Page:Collier's Cyclopedia of Commercial and Social Information.djvu/24

12 14. When a noun is the subject of a sentence it is said to be in the nominative case, and when it immediately follows a verb or a preposition it is said to be in the objective case, but its form is precisely the same in both cases, Ex. Nom. The man walks; trees grow. Obj. I pity the man; he fells the trees;—with the man; under the trees. When one noun, in either the singular or plural number, is used along with another attributively, and indicating its possessor or origin,  's (with an apostrophe before it, which shows that a vowel sound has been dropped) is added to the former, except when it ends in a sibilant, when most frequently only the apostrophe is added. Ex, A soldier’s life; the soldier's friend; the jury’s verdict; the judges' sentence; Thomas's horse (read "Thomases"); the fox' (read "foxes") brush; "He that despised Moses' law, died;" "If ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye."

15. In order to individualize the application of common nouns, two words usually designated articles, one a demonstrative pronoun, the, the other a numeral, an (or, as abbreviated before a consonant sound, a), almost universally precede them. The former, which is called the definite article, is used before nouns of both numbers. Ex. The man, the men; the horse, the horses. The latter is called the indefinite article, and is used before nouns in the singular number only. Ex, A man, an hour, a tree, an enemy.

Proper names, abstract nouns, names of materials, and some other classes of nouns, take the ar- 1 ana femme a of the human | ticles only when they are used as common nouns, Ex. Solon, Brutus, hope, Sear, water, wood; the Solon of his country; he is a Brutus; the hopes and fears of youth; the water's edge; the wood of the ark. 16. Verbs. When the action signified by a verb takes effect immediately on any person or thing as its object, the verb is called transitive or active; but when the action is completely described by the verb itself, or when the verb signifies a condition, it is called intransitive or neuter. Ex. We suspect deceit he loves truth; I walk or run, they sleep, you stand, Many verbs, as may be seen in the English Dictionary, are both active and neuter. Ex. To abate a nuisance, the storm abated; to account a man wise, account for one's conduct. Transitive verbs are conjugated in two way: one form, called active, is used when the agent the subject of the verb. Ex. I esteem him; they speak both French and German; the Allies defeated the Russians. The other is used when the agent is the immediate object of the verb, and is called passive. Ex. He is esteemed by me; both French and German are spoken by them; the Russians were defeated by the Allies. In the conjugation of verbs, four moods are distinguished—the indicative, the subjunctive, the imperative, and the infinitive—and another class of forms, called participles. The indicative is used when the speaker asserts something as actually existing or acting. Ex. He reads, we walked, they will consent, thou art punished, I was exalted, you will be confounded. The subjunctive is used when some possible or probable action or state of being is spoken of, Ex. "If I be a father, where is mine honor?" "Though thou detain me, I will not eat;" "If he were a prophet, he would have known who touched him;" "Though these three men were in it they should deliver neither son nor daughter." When a command is given, the imperative is employed. Ex. "Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king." The infinitive mood consists of the substantive forms, and the participles of the attributive forms, of the verb to which they belong. The preposition to is prefixed to all infinitiyes, except those which follow auxiliary verbs, and such verbs as see, hear, etc., in the active voice. Ex. "To err is human: to forgive, divine:"