INFLECTIONS OF NOUNS.

1. Hope springs eternal in the human breast.2. Heaven from all creatures hides the book of Fate.3.Stone walls do not a prison make.Nor iron bars a cage.4. Truth-teller was our England's Alfred named.5. A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little courage.6.Power laid his rod aside,And Ceremony doff'd her pride.7. She sweeps it through the court with troops of ladies.8. Learning, that cobweb of the brain.9.A little weeping would ease my heart;But in their briny bedMy tears must stop, for every dropHinders needle and thread.10. A fool speaks all his mind, but a wise man reserves something for hereafter.11. Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much; Wisdom is humble that he knows no more.12. Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast.13.And see, he cried, the welcome,Fair guests, that waits you here.14. The fleet, shattered and disabled, returned to Spain.15. One To-day is worth two To-morrows.16. Vessels carrying coal are constantly moving.17.Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest,Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood.18. And oft we trod a waste of pearly sands.19.A man he seems of cheerful yesterdaysAnd confident to-morrows.20. The hours glide by; the silver moon is gone.21. Her robes of silk and velvet came from over the sea.22. My soldier cousin was once only a drummer boy.23.But pleasures are like poppies spread,You seize the flower, its bloom is shed.24. All that thou canst call thine own Lies in thy To-day.

1. Hope springs eternal in the human breast.

2. Heaven from all creatures hides the book of Fate.

Stone walls do not a prison make.Nor iron bars a cage.

4. Truth-teller was our England's Alfred named.

5. A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little courage.

Power laid his rod aside,And Ceremony doff'd her pride.

7. She sweeps it through the court with troops of ladies.

8. Learning, that cobweb of the brain.

A little weeping would ease my heart;But in their briny bedMy tears must stop, for every dropHinders needle and thread.

10. A fool speaks all his mind, but a wise man reserves something for hereafter.

11. Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much; Wisdom is humble that he knows no more.

12. Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast.

13.

And see, he cried, the welcome,Fair guests, that waits you here.

14. The fleet, shattered and disabled, returned to Spain.

15. One To-day is worth two To-morrows.

16. Vessels carrying coal are constantly moving.

17.

Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest,Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood.

18. And oft we trod a waste of pearly sands.

19.

A man he seems of cheerful yesterdaysAnd confident to-morrows.

20. The hours glide by; the silver moon is gone.

21. Her robes of silk and velvet came from over the sea.

22. My soldier cousin was once only a drummer boy.

23.

But pleasures are like poppies spread,You seize the flower, its bloom is shed.

24. All that thou canst call thine own Lies in thy To-day.

What gender means in English. It is founded on sex.

21.In Latin, Greek, German, and many other languages, some general rules are given that names of male beings are usually masculine, and names of females are usually feminine. There are exceptions even to this general statement, but not so inEnglish. Male beings are, in English grammar, always masculine; female, always feminine.

When, however,inanimatethings are spoken of, these languages are totally unlike our own in determining the gender of words. For instance: in Latin,hortus(garden) is masculine,mensa(table) is feminine,corpus(body) is neuter; in German,das Messer(knife) is neuter,der Tisch(table) is masculine,die Gabel(fork) is feminine.

The great difference is, that in English the gender follows themeaningof the word, in other languages gender follows theform; that is, in English, gender depends onsex: if a thing spoken of is of the male sex, thenameof it is masculine; if of the female sex, thenameof it is feminine. Hence:

Definition.

22.Genderis the mode of distinguishing sex by words, or additions to words.

23.It is evident from this that English can have but two genders,—masculineandfeminine.

Gender nouns. Neuter nouns.

All nouns, then, must be divided into two principal classes,—gender nouns, those distinguishing the sex of the object; andneuter nouns, those which do not distinguish sex, or names of things without life, and consequently without sex.

Gender nouns include names of persons and some names of animals; neuter nouns include some animals and all inanimate objects.

Some words either gender or neuter nouns, according to use.

