19. The Superlative degree is formed in two ways: either (i) by adding est to the positive; or (ii) if the adjective has two syllables (the last ending in a consonant) or more, by placing the adverb most before the adjective.

(i) Happiest; most recent; most beautiful.

20. Some adjectives, from the very nature of the ideas they express, do not admit of comparison. Such are golden, wooden; left, right; square, triangular; weekly, monthly; eternal, perpetual, etc.

21. The most frequently used adjectives have irregular comparisons. The following is a list :

(i) Worse and worst come, not from bad, but from the root weor, evil. (War comes from the same root.) The s in worse is a part of the root; and the full comparative is really worser, which was used in the 16th century (Shakespeare, "Hamlet," III. iv. 157). Worst = worsest.

(ii) The th in farther is intrusive. Farther is formed on a false analogy with further; as could (from can) is with would (from will). Farther is used of progression in space; further, of progression in reasoning. (iii) Former was in A.S. forma (=first). It is a superlative form with a comparative sense.

(iv) Better comes from A.S. bet=good—a root which was found in betan, to make good, and in the phrase to boot =“ to the good.”

(v) Later and latest refer to time; latter and last to position in space or in a series. Last is as by assimilation from latst; as best is from betst.

(vi) Less does not come from the lit in little; but from the A.S. las, weak. Least = laesest.

(vii) Nighest is contracted into next; as highest was into heart. Thus gh + 8 = k + 8 = x.

C

(viii) We say "the oldest man that ever lived," and "the eldest of the family." Older and oldest refer to mere number; elder and eldest to a family or corporate group.

Milton has "the rathe primrose, and Coleridge, "twin buds too rathe to bear the

(ix) Rathe is still found in poetry. that forsaken dies ;" winter's unkind air."

lish pronunciation.

The Irish pronunciation rayther is the old Eng

(x) Hind is used as an adjective in the phrase "the hind wheels."

(i) After, as an adjective, is found in aftermath and afterthought.

(ii) In is used as an adjective in the word in-side; and as a noun in the phrase "the ins and outs" of a question.

(iii) In the inns of law, the utter-bar (outer-bar) is opposed to the inner-bar.

(iv) The neth in nether is the same as the neath in beneath.

(v) The ov in over is the ove in above, and is a dialectic form of up. It is still found in such names as Over Leigh in Cheshire, and Over Darwen in Lancashire.

(vi) Hindmost, uttermost, are not compounds of most, but are double superlatives. There was an old superlative ending ema, which we see in Lat. extrēmus, suprēmus, etc. It was forgotten that this was a superlative, and est or ost was added. Thus we had hindema, midThese afterwards became hindmost and midmost.

ema.

THE VERB.

1. The Verb is that "part of speech" by means of which we make an assertion.

It is the keystone of the arch of speech.

It is so the verb out Thus we can

(i) The word verb comes from the Lat. verbum, a word. called because it is the word in a sentence. If we leave of a sentence, all the other words become mere nonsense.

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 tree;" "he hates walking."

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 :

(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.
(a) She shut the door.

(a) They moved the table.

:

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

(b) The table moved.

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

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.

Thus we can say,

(iii) There is in English a kind of middle voice. "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.

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.