative verb. Remember that sometimes we have several words combined into a verb phrase and used as a single verb. Watch for the verb phrases in the following, as for example: _must be_, in the sentence, _Labor must be free_.

The history of man _is_ simply the history of slavery. Slavery _includes_ all other crimes. It _degrades_ labor and _corrupts_ leisure. With the idea that labor _is_ the basis of progress _goes_ the truth that labor _must be_ free. The laborer _must be_ a free man.

There _is_ something wrong in a government where honesty _wears_ a rag and rascality _dons_ a robe; where the loving _eat_ a crust while the infamous _sit_ at banquets.

_Talk_ about equal opportunity! Capitalism _ties_ a balloon to the shoulders of the rich child; it _ties_ a ball and chain to the feet of the poor child; and _tells_ them that they _have_ an equal opportunity!

Once the master _hunted_ for the slaves, now the slave _hunts_ for a master.

Exercise 7

Mark the verbs in the following poem. Often in poetry words are omitted which in strict grammatical construction should be expressed. As for example in the fourth line of this poem _which are_, is omitted before the word _bought_. In prose this would read, _The pews which are bought by the profits_, etc. So the word _bought_ is a part of the verb phrase, _are bought_. In the last line of the third stanza there is another omission before the word _planning_. The meaning is, _while they are planning slaughter_. _Planning_ is a part of the verb phrase _are planning_. And in the last line _is_ is omitted before the word _beloved_. _Is beloved_ is the verb phrase. Determine whether the verbs in this poem are complete, transitive or copulative, and mark the objects and the complements of the transitive and the copulative verbs.

WHO IS A CHRISTIAN?

_Ella Wheeler Wilcox_

"Who is a Christian in this Christian land Of many churches and of lofty spires? Not he who sits in soft, upholstered pews Bought by the profits of unholy greed, And looks devotion while he thinks of gain.

Not he who sends petitions from the lips That lie to-morrow in the street and mart. Not he who fattens on another's toil, And flings his unearned riches to the poor Or aids the heathen with a lessened wage, And builds cathedrals with an increased rent.

Christ, with Thy great, sweet, simple creed of love, How must Thou weary of earth's "Christian" clans, Who preach salvation through Thy saving blood While planning slaughter of their fellow men.

Who is a Christian? It is one whose life Is built on love, on kindness and on faith; Who holds his brother as his other self; Who toils for justice, equity and peace, And hides no aim or purpose in his heart That will not chord with universal good. Though he be a pagan, heretic or Jew That man is Christian and beloved of Christ."

SPELLING

LESSON 5

We often have two vowels used in the same syllable as a single sound, as _ou_ in _round_, _oi_ in _oil_, etc.

+A diphthong is a union of two vowels to represent a single sound different from that of either alone.+

Sometimes we have two vowels used together in a combination which is really not a diphthong for they do not unite in a different sound. Only one of the vowels is used and the other is silent as _ai_ in _rain_, _oa_ in _soap_, etc.

The most common diphthongs are:

ou as in _sound_. ow as in _owl_. oi as in _oil_. oy as in _boy_.

In the spelling lesson for this week mark the words in which the combination of vowels forms a diphthong. In some of the words the combination of vowels does not form a diphthong for only one of the vowels is sounded. Draw a line through the silent letter.

+Monday+

Straight Aisle Search Breadth Defeat

+Tuesday+

Exploit Ceiling Height People Feudal

+Wednesday+

Brought Shoulder Group Compound Trouble

+Thursday+

Royal Coarse Course Broad Flower

+Friday+

Laughter Haunted Plaid Invoice Chair

+Saturday+

Guide Build Grieve Sieve Renown

PLAIN ENGLISH

LESSON 6

Dear Comrade:

We have this week another lesson in verbs. Do not be discouraged if you do not understand it all at once. Little by little, it will grow clearer and you will master this important word.

The verb may seem involved to you, but a little application will soon make it clear. It is the most important word in the language to master. It almost seems as though the verb were a living, thinking thing. It changes outward form to accommodate itself to its subject in the number form and person form change. If it is entertaining a subject in the singular it adopts one dress; if it is entertaining a plural subject, more than one, the verb wears a different dress.

