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.

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

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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 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 transīre, 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:—

The following exceptional usages should be diligently noted:—

I. Intransitive verbs may be used transitively. Thus—

(i) (a) He walked to London.    (b) He walked his horse.
    (a) The eagle flew.                (b) The boy flew his kite.

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

(i) (a) He laughed.                    (b) He laughed-at me.
(ii) (a) He came.                       (b) He overcame the enemy.
(iii) (a) He spoke.                     (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.
   (a) She shut the door.   (b) The door shut suddenly.
   (a) They moved the table. (b) The table moved.

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

   (a) He cut the beef.       (b) The beef cuts tough.
   (a) He sold the books.  (b) The books sell well.
   (a) She smells the rose. (b) The rose smells sweet.

The following is a tabular view of the

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.”

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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:—

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

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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. Thus we say—

(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. indicāre, to point out.

(ii) Imperative comes from the Lat. imperāre, to command. Hence also emperor, empress, etc. (through French).

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

(iv) Infinitive comes from the 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?”

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

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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 a 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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(iii) it may be governed by a preposition. It has two functions: that of a noun, and that of a verb—that is, it is itself a noun, and it has the governing power of a verb.

(i) Reading is pleasant. (ii) I like reading. (iii) He got off by crossing the river. In this last sentence, crossing is a noun in relation to by, and a verb in relation to river.

Gerund comes from the Lat. gero, I carry on; because it carries on the power or function of the verb.

(ii) The Gerund must be carefully distinguished from three other kinds of words: (a) from the verbal noun, which used to end in ung; (b) from the present participle; and (c) from the infinitive with to. The following are examples:—

(iii) The following three words in ing have each a special function:—
         (a) He is reading about the passing of Arthur (verbal noun).
         (b) And Arthur, passing thence (participle), rode to the wood.
         (c) This is only good for passing the time (gerund).

18. A Participle is a verbal adjective. There are two participles: the Present Active and the Perfect Passive. The former (i) has two functions: that of an adjective and that of a verb. The latter (ii) has only the function of an adjective.

(i) “Hearing the noise, the porter ran to the gate.” In this sentence, hearing is an adjective qualifying porter, and a verb governing noise.

(ii) Defeated and discouraged, the enemy surrendered.

1. We must be very careful to distinguish between (a) the gerund in ing, and (b) the participle in ing. Thus running in a “running stream”

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is an adjective, and therefore a participle. In the phrase, “in running along,” it is a noun, and therefore a gerund. Milton says—

“And ever, against eating cares,
Lap me in soft Lydian airs!”

Here eating is an adjective, and means fretting; and it is therefore a participle. But if it had meant cares about eating, eating would have been a noun, and therefore a gerund. So a fishing-rod is not a rod that fishes; a frying-pan is not a pan that fries; a walking-stick is not a stick that walks. The rod is a rod for fishing; the pan, a pan for frying; the stick, a stick for walking; and therefore fishing, frying, and walking are all gerunds.

2. The word participle comes from the Lat. participāre, to partake of. The participle partakes of the nature of the verb. (Hence also participate.)

TENSE.

19. Tense is the form which the verb takes to indicate time. There are, in human life, three times: past, present, and future. Hence there are in a verb three chief tenses: Past, Present, and Future. These may be represented on a straight line:—

(i) The word tense comes to us from the French temps, which is from the Lat. tempus, time. Hence also temporal, temporary, etc. (The modern French word is temps; the old French word was tens.)

20. The tenses of an English verb give not only the time of an action or event, but also the state or condition of that action or event. This state may be complete or incomplete, or neither—that is, it is left indefinite. These states are oftener called perfect, imperfect, and indefinite. The condition, then, of an action as expressed by a verb, or the condition of the tense of a verb, may be of three kinds. It may be—

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We now have therefore—

(i) The only tense in our language that is formed by inflexion is the past indefinite. All the others are formed by the aid of auxiliaries.
          (a) The imperfect tenses are formed by be + the imperfect participle.
          (b) The perfect tenses are formed by have + the perfect participle.
(ii) Besides had written, have written, and will have written, we can say had been writing, have been writing, and will have been writing. These are sometimes called Past Perfect (or Pluperfect) Continuous, Perfect Continuous, and Future Perfect Continuous.
(iii) “I do write,” “I did write,” are called Emphatic forms.

