91. “I intended to have written a letter yesterday:” say, to write; as however long it now is since I thought of writing, “to write” was then present to me, and must still be considered as present, when I recall that time and the thoughts of it.
92. Superfluous R’s: Many persons pronounce words which have no letter r in them, exactly as though they had; as drawring for drawing; “I sawr Thomas,” for “I saw,” &c. Some who do not insert a full-toned r, do worse by appending an ah to almost every word they utter. They would do well to recall the reproof which the excellent Rev. John Gruber administered to a brother in the ministry, who was guilty of this habit. That eccentric clergyman addressed a note to his friend, as follows: “Dear-ah Sir-ah—When-ah you-ah speak-ah in-ah public-ah, take-ah my-ah ad-ah-vice-ah and-ah never-ah say-ah ah-ah!—John-ah Gruber-ah.”
93. Shall and will are often confounded, or misused. The following suggestion will be of service to the reader: mere futurity is expressed by shall in the first person, and by will in the second and third; the determination of the speaker by will, in the first, and shall, in the second and third. For example: “I shall go by the way of Halifax,” simply expresses an event about to take place—as also you will, and they will: I will expresses determination—as also you shall and they shall. Brightland has the following illustrative stanza:
“In the first person simply shall foretells;
In will a threat, or else a promise, dwells.
Shall, in the second and the third, does threat;—
Will, simply, then, foretells the future feat.”
94. “Without the grammatical form of a word can be recognized at a glance, little progress can be made in reading the language:” [from a work on the study of the Latin language:] say, Unless the grammatical, &c. The use of without for unless is a very common mistake.
95. “He claimed admission to the chiefest offices:” say, chief. Chief, right, supreme, correct, true, universal, perfect, consummate, extreme, &c., imply the superlative degree without adding est, or prefixing most. In language sublime or impassioned, however, the word perfect requires the superlative form, to give it its fullest effect.
96. “I had rather do it now:” say, I would rather do. The incorrectness of the first form of expression is very clearly seen by cutting out rather, leaving “I had do,” which is ungrammatical and meaningless.
97. An obituary notice contained the following ludicrous statement: “He left a large circle of mourners, embracing his amiable wife and children!” Comprising should have been used, instead of embracing.
98. “His court-of-arms is very splendid:” say, coat-of-arms.
99. “They ride about in small carriages, which are called flies:” write the last word flys; flies is the plural of fly, the insect.