So also if the subject is the first person, the person speaking, or the second person, the person spoken to, or the third person, the person spoken of, the verb accommodates itself to the subject. The verb is the most agreeable thing for it changes its form to agree with its subject! So watch your verb and see that it agrees.

Refer constantly to your list of irregular verbs given in this lesson for we so often make mistakes in the use of these verb forms.

Then, too, the verb kindly changes its form to accommodate itself to the time of the action--action in the present, in the past, in the future--action completed before the present time--before some time past--or before some future time--and action progressing and not yet completed in the present, in the past or in the future. Then it can also change to show whether its subject is acting or being acted upon. Isn't the verb a wonderfully accommodating member of the co-operative commonwealth of words?

And can you not see hidden under all this, a marvelous development in the intellectual needs of men from the day of the savage's signs and grunts to the day when we can express such shades of meaning? This tool of expression, language, has had a wonderful evolution side by side with the evolution of the other tools by which man expresses his creative genius; from the forked stick with which man scratched the soil to the great machine-driven plow of today; from the simple threshing flail to the monster threshing machine of modern times.

There is nothing so wonderful as man's ability to express himself. Add a little to your knowledge every day and the sum total will soon surprise you.

Yours for Education,

THE PEOPLE'S COLLEGE.

INFLECTION--CHANGES IN FORM

+104.+ You remember that nouns have certain changes in form to indicate changes in use. Verbs also have several changes in form to correspond with changes in their use or meaning. Notice the following sentences:

I think. I thought. I work. I worked.

What is the difference in the meaning of _I think_ and _I thought_? of _I work_ and _I worked_? When we say, _I think_, or _I work_, we mean that the action is now, to-day, in the present; but when we say, _I thought_, or _I worked_, we mean that _now_ is not the time of the action, but that the action was performed sometime in the past. So we have a change in the verb form to denote _time_. The simple form of the verb, like _think_ or _work_, is used to denote _present time_. When we wish to express _past time_ we do it by changing the form of the verb. Now note the following:

} call I, We, You, They, } send } fall The men } bring } hide

} calls He, She, It, } sends } falls The man } brings } hides

Now let us write this in another way.

+Present Time+

_Singular_ _Plural_

1st person--I call. We call. 2nd person--You call. You call.

He } 3rd person She } calls. They, or } call. It } The men } The man }

+105.+ You notice in this table we use the expressions _first person_, _second person_, and _third person_. _I_ and _we_ indicate the person or persons speaking and are called the first person. _You_ indicates the person or persons spoken to and is called the second person. _He_, _she_, _it_, _they_, and the person or persons or things spoken of, are called the third person.

We use the word _you_ when speaking to one or more than one now-a-days. It used to be that when speaking to a single person, people said _thou_, and in speaking to two or more they said _you_. But we today have dropped the old form _thou_, and use _you_ for both singular and plural.

+106.+ Now note, in the above table, that there is only one form change in the verb, and this is in the _third person singular_. We say _I call_, _You call_, _We call_, _They_, or _The men call_, but we say _He_, or _the man calls_, in speaking of one person or thing. So we change the form of the verb with any subject which denotes the third person and the singular number. This form is made by adding _s_ to the simple form of the verb, therefore we may call it the _s-form_ because it always ends in _s_.

Remember that this _s-form_ is used to express present time with a third person, singular subject. _BE CAREFUL NOT TO USE THIS FORM WITH ANY PLURAL SUBJECT._ There is no other change in the verb form in expressing the present time in any verb, except in the verb _be_.

+107.+ This little verb _be_ is one of the most troublesome verbs in our language, and since it is used in forming verb phrases, it will be well to commit the following table to memory. Watch closely your use of this bothersome little word. Note that it has a change in form for the _first person singular_, as well as for the third person singular. All other verbs have just the one change, the _s-form_ for the third person singular. The verb _be_ has a form also to use with the first person singular, the pronoun _I_.

