Remark.-Words ending in y, preceded by a vowel, retain the y; as play, playing; valley, valleys. EXERCISES. Correct the errors in the following. Happy, happyer; mercy, mercyful; spy, spyes; carry, carryed; vary, varyance; deny, denyed; lady, ladyes. Tarry, tarring; deny, deniing; fancy, fanciing. Stay, staiing; dismay, dismaied; valley, vallies; chimney, chimnies; day, daies. RULE VIII. Some words ending in drop one in composition; as, full, handful; all, always. Remark.-Some writers improperly drop one l in such words as foretell, enroll, recall. EXERCISES. Correct the errors in the following. Carefull, wellcome, usefull, allways, hurtfull, allready. Fulfil, miscal, waterfal, sandhil. Some of the words in the following exercises are to be corrected according to the preceding rules; others are intended to exercise the pupil in consulting the dictionary. Vicees are two often called follys. How doo you spel recieve and beleive? All our comforts procede from the Father of goodness. A dutyful child will be loveed by awl. We are frequently benefitted by what we have dreadded. Irreconcileable animosity is allways blameable. To reason with the angry, iss like whisperring to the deaf. An obliging and humble disposition is totally unconnected with a servil and cringeing humor. What is said of words ending in y pre- What remark about such words as fore ceded by a vowel? What is the eighth rule? tell? etc. With all thy geting, get understanding. A man may have a verry good judgement, without being possessed of tallent. Abridgements of historry are in most respects useles. PUNCTUATION. Note.—The rules for punctuation, for the use of capital letters, etc., will be given hereafter. ORTHOË PY Treats of the right pronunciation of words. This is to be learned from dictionaries and spellingbooks. ETYMOLOGY. ETYMOLOGY treats of the classification of words, and their modifications. Words are divided into eight classes, called Parts of Speech. These parts of speech are called Noun, Adjective, Pronoun, Verb, Preposition, Adverb, Conjunction, and Interjection. Note. The article belongs to the class of adjectives. NOUN. A noun is the name of an object; as, John, horse, whiteness. Remark.—An object may have either a real existence, or merely an existence attributed to it by the mind. Thus, horse is the name of an object which has a real existence; but whiteness is the name of a quality which has no real existence independent of the object to which it belongs, and is merely considered by the mind as having an existence by itself. The mind may consider even non-entity, or the absence of a thing, as a positive idea; as, non-existence, nought, nullity, nothing. Of what does Orthoëpy treat? Of what does Etymology treat? Into how many classes are words divided What are the names of the parts of speech? EXERCISES. Name the nouns among the following words. There are twelve in each division. 1. John is a boy. James met a beggar. The man and his horse are out in the rain. Thomas threw a snowball. George went to Cincinnati in a steamboat. 2. That tree is high. The cat scratched the dog. The sun gives light. The fixed stars are supposed to be suns. Fishes swim in the sea. The snail does not move quite so fast as the eagle or hawk. 3. A big stick. hands and shining The long rope. Soft, silky hair. Clean faces. Frosty weather makes red noses. The cat ran off with a piece of meat in her mouth. Sharp claws. 4. The horse runs swiftly. The swiftness of the deer is wonderful. A virtuous man is loved. Virtue is lovely. The night is dark. Darkness is gloomy. Thomas has torn the cover, leaves, and back of his book. 5. These are beautiful flowers. The beauty of the plants in the garden. A brilliant light. The brilliancy of the color. Iron is hard. The hardness of stone. Howard was a good man. 6. Cicero was an orator. Love is stronger than death. Lead is heavy. Flour is made of wheat. Falsehood is base. Wisdom is more precious than jewels. The stars were created by God. 7. The busy bee gathers honey from flowers. In the spring, the trees put out leaves. In the winter, snow falls, and water freezes. Walnuts have hard shells, but sweet kernels. Note. When two or more words are employed to designate one individual, they are considered as one name or noun; as, Robinson Crusoe, William Henry Harrison. 8. George Washington was the first president, and was succeeded by John Adams. The name of the present king of France is Louis Philippe. Daniel Boone was one of the first explorers of the western country. Napoleon Bonaparte was a great general. CLASSES OF NOUNS. Nouns are divided into two classes; proper and common. A proper noun is the name of an individual object; as, John, Vesuvius. A common noun is a name applied to all objects belonging to the same class; as, boy, mountain. Note.-Vesuvius is the name of an individual mountain; but mountain is a name belonging to each one of a whole class of objects. These objects are classed together, and have the same name on account of having certain properties in common. Remarks.-1. The same proper name is often applied to each of several individuals, but not because they have certain properties in common, and form a class. Thus, several persons are called John, but these individuals do not form a class. 2. Proper names are sometimes used to designate a class, and then become common nouns; as, "The twelve Cæsars." Here twelve individuals are classed together, because they have the same name, at least, in common. 3. Proper names sometimes become common, when the names of distinguished individuals are applied to others possessing similar qualities. Thus we say of a great and good general, "He is a Washington," or, "The Washington of his country." 4. Proper nouns always begin with capital letters. A common noun which designates two or more objects, considered as one collection, or body, is called a collective noun; as, pair, flock, army, multitude. Note. The word army denotes a great many individuals, but they are considered as forming a single body. EXERCISES. 1. Name the proper and common nouns in the exercises on page 15: also in the following. The Ohio is a beautiful river. Frankfort is the capital of the state of Kentucky, but Louisville is the largest town. Henry Into what classes are nouns divided? What is a proper noun? What is a common noun? each of several individuals, why is it not a common noun ? When do proper nouns become common? When the same proper name belongs to How do proper nouns always begin? What is a collective noun ? has a dog named Fido. George went down to New-Orleans on the steamboat Grey Eagle. The Ben Sherrod was burned on the Mississippi, and many lives were lost. The falls of Niagara are between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. The Andes are lofty mountains. The battle of Waterloo occurred in June. William Henry Harrison died on the third day of April. 2. Mention three proper nouns-three common. 3. Put a proper noun instead of each of the following dashes. behaves well. - knows her lesson. I saw good girls. killed can jump farther than -. is a large city. is a great country. The - is a beautiful river. The steam 4. Put a common noun instead of each of the following dashes. to-day. My is better than yours. Your - is worth This is a red. She has a new -. The sun rising above the He had gilded the 5. Put proper nouns in place of the common nouns in the following. A man is larger than a boy. A liar is as bad as a thief. A drunkard injures himself. A horse can run fast. I saw a girl. The bird sings sweetly. A dog barks. 6. Put a collective noun in each of the following blank spaces. Alexander defeated the of Darius. of birds. The was dismissed. Follow not the to do evil. ABSTRACT AND SUBSTANTIAL NOUNS. An abstract noun is the name of a quality, or of action, or being, or of a mode of action or being; as, whiteness, goodness, haste, confusion, action, existence. What is an abstract noun ? |