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Read Ebook: Word Study and English Grammar A Primer of Information about Words Their Relations and Their Uses by Hamilton Frederick W Frederick William
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Ebook has 335 lines and 29588 words, and 7 pages
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INTRODUCTION: IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT 1
THE WORD FAMILIES 1
NOUNS 2
ADJECTIVES 5
ARTICLES 8
VERBS 8
PRONOUNS 15
ADVERBS 16
PREPOSITIONS 17
CONJUNCTIONS 17
INTERJECTIONS 18
GENERAL NOTES 18
RULES FOR CORRECT WRITING 20
THE SENTENCE 21
THE PARAGRAPH 21
RULES FOR THE USE AND ARRANGEMENT OF WORDS 22
COMMON ERRORS IN THE USE OF WORDS 24
TABLES OF IRREGULAR VERBS 40
SUPPLEMENTARY READING 47
REVIEW QUESTIONS 48
GLOSSARY OF TERMS 52
WORD STUDY AND ENGLISH GRAMMAR
Word study and English grammar are important to the young printer for several reasons. In the first place, disregard of the correct use and combination of words is a distinct mark of inferiority and a serious bar to business and social advancement. A man's use of words is commonly taken as a measure of his knowledge and even of his intelligence. Carelessness in this regard often causes a man to be held in much less esteem than he really deserves.
In the second place, it is quite as important that the printer should know something about the words and sentences which he puts on paper as it is that he should know something about the paper on which he puts them, or the type, ink, and press by means of which he puts them there.
In the third place, knowledge of words and their uses is indispensable to correct proofreading which is itself a branch of the printer's craft. A working knowledge of words and their relations, that is, of rhetoric and grammar is therefore a tool and a very important tool of the printer.
This little book is not intended to be either a rhetoric or a grammar. It is only intended to review some of the simplest principles of both subjects, to point out a few of the commonest mistakes, and to show the importance to the apprentice of the careful study and constant use of some of the many books on words, their combinations, and their uses.
All the words in the English language belong to one or another of nine families, each of which family has a special duty. If you will always remember to which family a word belongs and just what that family does, you will be saved from many very common errors. These nine families are: 1, nouns; 2, adjectives; 3, articles; 4, verbs; 5, pronouns; 6, adverbs; 7, prepositions; 8, conjunctions; 9, interjections. This order of enumeration is not exactly the same as will be found in the grammars. It is used here because it indicates roughly the order of the appearance of the nine families in the logical development of language. Some forms of interjections, however, may very probably have preceded any language properly so called.
Perhaps the most important use of number is in the relation between the noun and the verb. The verb as well as the noun has number forms and the number of the noun used as subject should always agree with that of the verb with which it is connected. Such expressions as "pigs is pigs," "how be you?" and the like, are among the most marked evidences of ignorance to be found in common speech. When this paragraph was originally written a group of high school boys were playing football under the writer's window. Scraps of their talk forced themselves upon his attention. Almost invariably such expressions as "you was," "they was," "he don't," "it aint," and the like took the place of the corresponding correct forms of speech.
The crowd looks large.
but we say,
The crowd look happy.
because in one case we are thinking of the crowd and in the other of the persons who compose the crowd. So in speaking of a committee, we may say
The Committee thinks that a certain thing should be done.
or that
The Committee think that a certain thing should be done.
The first phrase would indicate that the committee had considered and acted on the subject and the statement represented a formal decision. The second phrase would indicate the individual opinions of the members of the committee which might be in agreement but had not been expressed in formal action. In doubtful cases it is safer to use the plural.
The young student should not permit himself to be discouraged by the apparent difficulty of the task of forming the habit of correct speech. It is habit and rapidly becomes easier after the first efforts.
The relation of a noun to a verb, to another noun, or to a preposition is called its case. There are three cases called the nominative, objective, and possessive. When the noun does something it is in the nominative case and is called the subject of the verb.
The man cuts.
When the noun has something done to it it is in the objective case and is called the object of the verb.
The man cuts paper.
When a noun depends on a preposition, it is also in the objective case and is called the object of the preposition.
The paper is cut by machinery.
The preposition on which a noun depends is often omitted when not needed for clearness.
The foreman gave the men a holiday.
He came Sunday.
Near the press.
He was ten minutes late .
He is 18 years old .
The nominative and objective cases of nouns do not differ in form. They are distinguished by their positions in the sentence and their relations to other words.
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