Page:The grammar of English grammars.djvu/617

 the same verb, such parts of the compound tenses as are not common to both forms, should be inserted in full: except sometimes after the auxiliary do; as, "And then he falls, as I do."--Shak. That is, "as I do fall." The following sentences are therefore faulty: "I think myself highly obliged to make his fortune, as he has mine."--Spect., No. 474. Say,--"as he has made mine." "Every attempt to remove them, has, and likely will prove unsuccessful."--Gay's Prosodical Gram., p. 4. Say,--"has proved, and likely will prove, unsuccessful."

NOTE X.--The verb do must never be substituted for any term to which its own meaning is not adapted; nor is there any use in putting it for a preceding verb that is equally short: as, "When we see how confidently men rest on groundless surmises in reference to their own souls, we cannot wonder that they do it in reference to others."--Simeon. Better:--"that they so rest in reference to the souls of others;" for this repeats the idea with more exactness. NOTE XI.--The preterit should not be employed to form the compound tenses of the verb; nor should the perfect participle be used for the preterit or confounded with the present. Thus: say, "To have gone," not, "To have went;" and, "I did so," not, "I done so;" or, "He saw them," not, "He seen them." Again: say not, "It was lift or hoist up;" but, "It was lifted or hoisted up."

NOTE XII.--Care should be taken, to give every verb or participle its appropriate form, and not to confound those which resemble each other; as, to flee and to fly, to lay and to lie, to sit and to set, to fall and to fell, &c. Thus: say, "He lay by the fire;" not, "He laid by the fire;"--"He has become rich;" not, "He is become rich;"--"I would rather stay;" not, "I had rather stay."

NOTE XIII.--In the syntax of words that express time, whether they be verbs, adverbs, or nouns, the order and fitness of time should be observed, that the tenses may be used according to their import. Thus: in stead of, "I have seen him last week;" say, "I saw him last week;"--and, in stead of, "I saw him this week;" say, "I have seen him this week." So, in stead of, "I told you already;" or, "I have told you before;" say, "I have told you already;"--"I told you before."

NOTE XIV.--Verbs of commanding, desiring, expecting, hoping, intending, permitting, and some others, in all their tenses, refer to actions or events, relatively present or future: one should therefore say, "I hoped you would come;" not, "I hoped you would have come;"--and, "I intended to do it;" not, "I intended to have done it;"--&c.

NOTE XV.--Propositions that are as true now as they ever were or will be, should generally be expressed in the present tense: as, "He seemed hardly to know, that two and two make four;" not, "made."--Blair's Gram., p. 65. "He will tell you, that whatever is, is right." Sometimes the present tense is improper with the conjunction that, though it would be quite proper without it; as, "Others said, That it is Elias. And others said, That it is a prophet."--Mark, vi, 15. Here That should be omitted, or else is should be was. The capital T is also improper.

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE XVII.

UNDER THE RULE ITSELF.--NOMINATIVES CONNECTED BY OR.

"We do not know in what either reason or instinct consist."--Rambler, No. 41.

[FORMULE.--Not proper, because the verb consist is of the plural number, and does not correctly agree with its two nominatives, reason and instinct, which are connected by or, and taken disjunctively. But, according to Rule 17th, "When a verb has two or more nominatives connected by or or nor, it must agree with them singly, and not as if taken together." Therefore, consist should be consists; thus, "We do not know in what either reason or instinct consists."]

"A noun or a pronoun joined with a participle, constitute a nominative case absolute."--Bicknell's Gram., Part ii, p. 50. "The relative will be of that case, which the verb or noun following, or the preposition going before, use to govern."--Dr. Adam's Gram., p. 203. "Which the verb or noun following, or the preposition going before, usually govern."--Gould's Adam's Gram., p. 200.[401] "In the different modes of pronunciation which habit or caprice give rise to."--Knight, on the Greek Alphabet, p. 14. "By which he, or his deputy, were authorized to cut down any trees in Whittlebury forest."--Junius, p. 251. "Wherever objects were to be named, in which sound, no