Dear Comrade:

You have often read the words organic and inorganic but did you ever stop to think of the meaning of these words? We say a body is organic—a rock is inorganic; one grows from within, the other is built from without. A tree is organic; it grows. A house is inorganic; it is built. The house was never a baby house, growing from a tiny house to a large one. But the tree was once a baby tree, a sapling, and grew branch by branch to its present height. So we have two classes of things—those which grow and those which are made.

Language belongs to the class of things which grows. It is organic. We have even used the same terms in speaking about language that we use in talking of a tree. We use the words ROOT, STEM and BRANCH to describe its growth.

Language, too, has its different terms of life like a tree, its youth, its maturity, its old age, its death.

So we have dead languages like Latin and Greek—languages which are no longer living,—no longer serving mankind. But these dead languages have left living children, languages that have descended from them.

The Italian language for example is the child, the descendant of the classical Latin. We have many words in our English language from these dead languages. About five-sevenths of the words in our English are from these classical languages. The remaining two-sevenths are from the Anglo-Saxon. We use the Anglo-Saxon words more frequently, however, in our every day speech.

And it is interesting to note that our best poetry—that which stirs our blood and touches our hearts—is written in the strong forceful Anglo-Saxon words.

These words we are studying have been through some interesting experiences as they have passed from race to race down to us and the history of life is mirrored in their changes. How much more interesting they seem when we know something of their sources, just as we are more interested in a man when we know something of his boyhood and youth and the experiences through which he has passed.

You may think that the study of verbs is rather difficult and involved, but it is more simple in English than in any other language. There are fewer changes in the verb form in order to express time and person. Do not rely on the memorizing of the rules. Rules never made one a fluent speaker. Write sentences in which the correct form is used. Read aloud from the best authors until the sound of the words is familiar and they come readily to the tongue. We have used for the exercises in these lessons excerpts from the best authors.

Study these exercises carefully and note the use of the different verbs especially, this week. Verbs, like all else, are yours to command. Command them.

Yours for Education,

THE PEOPLE'S COLLEGE.

PROGRESSIVE VERB PHRASES

132. We have learned how to form the three principal time forms, present, past and future and the perfect or completed form of each of the three, present perfect, past perfect and future perfect. And still we have such a wonderful language that we can express other shades of meaning in time.

133. There is still another phase of action which we must have a verb phrase to express. Suppose you want to describe something you are now doing and are continuing to do, something not yet completed. To say, I do it now, is not satisfactory. Instead we say, I am doing it now.

You have by the verb phrase, am doing, described a progressive action, an action going on in the present. You may also want to describe what you were doing yesterday, an action that continued or progressed in the past. You would not say, I built the house yesterday but, I was building the house yesterday. Again you may want to describe an action which will be progressing or going on in the future. You do not say, I shall build the house next week but, I shall be building the house next week.

So we have progressive verb phrases.

134. The present progressive describes an action as continuing or progressing in the present.

It is formed by using the present time form of the verb be and the present participle.

You remember that the present participle is formed by adding ing to the simple form of the verb.

Present Progressive
Singular	Plural
1st. I am seeing.	We are seeing.
2d. You are seeing.	You are seeing.
3d. He is seeing.	They are seeing.

135. The past progressive time form describes an action which was continuing or progressing in the past. It is formed by using the past time form of the verb be and the present participle.

Past Progressive
Singular	Plural
1st. I was seeing.	We were seeing.
2d. You were seeing.	You were seeing.
3d. He was seeing.	They were seeing.

136. The future progressive describes an action which will be progressing or going on in the future. It is formed by using the future time form of the verb be and the present participle.

Future Progressive
Singular	Plural
1st. I shall be seeing.	We shall be seeing.
2d. You will be seeing.	You will be seeing.
3d. He will be seeing.	They will be seeing.

137. The perfect time forms also have a progressive form. There is a difference of meaning in the present perfect and its progressive form. You say for instance, I have tried all my life to be free. You mean you have tried until the present time and the inference is that now you have ceased to try. But, if you say, I have been trying all my life to be free, we understand that you have tried and are still trying.

138. So we have the present perfect progressive which describes an action which progressed in the past and continued up to the present time. It is formed by using the present perfect form of the verb be and the present participle.

Present Perfect Progressive
Singular	Plural
1st. I have been seeing.	We have been seeing.
2d. You have been seeing.	You have been seeing.
3d. He has been seeing.	They have been seeing.

139. The past perfect progressive describes an action which was continuing or progressing at some past time. It is formed by using the past perfect time form of the verb be and the present participle.

Past Perfect Progressive
Singular	Plural
1st. I had been seeing.	We had been seeing.
2d. You had been seeing.	You had been seeing.
3d. He had been seeing.	They had been seeing.

140. The future perfect progressive describes an action which will be progressing at some future time. It is formed by using the future perfect time form of the verb be and the present participle.

Future Perfect Progressive
Singular	Plural
1st. I shall have been seeing.	We shall have been seeing.
2d. You will have been seeing.	You will have been seeing.
3d. He will have been seeing.	They will have been seeing.

