Plain English :: PLAIN ENGLISH LESSON 9

PLAIN ENGLISH LESSON 9

Dear Comrade:

You have been studying several weeks now in this Plain English Course and we trust you are enjoying the unfolding of the powers of expression. We have been necessarily studying rules to some extent but you have seen how these grew out of the need for expression. We have been breaking the sentence up into its different parts. First we had the names of things and now we are studying the words used to tell what these things do and are—namely verbs. And as our life has grown complex and our powers of thinking diversified covering the whole range of time, past, present and future, we have had to invent many forms of the verb to express it all.

Now do not try to commit these facts concerning the verb to memory. You are not studying English in order to know rules. You are studying English that you may be able to say and write the things you think. So first of all, think, think! That is your inalienable right! Do not accept anything just by blind belief. Think it out for yourself. Study until you see the 'why' of it all. "Independent thinking has given us the present, and we will forever continue to make tomorrow better than today. The right to think is inalienable, or a man is a machine. Thought is life or a human soul is a thing."

And do not lack the courage of your own thoughts. You do not need to cringe or apologize to any man. "Our life is not an apology but a life." Dare to think and dare to express and live your thought.

Did you ever read Emerson's definition of genius? "To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men,—that is genius." Then he says, "We dismiss without notice our own thoughts, because they are ours. Tomorrow a stranger will say with masterly good sense, precisely what we have thought and felt all along and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion from another."

Have you not experienced this? How often we hear some one express a truth and we say to ourselves, "That is just what I have long believed but I have never dared say so." We have been so taught all our lives to depend on some outside power and discredit the power within ourselves, that we pay no attention to the thoughts that are ours for who are we that we should dare to think and perchance disagree with those who have assumed authority over us! But that is precisely what we should dare to do—to think and to do our own thinking always. Who dares place anything before a man!

So think as you study these lessons and use these rules and formulas simply as means to an end, as tools to aid you in expressing these thoughts.

Yours for Education,

THE PEOPLE'S COLLEGE.

PARTICIPLES

147. We have found that the verb has five forms, made by internal changes in the verb itself,—the present time form, the s-form, the past time form, the present participle and the past participle.

We have also found that we can express various time forms by verb phrases formed by using the helping verbs, shall, will, have and be with one of the verb forms. All of these forms are used as the asserting word in the sentence. So long as the verb or verb phrase forms the predicate—the word or words that assert something of the subject—it still remains a verb. But we have found that the participle forms of the verb may be used as other parts of speech while still retaining some of the qualities of the verb.

148. You remember a sentence which we used when we studied participles, Making shoes is his work. Here we have the present participle making, with its object shoes, used as the subject of the verb is. Now a noun never takes an object, so making in this sentence is partly a verb, partly a noun, and is called a participle, which means partaker.

We have studied and used two forms of participles, the present and the past participle. The present participle always ends in ing and expresses action or existence in the present, or at the time mentioned in the sentence. For example, being, bringing, working, seeing, loving, hating, etc.

The past participle we found to be one of the principal parts of the verb. It expresses action or existence which is past or completed, at the time mentioned in the sentence. It is formed by adding d or ed to the regular verbs and by a change in the form in irregular verbs. For example, regular verbs: learned from learn, defeated from defeat, watched from watch. Irregular verbs: taught from teach, seen from see, won from win.

We have found that these participles may be used either as nouns or as adjectives. As for example:

The crying of the child annoyed the people.
The crying child ran to its mother.
The coming of the new day will bring peace.
We await the coming day of peace.

PARTICIPLE PHRASES

149. The present and the past participles are each single words; but we may also have participle phrases; that is, two or more words used as a participle, as for example:

His having joined the strikers caused him to lose his job.
The man, having been discharged, left the mill.

In these sentences we have the participle phrases, having joined and having been discharged. Having joined is a participle phrase used as a noun, the subject of the verb caused. Having been discharged is a participle phrase used as an adjective to modify the noun man. Notice that having joined is an active participle describing the action performed by the man who is referred to by the pronoun his. Having been discharged is a passive participle expressing an action of which the subject of the sentence, man, is the receiver.

These are both perfect participles, expressing actions which are complete at the present time.

150. We have also progressive participles expressing action which is continuing or progressing. These progressive participles are also used in both the active and the passive forms. The progressive active participle is formed by using having been with the present participle, as having been working. The progressive passive participle is formed by using being with the past participle, as for example, being watched, being driven, being gone, etc. So we have six participles, three active and three passive.

Note the following table:

Active		Passive
Present.	Sending.	Past.	Sent.
Perfect.	Having sent.	Perfect.	Having been sent.
Progressive.	Having been sending.	Progressive.	Being sent.

