1. An Explicative Sentence is when a thing is said to be, or not to be; to do, or not to do; to suffer, or not to suffer; in a direct manner; as in the foregoing examples. If the Sentence be Negative, the Adverb not is placed after the Auxiliary, or after the Verb itself when it has no Auxiliary: as, “it did not touch him;” or, “it touched him not[54].”
2. In an Interrogative Sentence, or when a Question is asked, the Nominative Case follows the Principal Verb, or the Auxiliary: as, “was it he?” “did Alexander conquer the Persians?” So that the Question depends intirely on the order of the words[55].
3. In an Imperative Sentence, when a thing is commanded to be, to do, to suffer, or not, the Nominative Case follows the Verb or the Auxiliary: as, “Go, thou traytor;” or, “do thou go:” or the Auxiliary let with the Objective[56] Case after it is used: as, “Let us be gone[57].”
The Adjective in English, having no variation of Gender or Number, cannot but agree with the Substantive in those respects; some of the Pronominal Adjectives only excepted, which have the Plural Number: as, these, those, and they; which must agree in Number[58] with their Substantives.
The Adjective generally goes before the Noun: as, “a wise man; a good horse;” unless something depend on the Adjective; as, “food convenient for me:” or the Adjective be emphatical; as, “Alexander the great.” And the Article goes before the Adjective: except the Adjectives such and many, and others subjoined to the Adverbs so, as, and how: as, “such a man;” “many a man;” “so good a man;” “as good a man as ever lived;” “how beautiful a prospect is here!” And sometimes when there are two or more Adjectives joined to the Noun: as, “a man learned and religious.”
Every Verb, except in the Infinitive or the Participle, hath its Nominative Case, either expressed or implied[59]; as,