Note.-The only true Subjunctive in English is in the Conjugation of the Verb Be; were and wert, as distinct from was and wast of the Indicative.

Note. Of the two phrases, If he is gone, and, If he be gone, the latter expresses the greater degree of doubt.

Participles.

The Participle derives its name from the fact that, though distinctly a part of the Verb, it takes a part (Latin, pars, a part, and capio, I take) in the work of the Adjective or the Noun.

We have four Participles in each Voice of the Transitive Verb. They are—

1. The Present Participle, in the Active Voice, is made by adding ing to the Infinitive, as, love, loving; hear, hearing. The Anglo-Saxon ending was ande, ende, &c. (Compare the Latin, ens-entis, and the German end.)

In its Syntax the Present Participle Active is either a Noun; as, The rising of the sun; or an Adjective; as, The rising sun.

Note. Some grammarians consider the ing in rising, used as a Noun, to be, not the ending of the Present Participle, but a modern form of the termination ung, found in Anglo-Saxon Nouns.

Note. When the Participle in ing is used as a Noun, it resembles the Gerund of a Latin Verb.

The Present Participle Active has sometimes a Passive meaning; as, The house was building; the book is printing. In older English a Preposition was used before the Participle; The house was a-building; the book is in printing.

The Present Participle Passive is generally formed without the auxiliary being; as, Hunted from hill to hill, and, when caught, tortured without mercy, they yet clung more closely to their faith.

The Present Participle Active is used either as a Noun or an Adjective-the Present Participle Passive, always as an Adjective.

The Past Participle is made in Weak Verbs by adding d, ed, or t to the Infinitive; as, loved, slept-in most Strong Verbs, by adding en, which, however, is often left out in modern English; as, beaten, struck, (once strucken ;) "The clock hath strucken eight."-Julius Cæsar.

In Anglo-Saxon the Past Participle ended in ad, ed, od, with ge often prefixed; as, lufod, or, gelufod. (Compare the German Past Participle.) The Old English forms yclept, (called,) yclad, (dressed,) are traces of the latter participial form.

2. The Past Participles of a Transitive Verb are never used except with auxiliaries in forming the Tenses; as, I have struck; I have been struck.

Note.-There is much confusion caused in Parsing by the Active Past and Passive Present Participles being alike in form; and by both being often similar to the Past Tense of the Indicative Active. They are to be distinguished by their Syntax, that is, by their use in relation to other words; as,

Past Indicative Active-He struck me. Nominative.

Past Participle Active-He has struck me.

before it.

Known by its having a

Known by the Auxiliary

Present Participle Passive-Struck with a bullet, he fell. Known by its use as an Adjective, qualifying he.

3 and 4. Though we have no real Participle of the Perfect and Future Tenses, yet it is necessary to add the forms representing these to the list, in order to complete the view of the Verb.

Voice.

Voice is a change in the form of the Verb, according as its Nominative is the name of the actor or the name of the object.

There are two Voices, Active and Passive; as,

Active.
Passive.

John broke the window.

The window was broken by John.

The Passive Voice is made by adding the Present Particiciple Passive to the several parts of the Verb Be; as, Be thou loved. He was killed.

Transitive Verbs only can have a Passive Voice.

In the foregoing example it will be seen that the Objective Case after the Active Voice (window) becomes the Nominative Case before the Passive Voice (was broken.)

Hence Intransitive Verbs, which are followed by no Objective Case, have no word to stand as Nominative to a Passive form; as,

There being no Subject for the Passive Verb, it cannot be used; for, if we have nothing to speak about, we can say nothing about it.

Note 1.--Some Intransitive Verbs have a seeming Passive form; as, I am come; He was gone.

These may be parsed either as equivalent to I have come; He had gone, or as consisting of Past Participles added to am and was, used independently.

Note 2.-There is an idiom, in which the wrong word is taken as Nominative to the Passive Verb:

I was asked a question by him,

should be, in strict grammatical form,

A question was asked me by him.

This confusion arises from the Active Voice being followed by two Cases-one the Direct Objective, the other an Indirect Objective; as, He asked (of) me a question.

The Direct Objective should strictly be chosen as the Nominative to the Passive Verb.

All three are different words; the two last not being, as is usual, derived from the first. The eleven distinct forms, which we find in the full conjugation of this Verb, may be thus arranged:

The Substantive Verb is therefore a cluster of three Defective Verbs, whose various forms unite to make up its full conjugation.

The m of am is merely the sign of the First Person, (probably a fragment of me.) Compare the Greek eimi and the Latin sum.