24.Some words may be either gender nouns or neuter nouns, according to their use. Thus, the wordchildis neuter in the sentence, "A littlechildshall lead them," but is masculine in the sentence from Wordsworth,—

I have seenA curiouschild... applying tohisearThe convolutions of a smooth-lipped shell.

Of animals, those with which man comes in contact often, or which arouse his interest most, are named by gender nouns, as in these sentences:—

Before the barn door strutted the gallantcock, that pattern of a husband, ... clappinghisburnished wings.—Irving.Gunpowder... came to a stand just by the bridge, with a suddenness that had nearly senthisrider sprawling overhishead—Id.

Before the barn door strutted the gallantcock, that pattern of a husband, ... clappinghisburnished wings.—Irving.

Gunpowder... came to a stand just by the bridge, with a suddenness that had nearly senthisrider sprawling overhishead—Id.

Other animals are not distinguished as to sex, but are spoken of as neuter, the sex being of no consequence.

Not aturkeybut he [Ichabod] beheld daintily trussed up, withitsgizzard underitswing.—Irving.He next stooped down to feel thepig, if there were any signs of life init.—Lamb.

Not aturkeybut he [Ichabod] beheld daintily trussed up, withitsgizzard underitswing.—Irving.

He next stooped down to feel thepig, if there were any signs of life init.—Lamb.

No "common gender."

25.According to the definition, there can be no such thing as "common gender:" words either distinguish sex (or the sex is distinguished by the context) or else they do not distinguish sex.

If such words asparent,servant,teacher,ruler,relative,cousin,domestic, etc., do not show the sex to which the persons belong, they are neuter words.

26.Put in convenient form, the division of words according to sex, or the lack of it, is,—

(MASCULINE: Male beings.Gender nouns{(FEMININE: Female beings.

Neuter nouns:Names of inanimate things, or of living beings whose sex cannot be determined.

27.The inflections for gender belong, of course, only to masculine and feminine nouns.Formswould be a more accurate word thaninflections, since inflection applies only to thecaseof nouns.

There are three ways to distinguish the genders:—

(1) By prefixing a gender word to another word.

(2) By adding a suffix, generally to a masculine word.

(3) By using a different word for each gender.

Very few of class I.

28.Usually the gender wordsheandsheare prefixed to neuter words; ashe-goat—she-goat,cock sparrow—hen sparrow,he-bear—she-bear.

One feminine,woman, puts a prefix before the masculineman.Womanis a short way of writingwifeman.

29.By far the largest number of gender words are those marked by suffixes. In this particular the native endings have been largely supplanted by foreign suffixes.

Native suffixes.

Thenative suffixesto indicate the feminine were-enand-ster. These remain invixenandspinster, though both words have lost their original meanings.

The wordvixenwas once used as the feminine offoxby the Southern-English. Forfoxthey saidvox; forfromthey saidvram; and for the older wordfatthey saidvat, as inwine vat. Hencevixenis forfyxen, from the masculinefox.

Spinsteris a relic of a large class of words that existed in Old and Middle English,[1]but have now lost their original force as feminines. The old masculine answering tospinsterwasspinner; butspinsterhas now no connection with it.

Theforeign suffixesare of two kinds:—

Foreign suffixes. Unaltered and little used.

(1) Those belonging to borrowed words, asczarina,señorita,executrix,donna. These are attached to foreign words, and are never used for words recognized as English.

Slightly changed and widely used.

(2) That regarded as the standard or regular termination of the feminine,-ess(Frenchesse, Low Latinissa), the one most used. The corresponding masculine may have the ending-er(-or), but in most cases it has not. Whenever we adopt a new masculine word, the feminine is formed by adding this termination-ess.

Sometimes the-esshas been added to a word already feminine by the ending-ster; asseam-str-ess,song-str-ess. The ending-sterhad then lost its force as a feminine suffix; it has none now in the wordshuckster,gamester,trickster,punster.

Ending of masculine not changed.

30.The ending-essis added to many words without changing the ending of the masculine; as,—

Masculine ending dropped.

