Practical Exercises in English

by Huber Gray Buehler

Distinguish in meaning between the following:—

1. The house stood (has stood) twenty years.
2. The messenger came (has come).
3. He should stay (have stayed).
4. It rained (has rained) for two weeks.
5. He was believed to live (to have lived) a happy life.
6. He ought to go (to have gone).
7. He deposited (has deposited) the money in bank.
8. I am sure I could go (have gone) alone.
9. Yesterday at three o'clock I completed (had completed) my work.
10. He must be (have been) weary.
11. He appeared to be (have been) crying.
12. He need not go. He need not have gone.
13. The horse jumped (had jumped) into the field, and began (had begun) to eat the corn.
14. Achilles is said to be (have been) buried at the foot of this hill.

EXERCISE XLVIII.

Which of the italicized forms is right?—

1. Where did you say Pike's Peak is (was)?
2. I intended to do (to have done) it yesterday.
3. Atlas is (was) a mythical giant who was supposed to hold (to have held) the sky on his shoulders.
4. I do not think that any one would say that winter is (was) preferable to spring.
5. Cadmus was supposed to build (to have built) Thebes.
6. Your father grieves to hear (to have heard) of your bad conduct.
7. Would he have been willing to go (to have gone) with you?
8. I meant to write (to have written) yesterday.
9. He tried to learn how far it is (was) from New York to Syracuse.
10. He hardly knew that two and two make (made) four.
11. His experience proved that there is (was) many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip.
12. Carrie knew that water is (was) composed of two gases.
13. It was their duty to prevent (to have prevented) this outrage.
14. He was reported to rescue (to have rescued) the drowning man.
15. It would have been unkind to refuse (to have refused) to help (to have helped) him.
16. It would not have been difficult to prevent (to have prevented) the disaster.
17. Where did you say Gettysburg is (was)?
18. It was as true as that he is (was) listening to me when I said it.
19. It was harder than I expected it would be (have been).
20. Homer is supposed to be (to have been) born about 850 B.C.
21. When I came I intended to buy (to have bought) all Paris.
22. Washington is known to have (to have had) many narrow escapes.
23 If you would only wait, your success will (would) be certain.
24. Is he very sick? I should say he is (was).
25. Who first asserted that virtue is (was) its own reward?
26. We have done no more than it was our duty to do (to have done).
27. What building is (was) that which we just passed?
28. He impressed on us the truth that honesty is (was) the best policy.
29. He expected to see (to have seen) you to-morrow.
30. He expected to win (to have won) the suit, and was astonished at the decision of the court.
31. The result of such constant reading by poor light would have been to destroy (to have destroyed) his sight.
32. It would have given me great satisfaction to relieve (to have relieved) him from his distress.
33. Who would have thought it possible to receive (to have received) a reply from India so soon?
34. It would have been better to wait (to have waited).
35. I should like to hear (to have heard) the speeches of Hayne and Webster.
36. The furniture was to be (to have been) sold at auction.
37. It was a pity I was the only child, for my mother had fondness of heart enough to spoil (to have spoiled) a dozen children.
38. I am writing to him so that he may (might) be ready for us.
39. I have written to him so that he may (might) be ready for us.
40. I wrote to him so that he may (might) be ready for us.

EXERCISE XLIX.

Examine the tenses in the following sentences, explain any errors which
you find, and correct them:—

1. I knew him since boyhood.
2. It was a superstition among the Mexicans that a bullet will not kill a man unless it has his name stamped on it.
3. Being absent from the last recitation, I am unable to write on the subject assigned this morning.
4. Soon after Oliver reached home a servant announces the presence of Charles.
5. "'Got any luck?' says I. 'No,' says he. 'Well,' says I, 'I've got the finest string of trout ever was seen.'"
6. Be virtuous and you would be happy.
7. Stackhouse believed that he solved the problem he had so long studied over, and yesterday afternoon he started from his house, No. 2446 North Tenth Street, to make a test.
8. This beautiful little bird that appears to the king and tries to warn him, was not an ordinary bird.
9. Next September I shall be at school three years.
10. I know very little about the "Arabian Nights," for I have never read any of the stories before I came to this school.
11. If he received your instructions he would have obeyed them.
12. Before he was going to have the sign printed he submitted it to his friends for corrections.
13. The Balloon Society recently invited Mr. Gould to read before them a paper on yachting. Mr. Gould, in reply, has expressed regret that the shortness of his visit will prevent him from accepting the invitation.
14. I should be obliged to him if he will gratify me in that respect.
15. While he was in England the British had given him very honorable positions in America in order to have his help if they had any trouble with the colonies.
16. Up and down the engines pounded. It is a good twenty-one knots now, and the upper deck abaft the chart-house began rapidly to fill.
17. Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln regret that a previous engagement, will prevent them from accepting Mrs. Black's kind invitation for Thursday.
18. Mr. Rockwell will accept with pleasure the invitation of Mr. and Mrs. Pembroke for Tuesday evening, December 3d.
19. I am sure that he has been there and did what was required of him.
20. He might probably have been desirous, in the first place, to have dried his clothes and refreshed himself.
21. He could not have failed to have aroused suspicion.
22. When, on the return of Dr. Primrose's son Moses from the Fair, the family had discovered how he had been cheated, we are shown an admirable picture of home life.
23. Apart from his love, Orlando was also a noble youth. When old Adam, at last overcome by fatigue, sank in the footsteps of Orlando, Orlando tries to encourage and assist him.
24. The increase in tonnage was not so rapid as it would have been were it not for the Act of 1790.

Indicative or Subjunctive.[82]—The modern tendency to drop the subjunctive is unfortunate, for the distinction between the subjunctive and the indicative is too useful to be abandoned.[83] A knowledge of the difference between these modes in English is especially important in view of the difficulty which pupils complain of in mastering the uses of the Latin subjunctive or the Greek subjunctive and optative.[84] For these reasons more space is given to the subjunctive in this book than would be called for by a mere discussion of modern English usage.

Forms of the Subjunctive—In form the English subjunctive differs from the indicative in several ways:—