with the addition of the word thing; as, a good thing, a bad thing or of any particular substantive; as, a sweet apple, a pleasant prospect. 4. A Pronoun is a word used instead of a noun, to avoid the too frequent repetition of the same word; as, The man is happy; he is benevolent; he is useful. 5. A Verb is a word which signifies to Be, to Do, or to SUFFER; as, "I am, I rule, I am ruled." A Verb may generally be distinguished by its making sense with any of the personal pronouns, or the word to before it; as, 1 walk, he plays, they wrile; or, to walk, to play, to write. 6. An Adverb is a part of speech joined to a verb, an adjective, and sometimes to another adverb, to express some quality or circumstance respecting it; as, he reads well; a truly good man; he writes very correctly. An adverb may be generally known, by its answering to the question, How? How much? When? or, Where? as, in the phrase, He reads correctly," the answer to the question, How does he read is, correctly. 7. Prepositions serve to connect words with one another, and to show the relation between them; as, "He went from London to York;"she is above disguise;" "they are supported by industry." A Preposition may be known by its admitting after it a person 3 pronoun in the objective case; as with for to. &c. will allow the objective case after them; with hun, for her, to them &. 8. A Conjunction is a part of speech that is chiefly used to connect sentences; so as, out of two or more sentences to make but one it sometimes connects only words; as, "Thou and he are happy, because you are good." "Two and three are five." 9. Interjections are words thrown in between the parts of a sentence, to express the passions or emotions of the speaker; "O virtue! how amiable thou art !" as, ARTICLE. An Article is a word prefixed to substantives, to point them out, and to show how far their signification extends; as, a garden, an eagle, the woman. In English there are but two articles, a and the; a becomes an before a vowel, and before a silent h; as, an acorn, an hour. But if the h be sounded, the a only is to be used; as, a hand, a heart, a highway. A or an is styled the indefinite article: it is used in a vague sense, to point out one single thing of the kind, in other respects indeterminate; as, "Give me book; "Bring me an apple." a 66 The is called the definite article, because it ascertains what particular things are 10unt: as, "Give me the book; Bring me the apples;" meaning some book, or appies referred to. A substantive, without an article to limit it, is generally taken in its widest sense; as, "A candid temper is proper for man ;" that is, for all mankind. SUBSTANTIVE.* A Substantive or noun is the name of any thing that exists, or of which we have any notion; as, London, man, virtue. Substantives are either proper or common. the Proper names or substantives, are names appropriated to individuals; as, George, London, Thames. Common names or substantives, stand for kinds containing many sorts, or for sorts containing many individuals under them; as, animal, man, tree, &c. To substantives belong gender, number, and case; and they are all of the third person, when spoken of, and of the second, when spoken to as, "Blessings attend us on every side: Be grateful, children of men!" that is, ye children of men. Gender is the regard to sex. GENDER. distinction of nouns, with There are three genders *As soon as the learner has committed to memory the definitious of the article and substantive,' he should be employed in parsing these parts of speech, as they are arranged in the correspondent Exercises, in the Appendix. The learner should proceed in this manner, through all the definitions and rules, regularly turning to and parsing the exercises of one defintion or ruie, before he proceeds to nother. lu the same order, he should be taught to cor For rect the erroneous examples in the Exercises further directions respecting the mode of using the Exercises see hug ish Patrcises," Tenth, or any subsequent edition, page 9-12. the Masculine, the Feminine, and the Neu ter. The masculine gender denotes animals of the male kind; as, a man, a horse, a bull. The femenine gender signifies animals of the female kind; as, a woman, a duck, a he n. The neuter gender denotes objects which are neither males nor females; as, a field, a house, a garden. Some substantives naturally neuter are, by a figure of speech, converted into the masculine or feminine gender; as, when we say of the sun, he is setting, and of a ship, she sails well, &c. The English language has three methods of distinguishing the sex, viz. |