+Direction+.—Give the Cautions which these expressions violate, and correct the errors:—
1. I can bear the heat of summer, but not cold of winter. 2. The North and South Pole. 3. The eldest son of a duke is called a marquis. 4. He had deceived me, and so I had a little faith in him. 5. An old and young man. 6. A prodigious snowball hit my cheek. 7. The evil is intolerable and not to be borne. 8. The fat, two lazy men. 9. His penmanship is fearful. 10. A white and red flag were flying. 11. His unusual, unexpected, and extraordinary success surprised him. 12. He wanted a apple, an hard apple. 13. A dried box of herrings. 14. He received a honor. 15. Such an use! 16. The day was delightful and warm. 17. Samuel Adams's habits were unostentatious, frugal, and simple. 18. The victory was complete, though a few of the enemy were killed or captured. 19. The truth is mighty and will prevail. 20. The scepter, the miter, and coronet seem to me poor things for great men to contend for. 21. A few can swim across the Straits of Dover, for the width is great and the current strong. 22. I have a contemptible opinion of you. 23. She has less friends than I.
LESSON 92.
CLASSES OF VERBS AND ADVERBS.
+Introductory Hints+.—You learned in Lesson 28 that in saying Washington captured we do not fully express the act performed. Adding Cornwallis, we complete the predicate by naming the one that receives the act that passes over from the doer. Transitive means passing over, and so all verbs that represent an act as passing over from a doer to a receiver are called +Transitive Verbs+. If we say Cornwallis was captured by Washington, the verb is still transitive; but the object, Cornwallis, which names the receiver, is here the subject of the sentence, and not, as before, the object complement. You see that the object, the word that names the receiver of the act, may be the subject, or it may be the object complement.
All verbs that, like fall in Leaves fall, do not represent the act as passing over to a receiver, and all that express mere being or state of being are called +Intransitive Verbs+.
A verb transitive in one sentence; as, He writes good English, may be intransitive in another; as, He writes well—meaning simply He is a good writer. A verb is transitive only when an object is expressed or obviously understood.
Washington captured Cornwallis. Here captured represents the act as having taken place in past time. Tense means time, and hence this verb is in the past tense. Cornwallis captured, the war speedily closed. Here captured is, as you have learned, a participle; and, representing the act as past at the time indicated by closed, it is a past participle. Notice that ed is added to capture (final e is always dropped when ed is added) to form its past tense and its past participle. All verbs that form the past tense and the past participle by adding ed to the present are called +Regular Verbs+.
All verbs that do not form the past tense and the past participle by adding ed to the present; as, fall, fell, fallen; go, went, gone, are called +Irregular Verbs+.
Early, hereafter, now, often, soon, presently, etc., used to modify any verb—as, will go in, I will go soon—by expressing time, are called +Adverbs of Time+.