An improper Diphthong is one in which only one of the two vowels is sounded; as, o in boat. A Triphthong is the union of three vowels; as, eau in beauty.

A Syllable is as much of a word as can be sounded at once; as, gram in grammar.

A Monosyllable is a word of one syllable; as, house.

A Dissyllable is a word of two syllables; as, household.

A Trisyllable is a word of three syllables; as, householder.

A Polysyllable is a word of many syllables. Spelling is the art of expressing words by their proper letters.

EXERCISES ON ORTHOGRAPHY.

Tell the Vowels in

Ball, cellar, dine, folly, home, James, kitchen, lambkin, mulberry, popgun.

Tell whether w and y are Vowels or Consonants in Awry, beware, blowy, downy, fowl, grayling, hay, jewry, lawfully, wayward, witty, yearly. Tell which are proper and which improper Diphthongs in Boil, cook, death, faith, gown, hawk, loud, mean, pour, queen, roar, toy.

Tell how many Syllables are in the following words :— Aaron, barbarian, circular, diamond, extraordinary, firefly, goatherd, heavenward, Laodicea, latitudinarian, noteworthy, Utopia.

OBSERVATIONS.

In every syllable there must be at least one vowel.
Any vowel except w can make a syllable by itself.

ETYMOLOGY.

ETYMOLOGY treats of the different sorts of Words, their various modifications, and their derivation. THERE are nine parts of Speech;-Article, Noun, Adjective, Pronoun, Verb, Adverb, Preposition, Conjunction, and Interjection.

Of the ARTICLES.

An Article is a word put before a noun, to show the extent of its meaning; as, a man.

There are two articles, a or an and the. A is used before a consonant; as, a day.—An is used before a vowel, or silent h; as, an age, an hour.

A is called the indefinite, and the the definite article.

EXERCISES ON THE ARTICLES.

Prefix the indefinite article to the following words :Army, ass, boot, coat, door, elm, eye, river, garden, hair, heir, honour, house, island, nation, orange, serpent, umpire, union, upstart, valley, week, yard.

Correct the following errors:—

A error, an hen, an hill, a hour, a inkstand, an handful, an ewe, an useful book, an history, an yewtree, an hedge, a honest man.

OBSERVATIONS.

A is used before the long sound of u, and before w and y; as, A unit, a ewe, a week, a year.

A noun without an article to limit it, is taken in its widest sense; as, Man is mortal; namely, all mankind.

A is used before nouns in the singular number only. It is used before the plural in nouns preceded by such phrases as A few; a great many; as, a few books; a great many apples.

The is used before nouns in both numbers: and sometimes before adverbs in the comparative and superlative degree; as, The more I study grammar the better I like it.

Of NOUNS.

A Noun is the name of any person, place, or thing; as, John, London, book.

There are two kinds of Nouns, Proper and Common.

Proper Nouns denote the names of individuals only; as, James, Edinburgh, Ben Lomond.

Common Nouns denote a whole kind or class; as, boy, city, mountain.

EXERCISES ON NOUNS.

Tell which of the following words are Nouns, and whether the nouns are Proper or Common :—

The boys are at school. John has been sent by his father to London. Stirling is a town on the river Forth. The Alps are the highest mountains in Europe. My cousin has a ship called the Rover; it carries passengers and goods between Liverpool and New York. The sun never sets on the empire of Queen Victoria. Waverley is the name of a novel written by Sir Walter Scott. My brother Tom has a terrier called Snap. My sister has a fine pansy which she calls Victoria. The ship of Nelson at the battle of Trafalgar was the Victory. The shortest day is in the month of December. Nouns are varied by Number, Gender, and Case.

OBSERVATIONS.

Collective nouns are nouns that signify many; as, Multitude, crowd. Abstract nouns are the names of qualities abstracted from their substances; as, Wisdom, wickedness.