NUMBER.

21. Verbs are modified for Number. There are in verbs two numbers: (i) the Singular and (ii) the Plural.

(i) We say, “He writes” (with the ending s).
(ii) We say, “They write” (with no inflectional ending at all).

PERSON.

22. Verbs are modified for Person—that is, the form of the verb is changed to suit (i) the first person, (ii) the second person, or (iii) the third person.

(i) “I write.” (ii) “Thou writest.” (iii) “He writes.”

CONJUGATION.

23. Conjugation is the name given to the sum-total of all the inflexions and combinations of the parts of a verb.

The word conjugate comes from the Lat. conjugare, to bind together.

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24. There are two conjugations in English—the Strong and the Weak. Hence we have: (i) verbs of the Strong Conjugation, and (ii) verbs of the Weak Conjugation, which are more usually called Strong Verbs and Weak Verbs. These verbs are distinguished from each other by their way of forming their past tenses.

25. The past tense of any verb determines to which of these classes it belongs; and that by a twofold test—one positive and one negative.

26. (i) The positive test for the past of a Strong Verb is that it changes the vowel of the present. (ii) The negative test is that it never adds anything to the present to make its past tense.

(i) Thus we say write, wrote, and change the vowel.

(ii) But in wrote there is nothing added to write.

27. (i) The positive test for the past tense of a Weak Verb is that d or t is added to the present. (ii) The negative test is that the root-vowel of the present is generally not changed.

(i) There are some exceptions to this latter statement. Thus tell, told; buy, bought; sell, sold, are weak verbs. The change in the vowel does not spring from the same cause as the change in strong verbs. Hence—

(ii) It is as well to keep entirely to the positive test in the case of weak verbs. However “strong” or “irregular” may seem to be the verbs teach, taught; seek, sought; say, said, we know that they are weak, because they add a d or a t for the past tense.

(iii) In many weak verbs there seems to be both a change of vowel and also an absence of any addition. Hence they look very like strong verbs. In fact, the long vowel of the present is made short in the past. Thus we find meet, met; feed, fed. But these verbs are not strong. The old past was mettë and feddë; and all that has happened is that they have lost the old inflexions te and de. It was owing to the addition of another syllable that the original long vowel of the verb was shortened. Compare nation, national; vain, vanity.

(iv) The past or passive participle of strong verbs had the suffix en and the prefix ge. The suffix has now disappeared from many strong verbs, and the prefix from all. But ge, which in Chaucer’s time had been refined into a y (as in ycomen, yronnen), is retained still in that form in the one word yclept. Milton’s use of it in star-y-pointing is a mistake.

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28. The following is an

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF STRONG VERBS.

(All strong verbs except those which have a prefix are monosyllabic.)
The forms in italics are weak.

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It is well for the young learner to examine the above verbs closely, and to make a classification of them for his own use. The following are a few suggestions towards this task:—

(i) Collect verbs with vowels a, e, a; like fall, fell, fallen.
(ii) Verbs with o, e, o; like throw, threw, thrown.
(iii) Verbs with i, a, u; like begin, began, begun.
(iv) Verbs with i, u, u; like fling, flung, flung.
(v) Verbs with i, ou, ou; like find, found, found.
(vi) Verbs with ea, o, o; like break, broke, broken.
(vii) Verbs with i, a, i; like give, gave, given.
(viii) Verbs with a, o or oo, a; like shake, shook, shaken.
(ix) Verbs with i (long), o, i (short); like drive, drove, driven.
(x) Verbs with ee or oo, o, o; like freeze, froze, frozen; or choose, chose, chosen.

29. Weak Verbs are of two kinds: (i) Irregular Weak; and (ii) Regular Weak. The Irregular Weak are such verbs as tell, told; buy, bought. The Regular Weak are such verbs as attend, attended; obey, obeyed.

