A fairly simple sentence is memorized; let us say, Ich kann meinen Stock heute nicht nehmen, “I can’t take my stick to-day.” Appropriate groups of ergons are also memorized, such as:
A
ich, I
B
kann, can
muss, must
soll, am to
werde, shall
könnte, could
musste, had to
sollte, ought to
würde, should
C
meinen Stock, my stick
meinen Bleistift, my pencil
Ihren Regenschirm, your umbrella
den Stuhl, the chair
denselben, the same
ihn, him, it
sie, her, it
es, it
D
heute, to-day
morgen, to-morrow
heute morgen, this morning
morgen früh, to-morrow morning
um zwei Uhr, at two o’clock
nächsten Monat, next month
nächste Woche, next week
nächstes Jahr, next year
E
nicht, not
F
nehmen, take
sehen, see
bringen, bring, take
tragen, carry, take
suchen, look for
finden, find
bekommen, get
The student will then form (as constructed matter) as many of the 16,128 resultant sentences[7] as is considered necessary for this particular vocabulary. This will be done by means of drills and habit-forming exercises based on the following substitution table:
| A | B | C | D | E | F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ich | kann | meinen Stock | heute | nicht | nehmen |
| muss | meinen Bleistift | morgen | sehen | ||
| soll | Ihren Regenschirm | heute morgen | bringen | ||
| werde | den Stuhl | morgen früh | tragen | ||
| könnte | denselben | um zwei Uhr | suchen | ||
| musste | ihn | nächsten Monat | finden | ||
| sollte | sie | nächste Woche | bekommen | ||
| würde | es | nächstes Jahr |
The essential difference between grammatical and ergonic construction lies in the sort of memorized matter used in either case. In grammatical construction the memorized matter consists exclusively of what we have called ‘dictionary words’ (a large proportion of which require modifying in some form or other before being available for use in a sentence), whereas in ergonic construction two sorts of memorized matter are required: a more or less complete sentence and a number of ergons (units of language inflected or composed in advance for the student, instead of by the student).
(c) Conversion
This process consists in memorizing a number of sentences all composed in a more or less uniform way.
When these sentences have been memorized, the student is taught by a series of appropriate drills and habit-forming exercises to convert each sentence into another form.
The following is a typical example of the process. The student memorizes the ten following sentences: