COMMON ERRORS

194. Remember that in the present time form the third person singular takes the s-form, but the s-form is never used except with the third person singular. We often make the mistake of using the s-form with a plural subject. Notice carefully the following sentences, and correct the errors. All of the sentences are wrong.

  1. The days is getting shorter.
  2. The men has struck.
  3. The trains was late.
  4. These papers is written for you.
  5. You was disappointed, wasn't you?
  6. There is several coming.
  7. The nights was dark and cloudy.
  8. The clouds has gathered.
  9. They was anxious to come.

195. When two subjects are connected by and, the s-form of the verb must not be used, unless both subjects refer to one person; as:

196. But when the two subjects are connected by or or nor then use the s-form of the verb; as:

197. Never use the infinitive sign to by itself; as:

198. Never use don't for doesn't. The use of don't for doesn't is a very common mistake. Don't is a contraction of do not and doesn't of does not. When you are in doubt as to which to use, think or speak the two words in full and see if the verb agrees with the subject. Do not is used with a plural subject, and does not with a singular subject. For example: He don't believe me. This sentence in full would be, He do not believe me, which is incorrect. He does not (doesn't) believe me is correct. Or, They doesn't believe me. This sentence in full would read, They does not believe me, which is incorrect. They do not (don't) believe me is correct.

199. Do not use has got, or have got for must. For example, do not say, We have got to go. Say, We must go. Not, He has got to do what I say; but, He must do as I say.

200. Do not say had ought. For example: You had ought to know better. Omit the had; it is unnecessary and incorrect. Say, You ought to know better.

201. Do not say says I or thinks I.

These are incorrect. Say instead:

Exercise 5

Mark all the verbs in the following quotations and note carefully their use.

Note the use of may and can in this quotation:

Note the use of shall and will and would and should in the following. Richard Grant White says: "I do not know in English literature another passage in which the distinction between shall and will and would and should is at once so elegantly, so variously, so precisely, and so compactly illustrated."

Exercise 6

Note the nouns as well as the verbs in the following quotation. Note also the use of infinitives and participles. Mark every verb and use it in a sentence of your own.

Faith and Truth

You say "Believe;" I say "Trust."

Between those two words is a great gulf fixed.

The idea that there can be a moral obligation to believe external facts is unworthy of a freeman, but to trust is as much the true nature of man as it is that of a babe to draw in its mother's milk.

You say "Creed;" I say "Faith."

A creed at best is but a sorry caricature of a faith.

Faith is the proper atmosphere of man, trust is his native buoyancy, and his only obligation is to follow the highest law of his being.

You have one supreme duty above all creeds and conventions—namely, to think honestly, and say what you think.

Have you doubts about your creed? say so; only thus has the true faith ever advanced.

It is not God, but the devil, who whispers: "Think at your peril!"

Do you see flaws in the ancient structure of respectability and law and order? Say so; only thus has the condition of man ever improved.

Have courage to be the heretic and traitor that you are by nature, and do not worry about the consequences.

Be a creator, as you were born to be, and spurn beyond all infamies the wretched role of a repeater and apologist.

The world lives and grows by heresy and treason.

It dies by conformity to error and loyalty to wrong.
Ernest Crosby.

Exercise 7

In the following paragraph, the predicates are printed in italics, and the participles and infinitives in italic capitals. Study carefully.

If it were taught to every child, and in every school and college, that it is morally wrong for anyone TO LIVE upon the COMBINED labor of his fellowmen without CONTRIBUTING an approximately equal amount of useful labor, whether physical or mental, in return, all kinds of GAMBLING, as well as many other kinds of useless occupations, would be seen TO BE of the same nature as direct dishonesty or fraud, and, therefore would soon come TO BE CONSIDERED disgraceful as well as immoral. Alfred Russel Wallace.

Exercise 8

Underscore all the verbs in the following and note the participles, the infinitives and the various time forms; also the helping verbs:

What, speaking in quite unofficial language, is the net purport of war? To my knowledge, for example, there dwell and toil, in the British village of Dumrudge, usually some five hundred souls. From these, by certain 'natural enemies' of the French, there are selected, say thirty able-bodied men; Dumrudge, at her own expense, has suckled and nursed them; she has, not without difficulty and sorrow, fed them up to manhood and trained them in the crafts, so that one can weave, another build and another hammer. Nevertheless, amidst much weeping and swearing, they are selected; all dressed in red and shipped away, at the public charges, some two thousand miles, or, say only to the south of Spain, and fed there till wanted. And now to that same spot in the south of Spain are thirty similar French artisans, in like manner, wending their ways; till at length the thirty stand facing the thirty, each with his gun in his hand. Straightway, the word 'Fire' is given, and they blow the souls out of one another; and in the place of the sixty brisk, useful craftsmen, the world has sixty dead carcasses, which it must bury and anew shed tears for.