(i) The Irregular Weak verbs are, with very few exceptions, monosyllables, and are almost all of purely English origin.

(ii) The Regular Weak verbs are entirely of Latin or of French origin. Since the language lost the power of changing the root-vowel of a verb, every verb received into our tongue from another language has been placed in the Regular Weak conjugation.

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(iii) The ed or d is a shortened form of did. Thus, I loved is = I love did.

30. Irregular Weak verbs are themselves divided into two classes: (i) those which keep their ed, d, or t in the past tense; (ii) those which have lost the d or t. Thus we find (i) sleep, slept; teach, taught. Among (ii) we find feed, fed, which was once fed-dë; set, set, which was once set-të.

It is of the greatest importance to attend to the following changes:—

(i) A sharp consonant follow a sharp, and a flat a flat. Thus p in sleep is sharp, and therefore we cannot say sleeped. We must take the sharp form of d, which is t, and say slept. So also felt, burnt, dreamt, etc.

(ii) Some verbs shorten their vowel. Thus we have hear, heard; flee, fled; sleep, slept, etc.

(iii) Some verbs have different vowels in the present and past: as tell, told; buy, bought; teach, taught; work, wrought. But it is not the past tense, it is the present that has changed. Thus the o in told represents the a in tale, etc.

(iv) Some have dropped an internal letter. Thus made is = maked; paid = payed; had = haved.

(v) Some verbs change the d of the present into a t in the past. Thus we have build, built; send, sent.

(vi) A large class have the three parts—present, past, and passive participle—exactly alike. Such are rid, set, etc.

The following is an

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF IRREGULAR WEAK VERBS.

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31. Before we can learn the full conjugation of a verb, we must acquaint ourselves with all the parts of the auxiliary verbs – Shall and Will; Have and Be.

(i) If be means existence merely (as in the sentence God is), it is called a notional verb; if it used in the formation of the passive voice, it is an auxiliary verb. In the same way, have is a notional verb when it means to possess, as in the sentence, “I have a shilling.”

32. The following are the parts of the verb Shall:—

INDICATIVE MOOD.

Present Tense

Past Tense

Imp. Mood—.          Inf. Mood—.          Participles—.

(Should comes from an old dialectic form shol.)

33. The following are the parts of the verb Will:—

INDICATIVE MOOD.

Present Tense

Past Tense

Imp. Mood—.          Inf. Mood—.          Participles—.

(i) Shall and will are used as Tense-auxiliaries. As a tense-auxiliary, shall is used only in the first person. Thus we say, I shall write; thou wilt write; he will write—when we speak merely of future time.

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(ii) Shan’t is = shall not. Won’t is = wol not, wol being an older form of will. We find wol also in wolde—an old spelling of would.

(iii) Shall in the 1st person expresses simple futurity; in the 2d and 3d persons, authority. Will in the 1st person expresses determination; in the 2d and 3d, only futurity.

34. The following are the parts of the verb Have:—

INDICATIVE MOOD.

Present Indefinite Tense

Present Perfect Tense

(i) Hast = havest. Compare e’en and even. (ii) Had = haved.

Past Indefinite Tense

Past Perfect (or Pluperfect) Tense

Future Indefinite Tense

Future Perfect Tense

SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD.

Present Indefinite Tense

Present Perfect Tense

Past Indefinite Tense

Same in form as in the Indicative; but with no inflexion in the second person.

Past Perfect Tense

Same in form as in the Indicative; but with no inflexion in the second person.

Past Indefinite Tense

Past Perfect (Pluperfect) Tense

IMPERATIVE MOOD.—Singular: Have! Plural: Have!

INFINITIVE MOOD.—Present Indefinite: (To) have. Perfect: (To) have had.

PARTICIPLES.—Imperfect: Having. Past (or Passive): Had. Compound Perfect (Active): Having had.

35. The following are the parts of the verb Be:—

INDICATIVE MOOD.

Present Indefinite Tense

Present Perfect Tense

Past Indefinite Tense

Past Perfect (Pluperfect) Tense

Future Indefinite Tense.                   Future Perfect Tense.
   I