These participle phrases may be used either as nouns or as adjectives.

Exercise 1

In the following sentences mark the participles and the participle phrases. Underscore those used as nouns with a single line; those used as adjectives with two lines.

He denies having been hired by the employer.
Our friends, having arrived, joined us at dinner.
The rain, falling incessantly, kept us from going.
Having often seen him passing, I judged he lived near.
The man, being discouraged and ill, was unable to do his work well.
Happiness shared is happiness doubled.
Having finished his work, he rests at last.
The army, beaten but not vanquished, waited for the morrow.
The men, having been unemployed for months, were desperate.
Being prepared will not save us from war.
"Rest is not quitting this busy career;
Rest is the fitting of self to its sphere.
It's loving and serving the highest and best;
It's onward, not swerving; and that is true rest."

Exercise 2

Write the six participle forms of the verbs see and teach, and use in sentences of your own construction.

INFINITIVES

151. We have found that the various forms of the participles may be used as other parts of speech. They partake of the nature of a verb and either of a noun or an adjective. Notice the following sentences:

Traveling is pleasant.
Eating is necessary.

Can you think of any other way in which you could express the same thought? Do you not sometimes say,

To travel is pleasant.
To eat is necessary.

We have expressed practically the same thought in these two sentences, which is expressed in the sentences above, where we used the participle. To travel and to eat are used as nouns, subjects of the verb is just as traveling and eating are used as nouns, the subjects of the verb is.

Here we have another form of the verb used as a noun. When we use the verb in this way, we are not speaking of the traveling or eating as belonging to or being done by any particular person, nor do we indicate whether one person or more than one is concerned in the action. It might be anyone doing the traveling or eating, and it might be one person or a thousand. We are making a general statement of everybody in the world, so we call this form the infinitive.

152. Infinite means unlimited, without limit as to persons or number. Almost every verb in the language may be used in this way, and since to is generally used before the infinitive, to is often called the sign of the infinitive. For example:

To be, or not to be, that is the question.
To have and to hold is the problem.
He likes to travel.

You note in all of these infinitives to is used with the simple form of the verb.

153. To is generally omitted after verbs like help, hear, bid, feel, let, make, see and have, or words of similar meaning. For example:

Help me (to) find it.
He bade me (to) stay.
Feel it (to) shake.
Make him (to) come.
Hear me (to) sing.
Let us (to) go.
See him (to) run.
Have him (to) copy this.

154. To is also omitted after need and dare when not is used.

They need to work.	They need not work.
They dared to come.	They dared not come.

155. To is sometimes omitted after prepositions:

He will do anything for his class, except (to) fight for it.
He would do nothing but (to) go away.

156. We have a number of different forms of the infinitive, both active and passive. Note the following table:

Active		Passive
Present.	To love.	Present.	To be loved.
Perfect.	To have loved.	Perfect.	To have been loved.
Present Prog.	To be loving.
Perfect Prog.	To have been loving.

157. Notice that only the present and perfect infinitives have the passive form. The progressive infinitives cannot be used in the passive. Remember also that only incomplete verbs, those which require an object to receive the action, can have a passive form.

The verb loved, which we have used in the above table, has a passive form because it is an incomplete verb, for there must be that which is the object of our love.

158. The complete verbs,—verbs which require no object,—cannot have a passive form for there is no object to become the receiver of the action. Take for example the verb dwell. This is a complete verb which can have no passive form. You cannot dwell anything, therefore you cannot say to be dwelt or to have been dwelt.

So complete verbs have only the four active forms, as follows:

Active
Present.	To dwell.	Present Prog.	To be dwelling.
Perfect.	To have dwelt.	Perfect Prog.	To have been dwelling.

159. Infinitives, like participles, may be used either as nouns or adjectives. When used as nouns, they are used in the various ways in which nouns are used. The infinitive may be the subject of a sentence, thus:

To hesitate now will be fatal.
To be defeated is no crime.

160. The infinitive may be the object or complement of the verb. For example:

He wanted to see you.
His desire is to learn.

161. The infinitive may be used as the object of a preposition; as,

He is about to go.
They will do anything for the cause except to live for it.

162. The infinitive may be used as an adjective to modify a noun. For example:

He showed me the way to go.
We must have food to eat and clothes to wear.
The question to be decided is before us.
Claim your right to live.

163. The infinitive may also be used as an adverb to modify the meaning of a verb, adjective or adverb, thus:

He was forced to go.
They are slow to learn.
The fruit was not ripe enough to eat.