+Present Time+ +Past Time+

_Singular_ _Singular_

1. I am. 1. I was. 2. You are. 2. You were. 3. He is. 3. He was.

_Plural_ _Plural_

1. We are. 1. We were. 2. You are. 2. You were. 3. They are. 3. They were.

+108.+ +The present time form is the form which expresses present time. It is expressed by the simple form of the verb with the exception of the third person singular, which is expressed by the _s-form_.+

PAST TIME

+109.+ To express _past time_ we change the form of the verb. Notice the following:

I } called We } called She } sent You } sent He } fell They } fell It } brought The men } brought The man } hid } hid

Notice that these various forms of the verb which express past time are all made by changes from the simple form, which expresses present time. You will also notice that these five verbs used in the above table all form their past time form in different ways. For example, _call_ adds _ed_; _send_ changes the final letter from _d_ to _t_; _fall_ changes the vowel in the middle of the word from _a_ to _e_; _bring_ changes both the vowel and the final letter from _bring_ to _brought_; _hide_ drops the final letter _e_.

+110.+ +Verbs whose past time forms are made by adding _d_ or _ed_ to the simple form are called regular verbs.+

+Verbs whose past time forms are made in some other way than by adding _d_ or _ed_ are called irregular verbs.+

+111.+ There are about two hundred of these irregular verbs which form their past time in the following ways:

1. By change in the vowel letter, as _fall_, _fell_; _write_, _wrote_; _see_, _saw_; _sing_, _sang_; _come_, _came_.

2. By dropping the final vowel; as _hide_, _hid_; _slide_, _slid_; _bite_, _bit_.

3. By dropping a vowel from the middle of the word; as _bleed_, _bled_; _feed_, _fed_; _lead_, _led_.

4. By changing the final letter or letters; as _send_, _sent_; _lose_, _lost_; _spend_, _spent_.

5. By changing the vowel and final letters; as _bring_, _brought_; _seek_, _sought_; _catch_, _caught_.

6. By changing the vowel sound and adding _t_ or _d_; as _sleep_, _slept_; _feel_, _felt_; _flee_, _fled_.

There are some irregular forms which we must learn and be exceedingly careful in their use. Study the list in this lesson.

Exercise 1

Write the _present_ and _past_ time forms of the following verbs as the verb _think_ is written in the table given below.

think ride have give write ask make try speak run see do

+Present Time+ +Past Time+

_Singular_ _Singular_

1. I think 1. I thought 2. You think 2. You thought 3. He thinks 3. He thought

_Plural_ _Plural_

1. We think 1. We thought 2. You think 2. You thought 3. They think 3. They thought

+112.+ Be very careful not to use the _s-form_ except for the third person singular. Be especially careful in the use of different forms of the verb _be_. It is in the use of this verb that we so frequently make mistakes. Watch your own language and the conversation of your friends and note these mistakes and correct them in your own mind. These common blunders in the use of English mark us as careless or uneducated by everyone who hears us speak. We have fallen into bad habits oftentimes and make these mistakes when we know better, and only constant watchfulness for a time can overcome the habit. After a time we learn to speak correctly without effort, and then these mistakes made by others offend the ear like a false note in music.

Exercise 2

Cross out the wrong form in the following:

They _was_--_were_ not here. The clouds _has_--_have_ gathered. People _is_--_are_ indifferent. The train _was_--_were_ on time. The men _was_--_were_ armed. Our school building _is_--_are_ inadequate. The workers _earn_--_earns_ their wages. The voters _elect_--_elects_ the President. They _do_--_does_ as they please. We _was_--_were_ there on time.

DOING DOUBLE WORK

+113.+ We have found now three forms of the verb, the _simple form_, the _s-form_, and the _past time form_, and, in addition, the _I-form_, or the first person form of the verb _be_. There are no other real verb forms, but there are two other changes made in the form of the verb when it ceases to be used as the predicate, the asserting word of the sentence, and becomes, in part, another part of speech.

Notice in the following sentences:

Making shoes is his work. He enjoys making shoes.

In each of these sentences the word _making_, from the verb _make_, is used as a noun. In the first, _Making shoes is his work_, _making_ is used as the subject of the sentence. In the second, _He enjoys making shoes_, _making_ is used as the object of the verb _enjoys_. But _making_ is not like the ordinary noun, for it has an object _making_--_what?_--_making shoes_. _Shoes_ is the object of the action expressed in _making_. A noun never takes an object; so while the word _making_ is used as a noun, it is also partly a verb. It is a form of the verb used as a noun, but keeping in part its verb nature, partaking of the nature of two parts of speech at the same time.

Hence these forms of the verb are called _participles_. Participle means _partaker_.

The participle may also be used as an adjective. Notice the following:

The _crying_ child came toward us. The _rescuing_ party arrived.

