The verbs look, see, sing, may change their form to looked, saw, sang, to denote past time.
The examples show that a word may be inflected (1) by the addition of a final letter or syllable (dog, dogs; look, looked), (2) by the substitution of one letter for another (man, men), or (3) by a complete change of form (good, better, best).
53. The inflection of a substantive is called its declension; that of an adjective or an adverb, its comparison; that of a verb, its conjugation.
Note. Some forms which we regard as due to inflection are really distinct words. Thus we is regarded as a form of the pronoun I, but it is in fact an altogether different word. Such irregularities, however, are not numerous, and are properly enough included under the head of inflection.
The table below gives a summary view of inflection, and may be used for reference with the following chapters.
- Substantives (Nouns and Pronouns)
- Gender
- Masculine (male)
- Feminine (female)
- Neuter (no sex)
- Number
- Singular (one)
- Plural (more than one)
- Person
- First (speaker)
- Second (spoken to)
- Third (spoken of)
- Case
- Nominative (subject case)
- Possessive (ownership)
- Objective (object case)
- Gender
- Adjectives and Adverbs
- Comparison
- Positive Degree
- Comparative Degree
- Superlative Degree
- Comparison
- Verbs
- Number (Verb agrees with Subject)
- Singular
- Plural
- Person (Verb agrees with Subject)
- First
- Second
- Third
- Tense
- Simple Tenses
- Present
- Past
- Future
- Compound Tenses
- Perfect (or Present Perfect)
- Pluperfect (or Past Perfect)
- Future Perfect
- Simple Tenses
- Mood
- Indicative (all six tenses)
- Imperative (Present Tense only)
- Subjunctive (Present, Past, Perfect, Pluperfect)
- Voice
- Active (Subject acts)
- Passive (Subject receives the action)
- Infinitives (Present and Perfect)
- Participles (Present, Past, and Perfect)
- Number (Verb agrees with Subject)
CHAPTER II
NOUNS
CLASSIFICATION—COMMON NOUNS AND PROPER NOUNS
54. A noun is the name of a person, place, or thing.