260. "In what case is the word dominus?" "In the nominative, sir." In the hurry of school pronunciation "nominative" is nearly always heard in three syllables, as if written nomnative or nomative, an error that should be very carefully avoided; it is a word of four syllables.
261. Of whatever you get, endeavor to save something; and, with all your getting, get wisdom. Carefully avoid saying git for get, and gitting for getting.
262. So intent was he on the song he was singing, as he stood by the fire, that he did not perceive that his clothes were singeing. N. B. Verbs ending with a single e omit the e when the termination ing is added; as, give, giving. In singeing, however, the e must be retained, to prevent its being confounded with singing.
263. The boy had a swingeing for swinging without permission. Read the preceding note.
264. The man who was dyeing said that his father was then dying. Read the note in No. 262, in reference to dyeing; and observe that die changes the i into y before the addition of the termination ing.
265. His surname is Clifford; never spell the sur in surname, sir, which shows an ignorance of is true derivation, which is from the Latin.
266. In "Bell's Life in London," of Saturday, Jan. 13th, of the current year [1855], there is a letter from a Scotchman to the editor on the subject of the declining salmon fisheries in Scotland. In one passage the writer thus expresses himself: "The Duke of Sutherland has got almost no rent for these [salmon] rivers for the last four years," &c. The writer should have said, scarcely any rent. "Almost no rent" is a downright Scotticism.
267. His mamma sent him to a preparatory school; mamma is often written with one m only, which is not, as may at first be supposed, in imitation of the French [maman], but in sheer ignorance. The word is pure Greek.
268. Active verbs often take a neuter sense; as, The house is building. Here is building is used in a neuter signification, because it has no object after it. By this rule are explained such sentences as, Application is wanting, The grammar is printing, &c.
269. He attackted me without the slightest provocation; say, attacked.