fer." Than after a comparative may take a similar pronominal office, as subject or object, as, "More came than were asked." But is sometimes used as a kind of negative relative, as, “There is nobody but knows it," i. e., "who knows it not." A relative pronoun, though it has no inflectional form, requires the following verb or pronoun to conform to the number, person or gender of its antecedent. This rule of agreement in a relative clause is most frequently violated after anyone, such, every, neither, and similar words. Grammatically such expressions are singular though the plural idea is suggested, as, “Anyone who injures his book must replace it." The case of a relative is independent of the antecedent, and is determined by the relation of the pronoun in the clause. XXXII VERBS AND THEIR PRINCIPAL PARTS Having learned to distinguish verbs from the words belonging to other parts of speech, you will now enter with a clear head on an inquiry as to the variations to which the words of this part of speech are liable.-COBBETT'S GRAMMAR, 1818. But thou, the more he varies forms, beware -DRYDEN'S "VIRGIL." "There are a few interesting survivals which resist all tendency to uniformity." The large number of verbs, and the almost unlimited freedom with which we can obtain them from other parts of speech, is out of all proportion to the use made of verbs.— M. SCHELE DE VERE. In the Grammar of life the great verbs are To Be and To Do.-JOHN A. STEWART. The verb is the only part of speech which is absolutely essential to sentence formation. A subject may be a pronoun, a phrase or a clause, as well as a noun. or it may be omitted, as in imperative sentences. But if the verb is lacking there is no sentence. The office of the verb is to supply the asserting element to the predicate. But most verbs contain also the idea to be predicated either wholly or in part. The verb be, however, in a general or definitive sentence, is sometimes pure verb and simply connects the predicated idea to the subject, as, "God is love." Verbs are either complete or incomplete on two lines of division. A verb is copulative or attributive, according as it is a copula for an outside attribute, as, "She seems happy," or contains within itself the chief idea to be predicated, as, “He runs fast.” Verbs are also either transitive or intransitive,according as they take an object or are used without an object. There is one important class of verbs, known as auxiliaries, that have some very distinct grammatical properties. (See Chapter 34.) There are forms derived from verbs, called verbals, or more definitely, participles and infinitives. While these retain some of the meaning and modifiers of the verbs from which they are derived, their grammatical nature is that of some other part of speech rather than that of the true verb. (See Chapters 39, 40 and 41.) Verbs have a slight amount of inflection for mood, tense, number and person. In the two latter points some verbal forms show agreement with their subjects. The student of grammar needs a knowledge of the few inflectional forms that a verb can take, and for every verb he needs to know certain fundamental forms called the principal parts. Some of the older English verbs have distinct forms in the present, past, and past participle, from which all the other forms are regularly derived, as do, did, done. From do are derived the words doing, doest, dost, doeth, doth and does; also certain phrases, as may do, will do, have been doing, etc. From the past form did, the form didst alone is derived. Done (called the past participle though never used as a participle except with a passive meaning) enters into a large number of verbal phrases both active and passive, such as, has done, will be done, having done, etc. In order, therefore, to have a mastery of the English verb, these three forms, the present, past, and past participle, must be known, after which all other forms can be regularly made by the use of terminations or auxiliaries. The past and past participle of many verbs are regularly formed by adding ed to the present. Such verbs are called regular or weak verbs, and all new verbs added to English are regular. If all verbs were regular there would be no principal parts to be studied in grammar. The infinitive or name form of the verb would be all that would need to be given to make its forms available for use. The principal parts that require the attention of grammar students, therefore, are those that are formed in some other way than by the ed termination, and these belong wholly to verbs of the old Saxon vocabulary. There are a few defective verbs that are lacking in one or more of their principal parts. Most of the auxiliaries are of this class. The verb be has principal parts derived from different roots and is the most irregular verb in English. Go also has different roots in its principal parts. |