3. Do you serve soup every day? 4. Who wrote The Lady of the Lake? 5. Truth crushed to earth shall rise again. 6. Who would be free, himself must strike the blow. 7. The child was well cared for by his nurse. 8. He must have suffered intensely since his leg was broken. 9. Learn to listen well. It will offset your lack of words. 10. She gave me of the tree, and I did eat. 11. The day is cold and dark and dreary, It rains and the wind is never weary. 12. The players hurled themselves against the opposing line. 13. A large estate was left to charity. 14. "Fire!" shouted the captain when he saw the flag. 15. Do you understand what you read? 16. The students displayed their lack of good breeding by the manner in which they stared at us. 17. I shall call an officer and have him attend you. 18. It will be necessary to attend to the mail first. 19. Sir Launfal awoke as from a swound. 20. As Sir Launfal mused with a downcast face, A light shone round about the place. CHAPTER X THE VERB: PERSON, NUMBER, AND TENSE Person and Number of Verbs 108. The verb, like the noun and pronoun, has two numbers, the singular and the plural; and three persons, the first, the second, and the third. The person and number of the verb are indicated by personal endings in the second and third person of the present tense, and also in the second person of the past tense. In all cases where there is no ending, the person and number of the verb are indicated by the person and number of the subject. 109. The verb must agree with its subject in person and number. The change in person and number in the verb is due to change of meaning in the subject and does not affect the meaning of the verb. 1. When the subject of the verb is a relative pronoun, the verb agrees in person and number with this pronoun and, through it, with the antecedent noun; as, He is one of seventy men who are surveying the road. [You should not say, "one of seventy who is" etc.] 2. The indefinite pronouns each, one, none, neither, require a singular verb; as, 66 Nóne knows him but to speak well of him. (Do not say, none know him.") 3. A collective (§ 76) noun denoting plurality requires a plural verb; as, The committee are united in their opinion. But when the collective noun names persons or things as a unit, it requires a singular verb; as, The committee holds its meetings in the morning. 4. A compound subject connected by and requires a plural verb; as, His hat and coat were brought. But a compound subject consisting of singular nouns connected by or or nor, requires a singular verb; as, Neither reward nor punishment makes him industrious. EXERCISE 18 Indicate the verb with correct person and number in the following sentences: 1. The electoral college (is, are) the electors of the President. 2. All ye like sheep (has, have) gone astray. 3. Neither women nor children (were, was) admitted. 4. News (are, is) scarce on Monday morning. 5. A large number of men (are, is) idle. 6. None (remains, remain) to tell the story of the disaster. 7. Each member of the club (have, has) a vote. 8. Only one of the men who (were, was) captured (is, are) guilty. 9. Neither William nor James (are, free from blame. 10. Our club (intends, intend) to attend in a body. 11. The squad of eleven men (is, are) loyal to its leader. 12. None of his friends (accompanies, accompany) him, but one of his enemies (follows, follow) him everywhere. 13. Every one that (see, sees) him (love, loves) him. фель 14. The phenomena of a volcano in action (terrify, terrifies) the stoutest heart. 1 15. The teacher wants to know whether you (were, was) present this morning. 16. Does he ask this of me who (is, am) his friend ? Tense of Verbs 110. Tense is a modification of the verb form to show difference of time in the action. There are six divisions of time or six tenses: present, past, future, perfect, pluperfect, future perfect. III. The present tense denotes that the action is taking place now. It is the simplest form of the verb without inflectional endings; as, I write. I see. 112. The past tense denotes that the action took place in past time. It is formed in two ways, according as the verb is regular or irregular. 1. The regular verb forms the past tense by adding -ed, -d, or -t to the present tense; as, walk, walked play, played bereave, bereaved 2. The irregular verb forms the past tense by changing the stem vowel of the present tense without adding an ending; as, 113. The future tense denotes that the action will take place at some future time. It is formed by using the auxiliary verb shall or will with the simplest form of the verb; as, I shall play We shall play You will play They will play 114. The perfect tense denotes that the action is complete at the time of writing or speaking. It is formed by using have (has) with the past participle (§ 132 : 2) of the verb; as, I have played You have played He has played We have played You have played They have played 115. The pluperfect tense denotes that the action was completed in past time. It is formed by using had with the past participle of the verb; as, I had played You had played We had played You had played They had played |