33. Participles are used in a variety of verb-phrases.
- Tom is coming.
- Our boat was wrecked.
- I have sent the money.
- He has brought me a letter.
- Your book is found.
- They have sold their horses.
- You have broken your watch.
- The ship had struck on the reef.
Such phrases will be studied in connection with the inflection of verbs.
Note. The double nature of the infinitive (as both verb and noun) and the participle (as both verb and adjective) almost justifies one in classifying each as a distinct part of speech (so as to make ten parts of speech instead of eight). But it is more convenient to include them under the head of verbs, in accordance with the usual practice.
SIMPLE AND COMPLETE SUBJECT AND PREDICATE
34. Our survey of the eight parts of speech has shown, (1) that these have very different offices or functions in the sentence, and (2) that their functions are not of equal importance.
Clearly, the most important parts of speech are substantives (nouns and pronouns) and verbs.
Substantives enable us to name or designate persons, places, or things, and verbs enable us to make statements about them. Both substantives and verbs, then, are absolutely necessary in framing sentences. Without a substantive, there can be no subject; without a verb, there can be no predicate: and both a subject and a predicate, as we have seen, are needed to make a sentence.
Adjectives and adverbs are less important than substantives and verbs. Their function is to modify other parts of speech, that is, to change their meaning in some way. Thus adjectives modify substantives (by describing or limiting), and adverbs usually modify verbs (by indicating how, when, or where the action took place). Without substantives, there would be no use for adjectives; without verbs, there would be little use for adverbs.
Prepositions and conjunctions are also less important than substantives and verbs. Their office is to connect and to show relation. Of course, there would be no place for connectives if there were nothing to connect.