Exercise 1

In the following sentences mark all the progressive forms, and note whether they are present, past, future, present perfect, past perfect or future perfect.

1. The old order is passing.
2. Men will be struggling for freedom so long as slavery exists.
3. The class struggle has been growing more intense as wealth has accumulated.
4. The workers are realizing their power.
5. He had been talking for an hour when we arrived.
6. Next Monday I shall have been working for one year.
7. The workers will be paying interest on war debts for generations to come unless they repudiate.
8. While Marx was writing his books, he lived in abject poverty.
9. The Industrial Relations Commission has been investigating industrial conditions.
10. Ferrer was martyred because the Modern Schools were educating the people.
11. The nations of Europe had been preparing for war for many years.

ACTIVE AND PASSIVE

141. Notice carefully the following sentences; select the subjects in these sentences which show who or what performed the action; select the subjects that show who or what receives the action. Do you notice any difference in the meaning of these sentences? Do you notice any difference in their form?

• The engine struck the man.
• The man was struck by the engine.
• The system enslaves men.
• Men are enslaved by the system.
• Leaders often betray the people.
• The people are often betrayed by leaders.

Let us look carefully at the first two sentences. You remember when we studied transitive verbs we found that every transitive verb had an object which was the receiver of the action expressed in the verb. Now you notice in this first sentence, The engine struck the man, we have the transitive verb struck. Engine is the subject of the verb and man is the object of the verb, the receiver of the action expressed by the verb struck.

Now in the sentence, The man was struck by the engine, we have the same thought expressed but in a different manner. The word man, which was the object of the verb struck in the first sentence, has now become the subject of the sentence, and we have changed our verb form from struck to was struck. In the first sentence of the subject, engine was the actor. In the second sentence, The man was struck by the engine, the subject of the sentence, man, is the receiver of the action expressed in the verb. 142. So we have thus changed the verb form from struck to was struck to indicate that the subject of the verb is the receiver of the action. Struck is called the active form of the verb because the subject of the verb is the actor. Was struck is called the passive form of the verb because the subject receives the action. Passive means receiving. In the passive form the subject is the receiver of the action expressed in the verb.

143. You remember that complete verbs have no object or complement, therefore it would follow that they cannot be put in the passive form for there is no object to become the receiver of the action. Take the complete verb, sleep, for example. We do not sleep anything, hence sleep has no passive form for there is no object which can be used as the subject, the receiver of the action.

Only transitive verbs can be put into the passive form. Remember that a transitive verb in the passive form is one that represents its subject as receiving the action.

The present, past, future and all the perfect time forms of transitive verbs can be changed from active to passive. The progressive time forms can be changed into the passive, but it makes an awkward construction and should be avoided as much as possible. Occasionally, however, we find it worth our while to use these forms, as for example:

• The book is being written by the man.

This is the passive form of the present progressive, The man is writing a book.

• The book was being written by the man.

This is the passive form of the past progressive, The man was writing the book.

144. The future progressive passive is awkward, and the present and past progressive forms are the only forms we find used in the passive. The best writers use them sparingly for we can usually say the same thing by using the active form of the verb and have a sentence which sounds much better.

Exercise 2

All the verbs in the following sentences are transitive verbs in the active form. Rewrite each sentence, putting the verb into the passive form and making the object of the active verb the subject of the passive verb; as, for example, the first sentence should be rewritten as follows:

War on Russia was declared by Germany on August 1, 1914.

1. Germany declared war on Russia, August 1, 1914.
2. Who will sign the Emancipation Proclamation of the Proletariat?
3. Marx and Engels wrote the Communist Manifesto.
4. Spain murdered Francisco Ferrer, October 13, 1909.
5. We celebrate the first of May as International Labor Day.
6. The people of Paris stormed the Bastille, July 14, 1789.
7. Wat Tyler was leading the English workers in rebellion against the King when the Mayor of London stabbed him in 1381.
8. The Inquisition burned Bruno at the stake for heresy in 1600.
9. The Paris Commune followed the German siege of Paris in 1871.

SUMMARY

145. Now let us take the verb see and name all the time forms which we can describe with the changes in the verb forms which we have learned to make and also with the verb phrases which we can construct with the help of the verbs, be, have, shall and will.

First, we want to express the present, what is happening now, and we want to put it in both the active and passive forms, so we say:

PRESENT TIME
Active	Passive
Singular	Singular
I see.	I am seen.
You see.	You are seen.
He sees.	He is seen.
Plural	Plural
We see.	We are seen.
You see.	You are seen.
They see.	They are seen.

Note that the only change in the verb form in the present ACTIVE is the s-form for the third person singular. In the present passive the only change is the special form of the verb be for the first and third persons, singular.

When we want to tell what occurred yesterday or some time in the past, stated in the active and passive form, we say:

PAST TIME
Active	Passive
Singular	Singular
I saw.	I was seen.
You saw.	You were seen.
He saw.	He was seen.
Plural	Plural
We saw.	We were seen.
You saw.	You were seen.
They saw.	They were seen.

