OBS. 36.—When the second person singular is employed in familiar discourse, with any regard to correctness, it is usually formed in a manner strictly analogous to that which is now adopted in the third person singular. When the verb ends with a sound which will unite with that of st or s, the second person singular is formed by adding s only, and the third, by adding s only; and the number of syllables is not increased: as, I read, thou readst, he reads; I know, thou knowst, he knows; I take, thou takest, he takes; I free, thou freest, he frees. For, when the verb ends in mute a, no termination renders this a vocal in the familiar style, if a synæresis can take place. To prevent their readers from ignorantly assuming the pronunciation of the solemn style, the poets have generally marked such words with an apostrophe: as,
"Look what thy soul holds dear, imagine it
To lie the way thou go'st, not whence thou com'st."—Shak.
OBS. 37.—But when the verb ends in a sound which will not unite with that of st or s, the second and third persons are formed by adding est and es; or, if the first person end in mute e, the st and s render that e vocal; so that the verb acquires an additional syllable: as, I trace, thou tracest, he traces; I pass, thou passest, he passes; I fix, thou fixest, he fixes; I preach, thou preachest, he preaches; I blush, thou blushest, he blushes; I judge, thou judgest, he judges. But verbs ending in o or y preceded by a consonant, do not exactly follow either of the foregoing rules. In these, y is changed into i; and, to both o and i, est and es are added without increase of syllables: as, I go, thou goest, he goes; I undo, thou undoest,[253] he undoes; I fly, thou fliest, he flies; I pity, thou pitiest, he pities. Thus, in the following lines, goest must be pronounced like ghost; otherwise, we spoil the measure of the verse:
"Thou goest not now with battle, and the voice
Of war, as once against the rebel hosts;
Thou goest a Judge, and findst the guilty bound;
Thou goest to prove, condemn, acquit, reward."—Pollok, B. x.
In solemn prose, however, the termination is here made a separate syllable: as, I go, thou goëst, he goëth; I undo, thou undoëst, he undoëth; I fly, thou fliëst, he fliëth; I pity, thou pitiëst, he pitiëth.
OBS. 38.—The auxiliaries do, dost, does,—(pronounced doo, dust, duz; and not as the words dough, dosed, doze,—) am, art, is,—have, hast, has,—being also in frequent use as principal verbs of the present tense, retain their peculiar forms, with distinction of person and number, when they help to form the compound tenses of other verbs. The other auxiliaries are not varied, or ought not to be varied, except in the solemn style. Example of the familiar use: "That thou may be found truly owning it."—Barclay's Works, Vol. i, p. 234.
OBS. 39.—The only regular terminations that are added to English verbs, are ing, d or e, st or est, s or es, th or eth[254] Ing, and th or eth, always add a syllable to the verb; except in doth, hath, saith.[255] The rest, whenever their sound will unite with that of the final syllable of the verb, are usually added without increasing the number of syllables; otherwise, they are separately pronounced. In solemn discourse, however, ed and est are by most speakers uttered distinctly in all cases; except sometimes when a vowel precedes: as in sanctified, glorified, which are pronounced as three syllables only. Yet, in spite of this analogy, many readers will have sanctifiest and glorifiest to be words of four syllables. If this pronunciation is proper, it is only so in solemn prose. The prosody of verse will show how many syllables the poets make: as,
"Thou diedst, a most rare boy, of melancholy!"
—Shak., Cymb., Act iv, sc. 2.
"Had not a voice thus warn'd me: What thou seest,
What there thou seest, fair creature, is thyself."
—Milton, B. iv, l. 467.
"By those thou wooedst from death to endless life."
—Pollok, B. ix, l. 7.