Verbal or participial nouns are nouns derived from verbs, as, Reading. Proper nouns have the plural only when they refer to a race or family; as, The Campbells; or to several persons of the same name; as, The eight Henrys; the two Mr Bells; the two Miss Browns; (or without the numeral) the Miss Roys; but, in addressing letters in which both or all are equally concerned, and also when the names are different, we pluralize the title (Mr or Miss), and write Misses Brown; Misses Roy; Messrs (for essieurs, Fr.) Oliver and Boyd.

Of NUMBER.

Nouns have two numbers; the Singular and the Plural. The singular denotes one, the plu

ral more than one.

The plural is generally formed by adding s to the singular; as, Book, books.

To this general rule there are many exceptions:—

1. Nouns in ss, sh, ch soft, x, and in i and o preceded by a consonant, form the plural by adding es; as, Miss, misses; brush, brushes; church, churches; fox, foxes; alkali, alkalies; hero, heroes.

Ch hard, and o preceded by a vowel, take s only; as, Stomach, stomachs; folio, folios.

2. Nouns in y preceded by a consonant change y into ies in the plural; as, Lady, ladies; but y preceded by a vowel follows the general rule; as, Day, days.

3. Nouns in for fe, change ƒ or fe into ves in the plural; as, Loaf, loaves; life, lives.

The following words follow the general rule, viz.-Brief, chief, fief, grief, handkerchief; hoof, proof, reproof, roof; dwarf, scarf, wharf; gulf; turf; cliff, sheriff, skiff, whiff; cuff, muff, puff, ruff, snuff, stuff; fife, strife; safe.

4. Some nouns, including all that end in man, take the Saxon en in the plural; as,

Ox

Footman

Child

Man

Alderman

Englishman

oxen

children

men

aldermen
Englishmen

footmen

5. Nouns which have two meanings have sometimes two forms of the plural. Thus:

Brother has brothers in the plural to denote sons of the same parent, and brethren to denote members of the same society; Die, a stamp for coining, has dies; die, a little cube used in games, dice; Genius has geniuses when signifying persons of genius, genii when denoting aerial beings; Index has indexes when it means a table of contents, and indices when it denotes the exponent of an algebraic quantity; Pea has peas for single seeds, and pease for seeds in the mass; Penny has pennies when penny-pieces are intended, but pence when mere value is denoted.

6. A few nouns are entirely anomalous in the formation

of the plural. Thus :

Louse lice Cow kine Tooth teeth

Mouse mice Sow swine

7. A few nouns are used alike in both numbers; as, Deer, sheep, swine; the singular being distinguished from the plural by the article a; as, A deer, a sheep, a swine.

EXERCISES ON NUMBER.

Write,- —or tell,- —or spell, the Plural of

Fox,* book, leaf, candle, hat, loaf, wish, fish, sex, kiss, coach, inch, sky, army, duty, knife, echo, loss, cargo, wife, story, church, table, glass, study, calf, branch, street, potato, peach, sheaf, booby, rock, stone, house, hope, flower, city, difficulty, distress.

Day, boy, relay, chimney, journey, valley, needle, enemy, an army, a vale, an ant, a sheep, the hills, a valley, the sea, key, toy.

Monarch, tyro, grotto, nuncio, punctilio, ruff, muff, reproof, portico, handkerchief, gulf, hoof, fife, multitude, people, meeting, John, Lucy.

OBSERVATIONS.

Nouns which have been adopted without change from foreign languages generally retain their original plurals. Thus :

*What is the plural of for? Foxes. Why? Because nouns in ss, sh, ch soft, x, i, or o, form the plural, by adding es.-What is the plural of book? Books. Why? Because the plural is generally formed by adding s to the singular.- -What is the plural of leaf? Leaves. Why? Because nouns in for fe change for fe into ves in the plural.—What is the plural of army Armies. Why? Because nouns in y, preceded by a consonant, change y into ies in the plural.What is the plural of day Days. Spell it; d, a, y, s. Why not d, a, i, e, s? Because y with a vowel before it is not changed into ies: it takes s only.difference between adding and changing?-K. No. 37, 40, 41.

What is the