The masculine ending may be dropped before the feminine-essis added; as,—

Vowel dropped before adding-ess.

The feminine may discard a vowel which appears in the masculine; as in—

Empresshas been cut down fromemperice(twelfth century) andemperesse(thirteenth century), from Latinimperatricem.

Masterandmistresswere in Middle Englishmaister—maistresse, from the Old Frenchmaistre—maistresse.

31.When the older-enand-sterwent out of use as the distinctive mark of the feminine, the ending-ess, from the French-esse, sprang into a popularity much greater than at present.

Ending-essless used now than formerly.

Instead of sayingdoctress,fosteress,wagoness, as was said in the sixteenth century, orservauntesse,teacheresse,neighboresse,frendesse, as in the fourteenth century, we have dispensed with the endingin many cases, and either use a prefix word or leave the masculine to do work for the feminine also.

Thus, we saydoctor(masculine and feminine) orwoman doctor,teacherorlady teacher,neighbor(masculine and feminine), etc. We frequently use such words asauthor,editor,chairman, to represent persons of either sex.

NOTE.—There is perhaps this distinction observed: when we speak of a femaleas an active agentmerely, we use the masculine termination, as, "George Eliot is theauthorof 'Adam Bede;'" but when we speak purposelyto denote a distinction from a male, we use the feminine, as, "George Eliot is an eminentauthoress."

32.In some of these pairs, the feminine and the masculine are entirely different words; others have in their origin the same root. Some of them have an interesting history, and will be noted below:—

Girloriginally meant a child of either sex, and was used for male or female until about the fifteenth century.

Drakeis peculiar in that it is formed from a corresponding feminine which is no longer used. It is not connected historically with our wordduck,but is derived fromened(duck) and an obsolete suffixrake(king). Three letters ofenedhave fallen away, leaving our worddrake.

Ganderandgoosewere originally from the same root word.Goosehas various cognate forms in the languages akin to English (GermanGans, Icelandicgás, Danishgaas, etc.). The masculine was formed by adding-a, the old sign of the masculine. Thisgansawas modified intogan-ra,gand-ra, finallygander; thedbeing inserted to make pronunciation easy, as in many other words.

Mare, in Old Englishmere, had the masculinemearh(horse), but this has long been obsolete.

Husbandandwifeare not connected in origin.Husbandis a Scandinavian word (Anglo-Saxonhūsbondafrom Icelandichús-bóndi, probably meaning house dweller);wifewas used in Old and Middle English to mean woman in general.

Kingandqueenare said by some (Skeat, among others) to be from the same root word, but the German etymologist Kluge says they are not.

Lordis said to be a worn-down form of the Old Englishhlāf-weard(loaf keeper), writtenloverd,lhauerd, orlauerdin Middle English.Ladyis fromhlœ̄̄fdige(hlœ̄̄fmeaning loaf, anddigebeing of uncertain origin and meaning).

Witchis the Old Englishwicce, butwizardis from the Old Frenchguiscart(prudent), not immediately connected withwitch, though both are ultimately from the same root.

Siris worn down from the Old Frenchsire(Latinsenior).Madamis the Frenchma dame, from Latinmea domina.

Two masculines from feminines.

33.Besidesganderanddrake, there are two other masculine words that were formed from the feminine:—

Bridegroom,from Old Englishbrȳd-guma(bride's man). Theringroomhas crept in from confusion with the wordgroom.

Widower,from the weakening of the ending-ain Old English to-ein Middle English. The older forms,widuwa—widuwe, became identical, and a new masculine ending was therefore added to distinguish the masculine from the feminine (compare Middle Englishwiduer—widewe).

34.Just as abstract ideas are personified (Sec. 16), material objects may be spoken of like gender nouns; for example,—

"Now, where the swiftRhonecleaveshisway."—Byron.

TheSunnow rose upon the right:Out of the sea camehe.—Coleridge.

And haply theQueen Moonis onherthrone,Clustered around by all her starry Fays.—Keats.