In these sentences _crying_ and _rescuing_ are formed from the verbs _cry_ and _rescue_, and are used as adjectives to describe the noun _child_ and the noun _party_. So a participle is a mixed part of speech. It is partially a verb, but is not a true verb. A true verb is always used as the predicate, the asserting word in the sentence and _always_ has a subject. The participle _never_ has a subject; it may have an object, but not a subject.

+114.+ There are two forms of the participle. The active form or the present form as it is sometimes called, ends in _ing_, as, _waiting_, _walking_, _saying_. It expresses action, existence, or possession as going on at the time mentioned in the sentence.

+115.+ The other form of the participle is the passive form or the past form of the participle. This ends in _ed_ in the regular verbs, and has various forms in the irregular verbs. It is formed in regular verbs by adding _d_ or _ed_ to the simple form, hence has the same form as the past time form, as for example, present time form, _call_--past time form, _called_--past participle, _called_. You will find the past participle forms of irregular verbs in the list of irregular verbs given in this lesson, as for example--present time form, _go_--past time form, _went_--past participle, _gone_.

+116.+ You will find as we study the verb phrases in later lessons that these participles are used in forming verb phrases. As for example:

He is coming. They are trying. He has gone.

+A participle is a word derived from a verb, partaking of the nature of a verb and also of an adjective or a noun.+

LET US SUM UP

+117.+ +Verbs have five form changes.+

Simple S-Form Past Time Present Part. Past Part.

call calls called calling called

go goes went going gone

Exercise 3

Write in columns like the above the five forms of the following verbs:

do try give hope live rob have think sing get wave lose come make

Exercise 4

Study carefully the following quotation. You will find in it all five of the form changes of the verb--_the present time form_, _the s-form_, _the past time form_, _the present participle_ and _the past participle_. In the verb phrases _had been filled_, _has survived_, _has gone_, _has proved_ and _be dismayed_, you will find the past participle used in forming the verb phrase. We will study these verb phrases in later lessons.

In the verb phrases, _was stumbling_, _was groping_, _is conquering_, _are carrying_, the present participle is used in forming the verb phrases. _Could reconcile_ is also a verb phrase. We will study these verb phrases also in later lessons.

The present participles, _struggling_, _persevering_ and _regaining_ are used as adjectives. Study them carefully and find the words which they describe. The present participles _imagining_, _learning_ and _suffering_ are used as nouns. Note their use.

The past participles _rebuffed_, _self-reproached_, _discouraged_ and _promised_ are used as adjectives. Find the words which they modify. There are several _present time forms_, several _past time forms_, and several _s-forms_. Find them and study carefully their usage.

OUT OF THE DARK

_By Helen Keller_

_America's famous blind girl, who has come to see more than most people with normal eyes._

Step by step my investigation of blindness _led_ me into the industrial world. And what a world it _is_. I _faced_ unflinchingly a world of facts--a world of misery and degradation, of blindness, crookedness, and sin, a world _struggling_ against the elements, against the unknown, against itself. How _could_ I _reconcile_ this world of fact with the bright world of my _imagining_? My darkness _had been filled_ with the light of intelligence, and, _behold_, the outer day-lit world _was stumbling_, _was groping_ in social blindness. At first, I _was_ most unhappy, but deeper study _restored_ my confidence. By _learning_ the _suffering_ and burdens of men, I _became_ aware as never before of the life-power which _has survived_ the forces of darkness--the power which, though never completely victorious, _is_ continuously _conquering_. The very fact that we _are_ still carrying on the contest against the hosts of annihilation _proves_ that on the whole the battle _has gone_ for humanity. The world's great heart _has proved_ equal to the prodigious undertaking which God _set_ it. _Rebuffed_, but always _persevering_; _self-reproached_, but ever _regaining_ faith; undaunted, tenacious, the heart of man _labors_ towards immeasurably distant goals. _Discouraged_ not by difficulties without, or the anguish of ages within, the heart _listens_ to a secret voice that _whispers_: "_Be_ not _dismayed_; in the future _lies_ the _Promised_ Land."

List of Irregular Verbs

Here is a list of the principal irregular verbs--the present and past time forms and the past participle are called the principal parts of a verb.

(Those marked with an _r_ have also the regular form.)

+Present T.+ +Past T.+ +Past Part.+