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There are, in English, nine sorts of words, or, as they are commonly called, PARTS OF SPEECH; namely, the ARTICLE, the SUBSTANTIVE or NOUN ; the PRONOUN, the ADJECTIVE, the VERB, the ADVERB, the PREPOSITION, the CONJUNCTION, and the INTER

JECTION.

1. An Article is a word prefixed to substantives, to point them out, and to show how far their signification extends: as, a garden, an eagle, the woman.

2. A Substantive or noun is the name of any thing that exists, or of which we have any notion: as, London, man, virtue.

A substantive may, in general, be distinguished by its taking an article before it, or by its making sense of itself; at, a book, the sun, an apple; temperance, industry, chastity.

3. A Pronoun is a word used instead of a noun, to avoid the too frequent repetition of the same word: as, The man is happy; he is benevolent; he is useful.'

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4. An Adjective is a word added to a substantive, to express its quality: as, " An industrious man; a ptuous woman.'

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An Adjective may be known by its making sense with The addition of the word thing: as, a good thing; a bad thing or of any particular substantive; as, a sweet apple, a pleasant prospect.

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5. A Verb is a word which signifies to BE, to Do or to SUFFER: as, "I am; I rule; I am ruled." A Verb may be distinguished, by its making sense with any of the personal pronouns, or the word to before :: as,. I walk, he plays, they write; or, to walk, to play, to wrił.

6. An Adverb is a part of speech joined to a verb, an adjective, and sometimes to another advere, af ress some quality or circumstance respecting ie

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"Ho reads well, a truly good man; he writes very correctly."

An Adverb may be generally known, by its answering to the question, How? how much? when? or where? as, in the phrase "He reads correctly," the answer to the ques. tion, How does he read? is, correctly.

7. Prepositions serve to connect words with one another, and to show the relation between them : 25, "He went from London to York" "she is abo.e disguise ;” « they are supported by industry.”

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A Proposition may be known by its admitting aftur ita personal pronoun, in the objective case; as, with for, in &c. will allow the objective case after them; with big, fou her, to them, &c.

8. A Conjunction is a part of speech that is chief; used to connect or join together sentences; so 15% o of two, to make one sentence: it somethics cóngite only words: as, Thou and he are happy, trave you are good." "Two and three me find

9. Imerjections are words thrown is betwe a parts of a sentence, to express the par-loss or tions of the speaker: as, "O vinae! how us thou art!"

The observations which have been rande to All in distinguishing the parts of speech nom centr afford them some small assistance; but it will e much more instructive, to distinguish them ey ŝions, and an accurate knowledge of their met the following passage, all the parts of

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In the foregoing sentence, the words the, a, are articles; power, speech, faculty, man, Creator, uses, purposes, are substantives; him, kis, we, it, are pronouns ; peculiar, beneficeni, greatest, excellent, worst, are adjectives; is, was, bestowed, do, pervert, are verbs; most, how, aften, are adverbs; of, to, on. by, for, are prepositions; and, but, are conjunctions; and" alas is an interjection.

The number of the different sorts of words, or of the parts of speech, has been variously reckoned by different grammarians. Some have enumerated ten, making the participle a distinct part; some cight, excluding the participle, and ranking the adjective under the noun; some four, and others only two, (the noun and the verb) supposing the rest to be contained in the parts of their division. We have followed those authors, who appear to have given them the dost natural and intelligible distribution. Some remaiks on the division made by the learned Horne Tooke, are con tened in the It stction of the 11th chapter of etymology.

The latcrjection, indeed, seems scarcely worthy of being -asidered as a part of artificial language or speech, being ther a branch of that natural language, which we possess common with the brute creation, and by which we exthe sudden emotions and passions that actuate our me. But, as it is used in written as well as oral language, in me measure, be deemed a part of speech. It , a virtual sertence, in which the noun and verb concealed under an imperfect or indigested word.

CHAPTER II.

OF THE ARTICLES.

AN Article is a word prefixed to substantives, to plat do out, and to show how far their significa ds; as, a garden, an eagle, the woman, shy, there are but two articles, a rond the e before a vow cl, and before a sileht ha But if the 4 by sounded, ther twa hundija de, srt, a highway.

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The inattention of writers and printers to this necessary distinction, has occasioned the frequent use of an before h, when it is to be pronounced; and this circumstance, more than any other, has probably contributed to that indistinct utterance, or total omission, of the sound signified by this letter, which very often occurs amongst readers and speakers. An horse, an husband, an herald, an heathen, and many similar associations, are frequently to be found in works of taste and merit. To remedy this evil, readers should be taught to omit, in all similar cases, the sound of the n, and to give the b its full pronunciation.

A or an is styled the indefinite article: it is used in a vague sense to point out one single thing of the kind, in other respects indeterminate: as "Give me a book;" that is, any book.

The is called the definite article; because it ascer tains what particular thing is meant: as, "Give me the book;" meaning some book referred to.

A substantive without any article to limit it, is taken in its widest sense: as, "A candid temper is proper for man;" that is, for all mankind.

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The peculiar use and importance of the articles will be seen in the following examples; " The son of a king-the son of the king--a son of the king.' Each of these three phrases has an entirely different meaning, through the dif ferent application of the articles a and the.

"Thou art a man," is a very general and harmless po. sition; but, "Thou art the man," (as Nathan said to Da. vid,) is an assertion capable of striking terror and remorse, into the heart.:

The article is omitted before nouns that imply the dif ferent virtues, vices, passions, qualities, sciences, arts, ine. tals herbs, &c.; as, 66 prudence is commendable; f.iseLetis odious; anger ought to be avoided;"&c. It is not prefix ito a proper name; as, " Alexander," (because that denotes a determinate individual or part lar cept for the sake of distinguishing a part mar

"He is a Howard, or of the family of the

Howards;" or by way of eminence: as, "Every man is not a Newton ;" "He has the courage of an Achilles :” or when some noun is understood; "He sailed down the (river) Thames, in the (ship) Britannia."

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When an adjective is used with the noun to which the article relates, it is placed between the article and the noun; as, a good man,' "an agreeable woman," "the best friend." On some occasions, however, the adjective precedes a or an; as, “such a shame," "as great a man as Alexander,' ," "too careless an author."

The indefinite article can be joined to substantives in the singular number only; the definite article may be joined also to plurals.

But there appears to be a remarkable exception to this rule, in the use of the adjectives few and many, (the latter chiefly with the word great before it,) which, though joined with plural substantives, yet admit of the singular article a; as, a few men; a great many men.

The reason of it is manifest, from the effect which the article has in these phrases; it means a small or great number collectively taken, and therefore gives the idea of a whole, that is, of unity. Thus likewise, a dozen, a score, a hundred, or a thousand, is one whole number, an aggregate of many collectively taken; and therefore still retains the article a, though joined as an adjective to a plural substantive; as, a hundred years, &c.

The indefinite article is sometimes placed between the adjectives many, and a singular noun: as,

"Full many a gem of purest ray serene,
"The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear;
"Full many a flow'r is born to blush unseen,
"And waste its sweetness on the desert air."

In these lines, the phrases, many a gem, and many a flow's, refer to many gems and many flowers, separately, not collectively considered.

The definite article the is frequently applied to adverbs in the comparative and superlative degree; and its effect is, to mark the degree the more strongly, and to define it the more precisely: as, "The more I examine it, be I like it. I like this the least of any,”

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