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say, "I saw him cross the bridge." Leave out saw, and the other words have no meaning whatever.

(ii) A verb has sometimes been called a telling word, and this is a good and simple definition for young learners.

THE CLASSIFICATION OF VERBS.

2. Verbs are divided into two classes - Transitive and Intransitive.

3. A Transitive Verb denotes an action or feeling which, as it were, passes over from the doer of the action to the object of it. "The boy broke the stick;" "he felled the ""he hates walking."

tree;

In these sentences we are able to think of the action of breaking and felling as passing over to the stick and the tree.

Transitive comes from the Lat. verb transire, to pass over.

The more correct definition is this:

A Transitive Verb is a verb that requires an object.

This definition covers the instances of have, own, possess, inherit, etc., as well as break, strike, fell, etc.

4. An Intransitive Verb denotes a state, feeling, or action which does not pass over, but which terminates in the doer or agent. "He sleeps ;" "she walks ;" "the grass grows."

5. There is, in general, nothing in the look or appearance of the verb which will enable us to tell whether it is transitive or intransitive. A transitive verb may be used intransitively ; an intransitive verb, transitively. In a few verbs we possess a causative form. Thus we have :

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(ii) When the intransitive verb is compounded with a preposition either (i) separable, or (ii) inseparable.

(i) (a) He laughed.

(ii) (a) He came.

(iii) (a) He spoke.

(b) He laughed-at me.

(b) He overcame the enemy.

(b) He bespoke a pair of boots.

Such verbs are sometimes called "Prepositional Verbs."

II. Transitive verbs may be used intransitively—

(i) With the pronoun itself understood :—

(a) He broke the dish.

(b) The sea breaks on the rocks. (b) The door shut suddenly.

(a) They moved the table.

(a) She shut the door.

(b) The table moved.

(ii) When the verb describes a fact perceived by the senses :—

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THE INFLEXIONS OF VERBS.

6. Verbs are changed or modified for Voice, Mood, Tense, Number, and Person. These changes are expressed, partly by inflexion, and partly by the use of auxiliary verbs.

(i) A verb is an auxiliary verb (from Lat. auxilium, aid) when its own full and real meaning drops out of sight, and it aids or helps the verb to which it is attached to express its meaning. Thus we say, "He works hard that he may gain the prize;" and here may has not its old meaning of power, or its present meaning of permission. But-

(ii) If we say "He may go," here may is not used as an auxiliary, but is a notional verb, with its full meaning; and the sentence is= "He has leave to go."

VOICE.

7. Voice is that form of the Verb by which we show whether the subject of the statement denotes the doer of the action, or the object of the action, expressed by the verb.

8. There are two Voices: the Active Voice, and the Passive Voice.

(i) When a verb is used in the active voice,

the subject of the sentence stands for

the doer of the action. "He killed the mouse."

(ii) When a verb is in the passive voice,

the subject of the sentence stands for

the object of the action. "The mouse was killed."

Or we may say that, in the passive voice the grammatical subject denotes the real

object.

(iii) There is in English a kind of middle voice. Thus we can say, "He opened the door" (active); "The door was opened" (passive); "The door opened" (middle). In the same way we have, "This wood cuts easily; Honey tastes sweet;" "The book sold well," etc.

9. An Intransitive Verb, as it can have no direct object, cannot be used in the passive voice. But, as we have seen, we can make an intransitive into a transitive verb by adding a preposition; and hence we can say :

ACTIVE.

(a) They laughed at him.

(a) The general spoke to him.

PASSIVE.

(b) He was laughed-at by them.
(b) He was spoken-to by the general.

10. In changing a verb in the active voice into the passive, we may make either (i) the direct or (ii) the indirect object into the subject of the passive verb.

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The object after the passive verb is not the real object of that verb, for a passive verb cannot rightly take an object. It is left over, as it were, from the active verb, and is hence sometimes called a Residuary Object.

Thus

11. The passive voice of a verb is formed by using a part of the verb to be and the past participle of the verb. we say

ACTIVE.

PASSIVE.

ACTIVE.

PASSIVE.

I beat. I am beaten. I have beaten. I have been beaten.

(i) Some intransitive verbs form their perfect tenses by means of the verb to be and their past participle, as "I am come;' ""He is gone." But the meaning here is quite different. There is no mark of anything done to the subject of the verb.

(ii) Shakespeare has the phrases: is run; is arrived; are marched forth; is entered into; is stolen away.

MOOD.

12. The Mood of a verb is the manner in which the statement made by the verb is presented to the mind. Is a statement made directly? Is a command given? Is a statement subjoined to another? All these are different moods or modes. There are four moods the Indicative; the Imperative; the Subjunctive; and the Infinitive.

(i) Indicative comes from the Lat. indicare, to point out. (ii) Imperative comes from the Lat. imperāre, to command. also emperor, empress, etc. (through French).

(iii) Subjunctive comes from Lat. subjungĕre, to join on to.

Hence

(iv) Infinitive comes from Lat. infinītus, unlimited; because the verb in this mood is not limited by person, number, etc.

13. The Indicative Mood makes a direct assertion, or puts a question in a direct manner. Thus we say "John is ill;" "Is John ill?”

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14. The Imperative Mood is the mood of command, request, or entreaty. Thus we say: "Go! "Give me the book, please;" "Do come back!"

(i) The Imperative Mood is the pure root of the verb without any inflexion.

(ii) It has in reality only one person-the second.

15. The Subjunctive Mood is that form of the verb which is used in a sentence that is subjoined to a principal

sentence,—and which does not express a fact directly, but only the relation of a fact to the mind of the speaker. Most often it expresses both doubt and futurity. Thus we say: (i) "O that he were here!" (ii) "Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty." (iii) "Whoever he be, he cannot be a good man."

(i) In the first sentence, the person is not here.

(ii) In the second, the person spoken to has not come to poverty; but he may.

(iii) In the third, we do not know who the person really is.

(iv) The Subjunctive Mood is rapidly dying out of use in modern English.

16. The Infinitive Mood is that form of the verb which has no reference to any agent, and is therefore unlimited by person, by number, or by time. It is the verb itself, pure and simple.

(i) The preposition to is not an essential part nor a necessary sign of the infinitive. The oldest sign of it was the ending in an. After may, can, shall, will, must, bid, dare, do, let, make, hear, see, feel, need, the simple infinitive, without to, is still used.

(ii) The Infinitive is really a noun, and it may be (a) either in the nominative or (b) in the obj. case. Thus we have: (a) “To err is human; to forgive, divine;" and (b) “I wish to go."

(iii) In O.E. it was declined like any other noun; and the dative case ended in anne. Then to was placed before this dative, to indicate purpose. Thus we find, "The sower went out to sow," when, in O.E. to sow was to sawenne. This, which is now called the gerundial infinitive, has become very common in English. Thus we have, "I came to see you; "A house to let." "To hear him (= on hearing him) talk, you would think he was worth millions."

(iv) We must be careful to distinguish between (a) the pure Infinitive and (b) the gerundial Infinitive. Thus we say—

(a) I want to see him. (b) I went to see him. The latter is the gerundial infinitive—that is, the old dative.

(c) The gerundial infinitive is attached (1) to a noun; and (2) to an adjective. Thus we have such phrases as—

(1) Bread to eat; water to drink; a house to sell.

(2) Wonderful to relate; quick to take offence; eager to go.

17. A Gerund is a noun formed from a verb by the addition of ing. It may be either (i) a subject; or (ii) an object; or

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