Britannianeeds no bulwarks,No towers along the steep;Hermarch is o'er the mountain waves,Herhome is on the deep.—Campbell.

This is not exclusively a poetic use. In ordinary speech personification is very frequent: the pilot speaks of his boat as feminine; the engineer speaks so of his engine; etc.

Effect of personification.

In such cases the gender is marked by the pronoun, and not by the form of the noun. But the fact that in English the distinction of gender isconfined to difference of sex makes these departures more effective.

Definition.

35.In nouns, number means the mode of indicating whether we are speaking of one thing or of more than one.

36.Our language has two numbers,—singularandplural. The singular number denotes that one thing is spoken of; the plural, more than one.

37.There are three ways of changing the singular form to the plural:—

(1) By adding-en.

(2) By changing the root vowel.

(3) By adding-s(or-es).

The first two methods prevailed, together with the third, in Old English, but in modern English-sor-eshas come to be the "standard" ending; that is, whenever we adopt a new word, we make its plural by adding-sor-es.

The-eninflection.

38.This inflection remains only in the wordoxen, though it was quite common in Old and Middle English; for instance,eyen(eyes),treen(trees),shoon(shoes), which last is still used in Lowland Scotch.Hosenis found in the King James version of the Bible, andhousenis still common in the provincial speech in England.

39.But other words were inflected afterwards, in imitation of the old words in-enby making a double plural.

-Eninflection imitated by other words.

Brethrenhas passed through three stages. The old plural wasbrothru, thenbrothreorbrethre, finallybrethren. The weakening of inflections led to this addition.

Childrenhas passed through the same history, though the intermediate formchilderlasted till the seventeenth century in literary English, and is still found in dialects; as,—

"God bless me! so then, after all, you'll have a chance to see yourchilderget up like, and get settled."—Quoted By De Quincey.

Kineis another double plural, but has now no singular.

In spite of wanderingkineand other adverse circumstance.—Thoreau.

40.Examples of this inflection are,—

Some other words—asbook,turf,wight,borough—formerly had the same inflection, but they now add the ending-s.

41.Akin to this class are some words, originally neuter, that have the singular and plural alike; such asdeer,sheep,swine, etc.

Other words following the same usage are,pair,brace,dozen, after numerals (if not after numerals, or if preceded by the prepositionsin,by, etc, they add-s): alsotrout,salmon;head,sail;cannon;heathen,folk,people.

The wordshorseandfoot, when they mean soldiery, retain the same form for plural meaning; as,—

Thefootare fourscore thousand,Thehorseare thousands ten.—Macaulay.

Lee marched over the mountain wall,—Over the mountains winding down,Horseandfoot, into Frederick town.—Whittier.

42.Instead of-s,the ending-esis added—

(1) If a word ends in a letter which cannot add-sand be pronounced. Such arebox, cross, ditch, glass, lens, quartz, etc.

-Es added in certain cases.

If the word ends in asoundwhich cannot add-s, a new syllable is made; as,niche—niches, race—races, house—houses, prize—prizes, chaise—chaises, etc.

-Esis also added to a few words ending in -o, though this sound combines readily with-s, and does not make an extra syllable:cargo—cargoes, negro—negroes, hero—heroes, volcano—volcanoes, etc.

Usage differs somewhat in other words of this class, some adding-s, and some-es.

(2) If a word ends in-ypreceded by a consonant (theybeing then changed toi); e.g.,fancies, allies, daisies, fairies.

Words in -ies.

Formerly, however, these words ended in-ie, and the real ending is therefore-s. Notice these from Chaucer (fourteenth century):—

Their old form.

Thelilieon hir stalke grene.Ofmaladiethe which he hadde endured.

And these from Spenser (sixteenth century):—

Be well aware, quoth then thatladiemilde.At last fair Hesperus in highestskieHad spent his lampe.

(3) In the case of somewords ending in -for -fe, which have the plural in-ves:calf—calves,half—halves,knife—knives,shelf—shelves, etc.