We have one other division of time which we must express—the future. Primitive man doubtless lived principally in the present, but with the development of memory and the means of recording events by a written language, he was able to make the deeds and achievements of the past a vital part of his life. But not until the faculty of thinking developed was the mind able to project itself into the future and make tomorrow the hope of today. Future time expresses hope, desire, growth.

FUTURE TIME
Active	Passive
Singular	Singular
I shall see.	I shall be seen.
You will see.	You will be seen.
He will see.	He will be seen.
Plural	Plural
We shall see.	We shall be seen.
You will see.	You will be seen.
They will see.	They will be seen.

Then you remember we had to devise a way of describing an action perfected or completed at the present or at some time in the past or at some time in the future—so we have present perfect, past perfect and future perfect.

PRESENT PERFECT
Active	Passive
Singular	Singular
I have seen.	I have been seen.
You have seen.	You have been seen.
He has seen.	He has been seen.
Plural	Plural
We have seen.	We have been seen.
You have seen.	You have been seen.
They have seen.	They have been seen.

PAST PERFECT
Active	Passive
Singular	Singular
I had seen.	I had been seen.
You had seen.	You had been seen.
He had seen.	He had been seen.
Plural	Plural
We had seen.	We had been seen.
You had seen.	You had been seen.
They had seen.	They had been seen.

FUTURE PERFECT
Active	Passive
Singular	Singular
I shall have seen.	I shall have been seen.
You will have seen.	You will have been seen.
He will have seen.	He will have been seen.
Plural	Plural
We shall have seen.	We shall have been seen.
You will have seen.	You will have been seen.
They will have seen.	They will have been seen.

146. But these are not all the phases of time which we can express. We have progressive, continuous action. So each of these six time forms has a progressive form.

PRESENT PROGRESSIVE
Active	Passive
Singular	Singular
I am seeing.	I am being seen.
You are seeing.	You are being seen.
He is seeing.	He is being seen.
Plural	Plural
We are seeing.	We are being seen.
You are seeing.	You are being seen.
They are seeing.	They are being seen.

PAST PROGRESSIVE
Active	Passive
Singular	Singular
I was seeing.	I was being seen.
You were seeing.	You were being seen.
He was seeing.	He was being seen.
Plural	Plural
We were seeing.	We were being seen.
You were seeing.	You were being seen.
They were seeing.	They were being seen.

Only the Present and Past Progressive forms have a passive form. The rest of the Progressive forms are expressed in the active forms only.

FUTURE PROGRESSIVE
Singular	Plural
I shall be seeing.	We shall be seeing.
You will be seeing.	You will be seeing.
He will be seeing.	They will be seeing.

PRESENT PERFECT PROGRESSIVE
Singular	Plural
I have been seeing.	We have been seeing.
You have been seeing.	You have been seeing.
He has been seeing.	They have been seeing.

PAST PERFECT PROGRESSIVE
Singular	Plural
I had been seeing.	We had been seeing.
You had been seeing.	You had been seeing.
He had been seeing.	They had been seeing.

FUTURE PERFECT PROGRESSIVE
Singular	Plural
I shall have been seeing.	We shall have been seeing.
You will have been seeing.	You will have been seeing.
He will have been seeing.	They will have been seeing.

Exercise 3

Write the four following sentences in their active and passive forms, as the sentence, War sweeps the earth, is written.

1. Education gives power.
2. Knowledge frees men.
3. Labor unions help the workers.
4. The people seek justice.

Present	Actve	War sweeps the earth.
	Passive	The earth is swept by war.
Past	Active	War swept the earth.
	Passive	The earth was swept by war.
Future	Active	War shall sweep the earth.
	Passive	The earth shall be swept by war.
Pres. Per.	Active	War has swept the earth.
	Passive	The earth has been swept by war.
Past Per.	Active	War had swept the earth.
	Passive	The earth had been swept by war.
Fut. Per.	Active	War shall have swept the earth.
	Passive	The earth shall have been swept by war.

Exercise 4

Underscore all the verbs and verb phrases in the following quotation. Write all the time forms of the transitive verb, lose, as the time forms of the verb see are written in the foregoing table.

When we study the animal world and try to explain to ourselves that struggle for existence which is maintained by each living being against adverse circumstances and against its enemies, we realize that the more the principles of solidarity and equality are developed in an animal society, and have become habitual to it, the more chance it has of surviving and coming triumphantly out of the struggle against hardships and foes. The more thoroughly each member of the society feels his solidarity with each other member of the society, the more completely are developed in all of them those two qualities which are the main factors of all progress; courage, on the one hand, and, on the other, free individual initiative. And, on the contrary, the more any animal society, or little group of animals, loses this feeling of solidarity—which may chance as the result of exceptional scarcity or else of exceptional plenty—the more the two other factors of progress, courage and individual initiative, diminish; in the end they disappear, and the society falls into decay and sinks before its foes. Without mutual confidence no struggle is possible; there is no courage, no initiative, no solidarity—and no victory!—Kropotkin.