Had these men any quarrel? Busy as the devil is, not the smallest! They lived far enough apart; were the entirest strangers; nay, in so wide a universe, there was even, unconsciously, by commerce, some mutual helpfulness between them.

How then?

Simpleton! Their governors had fallen out; and instead of shooting one another, had these poor blockheads shoot. —Carlyle.

SPELLING

LESSON 11

There are but few rules which can be learned to aid in the spelling of English words. The spelling of words must be largely mastered by concentration and effort of the memory. It will help you to memorize the correct spelling if you will write each word a number of times. This gives you a visual image of the word. Then spell it aloud a number of times. This will give you an auditory image.

Words which you find difficult to master, write in a list by themselves and review frequently. There are a few rules, however, which are helpful to know. There is one rule of spelling we want to learn this week concerning words formed by adding a suffix.

A word of one syllable which ends in a single consonant before which stands a single vowel, doubles the final consonant when a suffix beginning with a vowel is added.

For example: mat, matted, matting; sun, sunned, sunning.

Mat ends in t, a single consonant which is preceded by the single vowel a,—so you double the t when you add the suffix ed or ing, which begin with a vowel.

Notice these: Blend, blended, blending; Help, helped, helping.

These words do not end in a single consonant, so you do not double the consonant.

Notice also: Lean, leaned, leaning; Rain, rained, raining.

These words end in a single consonant, but before the consonant is a double vowel, ea in lean and ai in rain. So we do not double the final consonant.

This same rule holds true of any suffix, beginning with a vowel, as er and est, for example: sad, sadder, saddest. Slim, slimmer, slimmest.

Learn to spell the following words. Add the suffixes ed and ing to the words for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Add er and est to the words for Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

PLAIN ENGLISH

LESSON 12

Dear Comrade:

In this lesson we are beginning the study of still another part of speech. You will notice that in words, at least, we give credit and place in society only because of work performed. In the society of men, people are given place and position too often because of outward dress and form or because of some special privilege. They are not given their place in society because of the work which they do or because they perform any useful function. In fact, in our topsy-turvy world, those who perform no work at all, but are simply parasites upon society, have claimed for themselves the best of everything and the highest positions.

Surely some time we shall see a society as successfully organized as our society of words, when men will be received, not because of that which they possess, but because of that which they do and are. Man has really laid the foundation for an ideal commonwealth in his organization of words into a spoken and written language.

When we think back across the centuries and think of the primitive man as he dwelt in trees to protect himself from the wild animals, we wonder what sort of speech he used then. Possibly it was only a little more articulate than the speech of some animals.

But man had within him the instinct to question, and this has been the root of all his progress. We can imagine these primitive men witnessing the wonder of fire, as the terrible unknown god of the lightning set fire to the forest in which they lived; but after the fear had subsided, some adventurous, inquiring forefather of ours ventured near the ashes, and began to investigate concerning this fearful and wonderful thing.

So gradually they discovered the use of fire, and with it a wonderful new future opened before the primitive man. With these great discoveries, he needed a better form of communication with his comrades, so articulate speech developed. But when we go back into the beginning of written speech, it is difficult for us to trace it to its beginning.

The first evidence we find was of man as a sign maker. On the walls of caves in France and Belgium and here in America, we have found rude sketches which the scientists tell us date back to the Ice Age and the Old Stone Age. Here the primitive man has drawn for us crude pictures describing different phases of his life, the animals about him, the hunt and the chase, and in these pictures we find the very beginning of our alphabet of to-day.

How much more wonderful it makes our spoken and written language to know that man has developed it himself. It has not been handed down by some god or powers above; but the spirit of rebellion against the things that be; the great desire to know more and to find out the reason why of all the things around us,—these have been the forces that have led the race from the animal-like beings that lived in trees to the race of today that understands in a large measure the laws that govern life.

It is only as we, through this spirit of rebellion, this same divine discontent with the things that are, seek to do our own thinking that we can add our share to the heritage of the race. Let us have the same courage that must have inspired the heart of that primitive man who dared to venture and inquire concerning the fearful things of nature round about him. Let us think for ourselves. Ask always the question "why" and demand the reason for all things. Thus we shall free ourselves and help to free the race.

Yours for Education,

THE PEOPLE'S COLLEGE.