43.Material nounsandabstract nounsare always singular. When such words take a plural ending, they lose their identity, and go over to other classes (Secs. 15 and 17).

44.Proper nounsare regularly singular, but may be made plural when we wish to speak of several persons or things bearing the same name; e.g.,the Washingtons,the Americas.

45.Some words areusually singular, though they are plural in form. Examples of these are,optics,economics,physics,mathematics,politics, and many branches of learning; alsonews,pains(care),molasses,summons,means: as,—

Politics, in its widest extent, is both the science and the art of government.—Century Dictionary.

So live, that when thysummons comes, etc.—Bryant.

It served simply asa meansof sight.—Prof. Dana.

Meansplural.

Two words,meansandpolitics,may be pluralin their construction with verbs and adjectives:—

Words, by strongly conveying the passions, bythose meanswhich we have already mentioned, fully compensate for their weakness in other respects.—Burke.With great dexteritythese meanswere now applied.—Motley.Bythese means, I say, riches will accumulate.—Goldsmith.

Words, by strongly conveying the passions, bythose meanswhich we have already mentioned, fully compensate for their weakness in other respects.—Burke.

With great dexteritythese meanswere now applied.—Motley.

Bythese means, I say, riches will accumulate.—Goldsmith.

Politicsplural.

Cultivating a feeling thatpoliticsare tiresome.—G. W. Curtis.Thepoliticsin which he took the keenest interestwere politicsscarcely deserving of the name.—Macaulay.Now I read all thepoliticsthatcomeout.—Goldsmith.

Cultivating a feeling thatpoliticsare tiresome.—G. W. Curtis.

Thepoliticsin which he took the keenest interestwere politicsscarcely deserving of the name.—Macaulay.

Now I read all thepoliticsthatcomeout.—Goldsmith.

46.Some words haveno corresponding singular.

Occasionally singular words.

Sometimes, however, a few of these words have the construction of singular nouns. Notice the following:—

They cannot get on without each other any more than one blade ofa scissorscan cut without the other.—J. L. Laughlin.A relic which, if I recollect right, he pronounced to have beena tongs.—Irving.Besides this, it is furnished witha forceps.—Goldsmith.The air,—was it subdued when...the wind was trained only to turn a windmill, carry off chaff, or work ina bellows?—Prof. Dana.

They cannot get on without each other any more than one blade ofa scissorscan cut without the other.—J. L. Laughlin.

A relic which, if I recollect right, he pronounced to have beena tongs.—Irving.

Besides this, it is furnished witha forceps.—Goldsmith.

The air,—was it subdued when...the wind was trained only to turn a windmill, carry off chaff, or work ina bellows?—Prof. Dana.

In Early Modern Englishthankis found.

Whatthankhave ye?—Bible

47.Three words wereoriginally singular, the present ending-snot being really a plural inflection, but they are regularly construed as plural:alms, eaves, riches.

two plurals.

48.A few nouns havetwo pluralsdiffering in meaning.

In speaking of coins,twopence,sixpence, etc., may add-s, making a double plural, as twosixpences.

One plural, two meanings.

49.Other words haveone plural form with two meanings,—one corresponding to the singular, the other unlike it.

I lisped innumbers, for the numbers came.—Pope.

Tell me not, in mournfulnumbers.—Longfellow.

Numbersalso means issues, or copies, of a periodical.

Two classes of compound words.

50.Compound wordsmay be divided into two classes:—

(1)Those whose parts are so closely joined as to constitute one word.These make the last part plural.

(2)Those groups in which the first part is the principal one, followed by a word or phrase making a modifier.The chief member adds-sin the plural.

NOTE.—Some words ending in-manare not compounds of the English wordman, but add-s; such astalisman,firman,Brahman,German,Norman,Mussulman,Ottoman.

51.Some groups pluralize both parts of the group; asman singer,manservant,woman servant,woman singer.

Two methods in use for names with titles.

52.As to plurals ofnames with titles, there is some disagreement among English writers. The title may be plural, asthe Messrs. Allen,the Drs. Brown,the Misses Rich; or the name may be pluralized.