Note that the infinitives in these sentences may all be changed into adverb phrases. As for example in the first sentence, He was forced to go, the infinitive to go, which modifies the verb forced, may be changed to the adverb phrase, into going, thus, He was forced into going. In the second sentence, They are slow to learn, the infinitive to learn may be changed into the adverb phrase in learning, thus, They are slow in learning. In the last sentence, The fruit is not ripe enough to eat, the infinitive to eat, which modifies the adverb enough, may be changed into the adverb phrase, for eating, as for example, The fruit was not ripe enough for eating.

164. The infinitive is quite a useful form of the verb, and we will find that we use it very frequently in expressing our ideas. While it is not the asserting word in the sentence, it retains the nature of a verb and may have both an object and an adverb modifier. As for example, in the sentence:

I wish to learn my lesson quickly.

To learn is the infinitive, used as a noun, the object of the verb wish. The infinitive also has an object, to learn—what? My lesson is the object of the infinitive to learn. We also have an adverb modifier in the adverb quickly, which tells how I wish to learn my lesson. So the infinitive retains its verb nature, in that it may have an object and it may be modified by an adverb.

Exercise 3

Notice carefully the use of the infinitives in the following sentences. Underscore all infinitives.

To remain ignorant is to remain a slave.
Teach us to think and give us courage to act.
Children love to be praised, but hate to be censured.
To obey is the creed taught the working class by the masters.
To be exploited has always been the fate of the workers.
Ferrer wrote on his prison wall, "To love a woman passionately, to have an ideal which I can serve, to have the desire to fight until I win—what more can I wish or ask?"
The people wish the man to be punished for the crime.
Primitive man found plenty of wood to burn.
We have learned to use coal and oil.
The lecture to have been given this evening has been postponed.
They are eager to hear the news.
He has failed to come.
We felt the house shake on its foundation.
Have him find the book for me.
To be defeated is no crime; never to have dared is the real crime.
The rich will do anything for the poor except to get off their backs.
To have slept while others fought is your shame.
Claim your right to do, to dream and to dare.

Exercise 4

Write sentences containing the six infinitive forms of the verb obey.

DON'TS FOR INFINITIVES

165. Don't split your infinitives. Keep the to and the infinitive together as much as possible. Don't say, They intended to never come back. Say rather, They intended never to come back. Sometimes, however, the meaning can be more aptly expressed by placing the adverb modifier between the to and the infinitive, as for example:

To almost succeed is not enough.
It will be found to far exceed our expectations.

In these sentences the adverbs almost and far express our meaning more closely if they are placed between the to and the infinitive. Ordinarily, however, do not split your infinitives, but place the adverb modifier either before or after the infinitive.

166. Don't use to by itself without the rest of the infinitive. Don't say, Do as I tell you to. Say instead, Do as I tell you to do; or, Do as I tell you. Don't say, He deceived us once and he is likely to again. Say rather, He deceived us once and he is likely to deceive us again, or to do so again.

167. Don't use and for to. Don't say, Try and go if you can. Say instead, Try to go if you can.

Correct the following sentences:

We ought to bravely fight for our rights.
I will do all my employer tells me to.
We shall try and get our lessons.
I ought to at least help my comrades but I am afraid to.

Exercise 5

Study carefully the infinitives in the following quotation. Notice which are active and which are passive infinitives.

The twenty thousand men prematurely slain on a field of battle, mean, to the women of their race, twenty thousand human creatures to be borne within them for months, to be given birth to in anguish, to be fed from their breasts and to be reared with toil, if the members of the tribe and the strength of the nation are to be maintained. In nations continually at war, incessant and unbroken child-bearing is by war imposed on all women if the state is to survive; and whenever war occurs, if numbers are to be maintained, there must be an increased child-bearing and rearing. This throws upon woman, as woman, a war tax, compared with which all that the male expends in military preparations is comparatively light.
It is especially in the domain of war that we, the bearers of men's bodies, who supply its most valuable munition, who, not amid the clamor and ardor of battle, but singly, and alone, with a three-in-the-morning courage, shed our blood and face death that the battle-field might have its food, a food more precious to us than our heart's blood; it is we, especially, who, in the domain of war, have our word to say, a word no man can say for us. It is our intention to enter into the domain of war and to labor there till in the course of generations we have extinguished it.—Olive Schreiner.

Exercise 6

Mark the participles and infinitives.

Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold!

Bright and yellow, hard and cold,

Molten, graven, hammer'd and roll'd;

Heavy to get, and light to hold;

Hoarded, barter'd, bought, and sold,

Stolen, borrow'd, squander'd, doled:

Spurn'd by the young, but hugg'd by the old

To the very verge of the churchyard mould;

Price of many a crime untold:

Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold!

Good or bad a thousand-fold!

How widely its agencies vary—

To save—to ruin—to curse—to bless—

As even its minted coins express,

Now stamp'd with the image of Good Queen Bess,

And now of a bloody Mary.

—Thos. Hood.

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