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XXXIII. IRREGULAR VERBS.

1. Regular Verbs form their Past Tense (Indicative) and Past Participle by suffixing ed to the Present. Verbs that form these parts in some other way are called Irregular Verbs.

2. The Present Tense, Past Tense, and Past Participle of a Verb are called its PRINCIPAL PARTS, for the reason that, having these, we can easily form all the other parts of the Verb.

The Irregular Verbs are so very irregular that they should be committed to memory. A complete list will be found in the back part of this book; but a few of the most important are here given.

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Correct the following errors in Verbs:

1. Peter's leg was broke. 2. Have you took any fish to-day? 3. We drinked a glass of wine. 4. Our horse drawed a heavy load. 5. I have never ate such nice gingerbread as this. 6. Emma has not spoke to Jessie for a week. 7. We begun to think you were not coming. 8. The water was froze.

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Correct the following errors in Verbs:

1. John has wrote a letter. 2. The sun has rose.

terday. 4. The birds have flew away.

3. I see him yes

5. The cat catched a mouse.

6. The book lays on the table. 7. He laid on the sofa. 8. I knowed he had went. 9. The girl was seed going up the hill. 10. The hen sets on her eggs.

3. The scholar has often been told that I done it is bad English, and also, that I have went is bad English. From what we have learned about Verbs we shall be able to tell just why these and similar expressions are ungrammatical; and when we know the reason why they are wrong, we must be particularly careful to avoid such

errors.

The "I done it " Blunder.

4. The principal parts of the Verb do are: Present Tense, do; Past Tense, did; Past Participle, done.

5. The person who says I done it, means to make a statement of past time, just as if he were to say, I walked. Now the Past Tense of do is did; hence the only way of making the statement intended is to say I did it.

6. The word done is the Past Participle of the Verb do; but a Participle can not by itself make any statement at all; so that I done it is utter nonsense. If you were to say, he gone to town, it would be just as sensible as to say, I done it.

1. Tell, for the same reason, why "John drunk some water," is wrong.

2. Tell why "We seen an elephant," is bad English.

The "I have went" Blunder.

7. The mistake here is in using a Past Tense instead of a Past Participle, to form a Compound Tense. The Present Perfect Tense of the Verb go is intended.

8. The principal parts of this Verb are: Present, go; Past, went; Past Participle, gone. The Compound Tenses

are formed by the Verb have with the Past Participle; hence the correct form is, I have gone.

1. Tell, for the same reason, why "I have saw" is incorrect.
2. Tell why this is wrong, "Jane has began to study German."

Present for Past.

9. Another very common error in Verbs is shown in these sentences:

I come to town this morning.
He come to my store.

The sentences should be, "I came to town this morning;" "He came to my store." Why? Because come is the Present Tense; whereas the Past Tense, came, is intended. Would it not be absurd to say, "I go to town yesterday ?" Now "I come" is no better.

Exercise 31.

Correct the errors in Verbs in the following sentences, and tell the nature of the mistakes:

1. Henry done his example in arithmetic correctly.

2. We seen her when she done it.

3. Where is Alice? She has went to school.

4. I never drunk so much water before.

5. The horse has drank as much as he can.

6. Louise has wrote many letters to her uncle.
7. That boy has broke his word.

8. I see him last week.

9. The circus come to town yesterday.

10. I knowed he would fall into the river.

11. The cat sprung out.

12. Peter has tore his new jacket.

13. That tree growed fast.

14. The coward has eat his own words.

15. The cannon has busted.

16. The ground is all froze over.

17. We begun to think it was a mistake.

18. The girl slep ten hours.

19. I have strove to do right.

20. This lace is beautifully wove.

XXXIV. PHRASES WITH PARTICIPLES.

1. We have seen that there are two Participles-the Present and the Past. It is important that we understand what Participles are, for they are used in making Phrases.

2. A Participle is so called because it participates or shares partly in the nature of a Verb, and partly of an Adjective. A Verb is a Statement-word; but a Participle can only participate in making a statement.

1. The river is flowing.

Here is flowing is a Verb, and flowing, the Present Participle, helps make this Verb.

2. The river, flowing from the mountains, waters the plain.

Here the Participle flowing does not make any statement; it is an Adjective in this use, and flowing from the mountains is a Phrase. 3. The Nile is known to rise in Abyssinia.

Here the Past Participle known forms part of the Verb is known. 4. The Nile, known to rise in Abyssinia, flows through Egypt.

Here the Past Participle known makes no statement, and is really an Adjective; the expression, known to rise in Abyssinia, is a Phrase. 3. A number of separate statements with Participial phrases may be combined into a single sentence.

Example 1.

1. The gallant soldier fell.

2. He was covered with wounds.

By taking out from the second statement the Phrase covered with wounds, and fitting it into the first, we have this Sentence:

"The gallant soldier fell, covered with wounds;" or, "Covered with wounds, the gallant soldier fell."

Example 2.

1. We saw a beautiful landscape.

2. We had climbed to the top of the hill.
3. The landscape was stretched below us.

The first is the principal statement. The other two statements are to be transformed into phrases. We had climbed to the top of the hill, may be transformed into the phrase, having climbed to the top of the hill. Was stretched below, may be made into a phrase by leaving off the was. Combining these two phrases with the principal statement, we have the following Sentence:

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'Having climbed to the top of the hill, we saw a beautiful landscape stretched below us."

Exercise 32.

Combine each set of statements into a single sentence with PHRASES. The main statement comes first.

1. I lay down to rest.

I was exhausted by fatigue.

2. Columbus saw an island.

He saw it while gazing from the deck.

The island was covered with a luxuriant forest.

3. The Laplander defies the severity of his native climate. He is wrapped up in deer-skins.

4. We diverged toward the prairie.. We had left the line of march.

We had traversed a small valley.

5. The most commercial city of the United States is New York. It is situated on an island.

This island is called Manhattan Island.

6. There lay floating in the ocean an immense irregular mass. This mass was several miles off.

Its top and points were covered with snow.

Its centre was of a deep indigo color.

7. Washington retired to Mount Vernon.

He had freed his country from British rule.

bined.

Let the teacher make up additional groups to be com

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