The former is perhaps more common in present-day use, though the latter is often found; for example,—

Then came Mr. and Mrs. Briggs, and thenthe three Miss Spinneys, then Silas Peckham.—Dr. Holmes.Our immortal Fielding was of the younger branch of theEarls of Denbigh, who drew their origin from theCounts of Hapsburgh.—Gibbon.TheMiss Flamboroughswere reckoned the best dancers in the parish.—Goldsmith.TheMisses Nettengall'syoung ladies come to the Cathedral too.—Dickens.TheMessrs. Harperhave done the more than generous thing by Mr. Du Maurier.—The Critic.

Then came Mr. and Mrs. Briggs, and thenthe three Miss Spinneys, then Silas Peckham.—Dr. Holmes.

Our immortal Fielding was of the younger branch of theEarls of Denbigh, who drew their origin from theCounts of Hapsburgh.—Gibbon.

TheMiss Flamboroughswere reckoned the best dancers in the parish.—Goldsmith.

TheMisses Nettengall'syoung ladies come to the Cathedral too.—Dickens.

TheMessrs. Harperhave done the more than generous thing by Mr. Du Maurier.—The Critic.

53.A number offoreign wordshave been adopted into English without change of form. These are said to bedomesticated, and retain their foreign plurals.

Others have been adopted, and by long use have altered their power so as to conform to English words. They are then said to benaturalized, orAnglicized, orEnglished.

Domesticated words.

The domesticated words may retain the original plural. Some of them have a secondary English plural in-sor-es.

Find in the dictionary the plurals of these words:—

I. FROM THE LATIN.

II. FROM THE GREEK.

Anglicized words.

When the foreign words are fully naturalized, they form their plurals in the regular way; as,—

Usage varies in plurals of letters, figures, etc.

54.Letters, figures, etc.,form their plurals by adding-sor's. Words quoted merely as words, without reference to their meaning, also add-sor's; as, "His9's(or9s) look like7's(or7s)," "Avoid using too manyand's(orands)," "Change the+'s(or+s) to-'s(or-s)."

Definition.

55.Case is an inflection or use of a noun (or pronoun) to show its relation to other words in the sentence.

In the sentence, "He sleeps in a felon's cell," the wordfelon'smodifiescell, and expresses a relation akin to possession;cellhas another relation, helping to express the idea of place with the wordin.

56.In the general wearing-away of inflections, the number of case forms has been greatly reduced.

Only twocase forms.

There are now only two case forms of English nouns,—one for thenominativeandobjective, one for thepossessive: consequently the matter of inflection is a very easy thing to handle in learning about cases.

Reasons for speaking ofthree casesof nouns.

But there are reasons why grammars treat ofthreecases of nouns when there are only two forms:—

(1) Because the relations of all words, whether inflected or not, must be understood for purposes of analysis.

(2) Because pronouns still have three case forms as well as three case relations.

57.Nouns, then, may be said to have three cases,—thenominative, theobjective, and thepossessive.

58.The nominative case is used as follows:—

(1)As the subject of a verb: "Waterseeks its level."

(2)As a predicate noun, completing a verb, and referring to or explaining the subject: "A bent twig makes a crookedtree."

(3)In appositionwith some other nominative word, adding to the meaning of that word: "The reaperDeathwith his sickle keen."

(4)In direct address: "Lord Angus, thou hast lied!"

(5)With a participle in an absolute or independent phrase(there is some discussion whether this is a true nominative): "Theworkdone, they returned to their homes."

(6)With an infinitive in exclamations: "Davidto die!"

Pick out the nouns in the nominative case, and tell which use of the nominative each one has.

1. Moderate lamentation is the right of the dead; excessive grief, the enemy of the living.2.Excuses are clothes which, when asked unawares,Good Breeding to naked Necessity spares.3. Human experience is the great test of truth.4. Cheerfulness and content are great beautifiers.5. Three properties belong to wisdom,—nature, learning, and experience; three things characterize man,—person, fate, and merit.6.But of all plagues, good Heaven, thy wrath can send,Save, save, oh save me from the candid friend!7. Conscience, her first law broken, wounded lies.8. They charged, sword in hand and visor down.9.O sleep! O gentle sleep!Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee?

