An Advanced English Grammar with Exercises. George Lyman Kittredge
Wolves howl.
Rain is falling.
Charles is courageous.
Patient effort removes mountains.
London is the largest city in the world.
A man who respects himself should never condescend to use slovenly language.
Some of these sentences are short, expressing a very simple thought; others are comparatively long, because the thought is more complicated and therefore requires more words for its expression. But every one of them, whether short or long, is complete in itself. It comes to a definite end, and is followed by a full pause.
2. Every sentence, whether short or long, consists of two parts—a subject and a predicate.
The subject of a sentence designates the person, place, or thing that is spoken of; the predicate is that which is said of the subject.
Thus, in the first example in § 1, the subject is fire and the predicate is burns. In the third, the subject is rain; the predicate, is falling. In the last, the subject is a man who respects himself; the predicate, should never condescend to use slovenly language.
Either the subject or the predicate may consist of a single word or of a number of words. But neither the subject by itself nor the predicate by itself, however extended, is a sentence. The mere mention of a thing (fire) does not express a complete thought. Neither does a mere assertion (burns), if we neglect to mention the person or thing about which the assertion is made. Thus it appears that both a subject and a predicate are necessary to make a sentence.
3. Sentences may be declarative, interrogative, imperative, or exclamatory.
1. A declarative sentence declares or asserts something as a fact.
Dickens wrote “David Copperfield.”
The army approached the city.
2. An interrogative sentence asks a question.
Who is that officer?
Does Arthur Moore live here?
3. An imperative sentence expresses a command or a request.
Open the window.
Pronounce the vowels more distinctly.
4. An exclamatory sentence expresses surprise, grief, or some other emotion in the form of an exclamation or cry.
How calm the sea is!
What a noise the engine makes!
A declarative, an interrogative, or an imperative sentence is also exclamatory, if it is uttered in an intense or excited tone of voice.
4. In imperative sentences, the subject (thou or you) is almost always omitted, because it is understood by both speaker and hearer without being expressed.
Such omitted words, which are present (in idea) to the minds of both speaker and hearer, are said to be “understood.” Thus, in “Open the window,” the subject is “you (understood).” If expressed, the subject would be emphatic: as—“You open the window.”
5. The subject of a sentence commonly precedes the predicate, but sometimes the predicate precedes.
Here comes Tom.
Next came Edward.
Over went the carriage.
A sentence in which the predicate precedes the subject is said to be in the inverted order. This order is especially common in interrogative sentences.
Where is your boat?
When was your last birthday?
Whither wander you?—Shakspere.
THE PARTS OF SPEECH
6. If we examine the words in any sentence, we observe that they have different tasks or duties to perform in the expression of thought.
Savage beasts roamed through the forest.
In this sentence, beasts and forest are the names of objects; roamed asserts action, telling us what the beasts did; savage describes the beasts; through shows the relation in thought between forest and roamed; the limits the meaning of forest, showing that one particular forest is meant. Thus each of these words has its special office (or function) in the sentence.
7. In accordance with their use in the sentence, words are divided into eight classes called parts of speech—namely, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.
I. NOUNS
8. A noun is the name of a person, place, or thing.
Examples:
Lincoln,
William,
Elizabeth,
sister,
engineer,
Chicago,
island,
shelf,
star,
window,
happiness,
anger,
sidewalk,
courage,
loss,
song.
II. PRONOUNS
9. A pronoun is a word used instead of a noun. It designates a person, place, or thing without naming it.
In “I am ready,” the pronoun I is a convenient substitute for the speaker’s name. In “You have forgotten your umbrella,” the pronouns you and your designate the person to whom one is speaking.
Other pronouns are:
he, his, him;
she, hers, her;
it, its;
this, that;
who, whose, whom, which;
myself, yourself, himself, themselves.
Since pronouns stand for nouns, they enable us to talk about a person, place, or thing without constantly repeating the name.
10. Nouns and pronouns are called substantives.
Nouns and pronouns are very similar in their use. The difference between them is merely that the noun designates a person, place, or thing by naming it, and that the pronoun