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4. Let us attend to the matter at once.

5. Even though he ran at top speed, he did not overtake us. 6. O that we had never met the General!

7. Be courageous; may the victory rest with you.

8. They took every precaution that no accident might hap

pen.

9. Heaven's bolts consume them!

10. Would God I were but fit to offer it him!

11. He shook his clenched hand as if it grasped sword or battle-ax.

12. If it should rain, they would remain at home.

13. If music be the food of love, play on.

14. If you have tears, prepare to shed them now.

15. I could be well moved if I were as you.

16. Let me know some cause, lest I be laughed at when I tell

them so.

17. Were there ten thousand men, yet would we defy them. 18. Brutus had rather be a villager than a Roman citizen under Cæsar.

CHAPTER XIV

THE VERBALS: THE PARTICIPLE

130. Some verb forms express action without declaring anything about a subject. When you say, "reading good books," "to run a mile," you express action without referring it to a subject. Such verb forms are called verbals. They never stand as the predicate of a sentence.

Verbals are classified as participles, gerunds, and infinitives.

131. An action word may be used to describe or limit a noun. When you say,

(1) A rolling stone gathers no moss;

(2) Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again;

the words rolling and crushed express action. But instead of referring the action to a subject by saying, (1) The stone rolls;

(2) Truth is crushed;

you use the words rolling and crushed merely to limit and describe the nouns stone and truth, as adjectives do. These verb forms partake of the nature of the verb in expressing action, and of the nature of the adjective in describing and limiting the noun. Because these words are part verb and part adjective, they are called participles (Latin participium, sharing).

A participle is a verb form which partakes of the nature of an adjective and expresses action without reference to a subject.

132. The English verb has three participles: the present participle, the past participle, and the perfect participle.

1. The present participle is formed by adding -ing to the simplest form of the verb; as,

praise, praising (see § 12, III, (2)); see, seeing.

2. The past participle of regular verbs is formed by adding -d, -ed, or t to the simplest form of the verb; as, praise, praised; play, played; dwell, dwelt.

3. The past participle of the irregular verb is formed by changing the stem vowel of the simple verb, or by adding -en or -n to the stem, or both; as,

sit, sat; see, seen; eat, eaten; forget, forgotten; freeze, frozen.

There are many variations in forming the past participle. They must be carefully learned in order to secure correct speech. See § 166.

4. The perfect participle is formed by adding having to the past participle; as,

praised, having praised; seen, having seen.

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134. The participle is used in verb phrases to form the perfect, pluperfect, and future perfect tenses of the active voice, and all the tenses of the passive voice. In these verb phrases the participle has no definite adjective signification, but unites with the other words of the phrase to form a pure verb.

135. The participle has the same uses as the adjective: attributive and predicate.

1. The attributive use of the participle approaches very closely to the pure adjective. It is a defining word and has little verb force. It never takes a noun complement, but may be qualified by an adverb; as,

(1) Registered mail is carried in special mail pouches.
(2) The burnt child avoids the fire.

(3) They flagged the rapidly approaching train.

2. In the predicate use, the participle modifies either the object or the subject of the verb. When it modifies the object, it follows such verbs as see, hear, keep; as,

(1) I heard you singing a solo.

(2) His mother saw him elevated to the throne.
(3) We watched the army marching up the road.

This use of the participle should be compared with the infinitive after verbs of commanding, etc. Compare (3) with

He ordered the army to march up the road.

When the participle stands in the predicate but is a modifier of the subject, it expresses the manner, cause, or circumstance of the action expressed by the predicate; as, (4) The poor man went away smiling.

(5) The poet sat quietly meditating upon the scenery.
(6) His mother came home elated by the news.

3. In long sentences the participial phrase is set off by commas; this is sometimes called the appositive use of the participle; as,

His mother, greatly elated by the news of her son's success, came home immediately after the result had been announced.

136. The participle is used as a pure adverb, modifying an adjective; as, burning hot; dripping wet; raving mad.

137. 1. The participle is frequently used incorrectly (§ 69, note) without any grammatical connection with the rest of the sentence; as,

(1) [Meeting them on the street, they took me home in their automobile.]

(2) [Speaking for the men, they are opposed to your proposition.]

This is known as the hanging participle and should be carefully avoided. It is better to use a clause in place of the participial phrase; as,

(1) When I met them on the street, they took me home in their automobile.

(2) If I may speak for the men, they are opposed to your proposition.

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