1. Moderate lamentation is the right of the dead; excessive grief, the enemy of the living.

Excuses are clothes which, when asked unawares,Good Breeding to naked Necessity spares.

3. Human experience is the great test of truth.

4. Cheerfulness and content are great beautifiers.

5. Three properties belong to wisdom,—nature, learning, and experience; three things characterize man,—person, fate, and merit.

But of all plagues, good Heaven, thy wrath can send,Save, save, oh save me from the candid friend!

7. Conscience, her first law broken, wounded lies.

8. They charged, sword in hand and visor down.

O sleep! O gentle sleep!Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee?

59.The objective case is used as follows:—

(1)As the direct object of a verb, naming the person or thing directly receiving the action of the verb: "Woodman, spare thattree!"

(2)As the indirect object of a verb, naming the person or thing indirectly affected by the action of the verb: "Give thedevilhis due."

(3)Adverbially, defining the action of a verb by denotingtime,measure,distance, etc. (in the older stages of the language, this took the regular accusative inflection): "Fullfathomfive thy father lies;" "Cowards die manytimesbefore their deaths."

(4)As the second object, completing the verb, and thus becoming part of the predicate in acting upon an object: "Time makes the worst enemiesfriends;" "Thou makest the storm acalm." In these sentences the real predicates aremakes friends, taking the objectenemies, and being equivalent to one verb,reconciles; andmakest a calm, taking the objectstorm, and meaning calmest. This is also called thepredicate objectiveor thefactitive object.

(5)As the object of a preposition, the word toward which the preposition points, and which it joins to another word: "He must have a long spoon that would eat with thedevil."

The preposition sometimes takes thepossessivecase of a noun, as will be seen in Sec. 68.

(6)In apposition with another objective: "The opinions of this junto were completely controlled by Nicholas Vedder, apatriarchof the village, andlandlordof the inn."

Point out the nouns in the objective case in these sentences, and tell which use each has:—

1. Tender men sometimes have strong wills.2. Necessity is the certain connection between cause and effect.3. Set a high price on your leisure moments; they are sands of precious gold.4. But the flood came howling one day.5. I found the urchin Cupid sleeping.6. Five times every year he was to be exposed in the pillory.7. The noblest mind the best contentment has.8. Multitudes came every summer to visit that famous natural curiosity, the Great Stone Face.9.And whirling plate, and forfeits paid,His winter task a pastime made.10.He broke the ice on the streamlet's brink,And gave the leper to eat and drink.

1. Tender men sometimes have strong wills.

2. Necessity is the certain connection between cause and effect.

3. Set a high price on your leisure moments; they are sands of precious gold.

4. But the flood came howling one day.

5. I found the urchin Cupid sleeping.

6. Five times every year he was to be exposed in the pillory.

7. The noblest mind the best contentment has.

8. Multitudes came every summer to visit that famous natural curiosity, the Great Stone Face.

And whirling plate, and forfeits paid,His winter task a pastime made.

10.

He broke the ice on the streamlet's brink,And gave the leper to eat and drink.

60.The possessive case always modifies another word, expressed or understood. There are three forms of possessive showing how a word is related in sense to the modified word:—

(1)Appositional possessive, as in these expressions,—

The blind old man ofScio'srocky isle.—Byron.Beside a pumice isle inBaiæ'sbay.—Shelley.

The blind old man ofScio'srocky isle.—Byron.

Beside a pumice isle inBaiæ'sbay.—Shelley.

In these sentences the phrases are equivalent toof the rocky isle [of] Scio, andin the bay [of] Baiæ, the possessive being really equivalent here to an appositional objective. It is a poetic expression, the equivalent phrase being used in prose.

(2)Objective possessive, as shown in the sentences,—

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