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8. All words which describe the position of persons or things, are called prepositions.

9. The exclamatory words, which express great earnestnesş or vehemence, are called interjections

ARTICLE.

1. An article is a word set before nouns to limit their signification; as, a tree, an orange, the ocean.

There are two articles, a* or an, and the.

A is an indefinite article, and means one, with reference to more, and is placed before nouns of the singular number; as, a house, a drum, a soldier.

An is placed before words beginning with a vowel, or h silent; as, an ox, an acorn, an hour.

The is the definite article, and always determines the thing before which it is put; as, the sun, the moon, the stars.

The is used before nouns of both numbers; as, singular, the apple; plural, the apples.

When a noun has no article to limit it, it is taken in a general sense; as, man is born to die.

NOUNS.

2. A noun is the name of any thing that exists; as, man, table, Boston: or, it is the name of any thing which we can see, hear, taste, smell, touch, or coneive of.

There are two kinds of nouns, proper and common.

A noun is proper when it expresses a particular place, country, city, river, mountain, or person; as, Virginia, America, Albany, Delaware, Vesuvius, William, &c.

A noun is called common, when it expresses a kind or sort;† as, man, hero, warriour, &c.

To nouns and pronouns belong gender, number, person, and case.

GENDER.

Gender is the distinction of sex.

There are three genders; the masculine, feminine, and neuter.

All words which signify males, are of the masculine gender; as, a man, a horse, an ox, &c.

All words which signify females, are of the feminine gender; as, a hen, a duck, a woman, &c.

Words which signify things inanimate, are neuter, that is, neither male nor female; as, house, barn, form, &c.

Some nouns, being applied both to males and females, are of the common gender; as, friend, cousin, neighbour, &c.

* A instead of an, is now used before words beginning with u long, as a union. It is also used before one, as many a one.

†There are several other distinctions of nours, as regular, irregular, abstract, participial, and nouns of multitude. (See Juvenile Expositor.)

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NUMBER.

A she-bear.

A female-child.
Female-descendants.

Number is the distinction of one, from several, or many. Nouns and pronouns have two numbers, the singular and plural. The singular number signifies but one; as, a ship, an our, the mast, &c.

The plural number signifies more than one; as, pears, plums, melons, &c.

The plural number of nouns is generally formed by adding s to the singular; as, hat, hats; orange, oranges, &c.

When the noun singular ends in x, ch, sh, or ss, we add es to make the plural; as, fox, foxes; rush, rushes; miss, misses, &c.

Nouns ending in for fe are generally made plural by changingƒ or fe, into res; as, loaf, loaves; wife, wives, &c.

Nouns which end in ff, have the regular plura!; as, ruff, ruffs, muff, muffs.

Nouns which end in y, in the singular, preceded by a consonant, change the y into ies; as, beauty, beauties; cherry, cherries, &c.

which end in y, preceeded by a vowel, form the plural, by

adding s; as, toy, toys; chimney, chimnies, &c.

Some nouns are alike in both numbers; as, deer, sheep, swine, &c. Some nouns, from the nature of the things which they express, are used only in the singular; as, wheat, pitch, gold, sloth, &c.

Some nouns are used only in the plural; as, bellows, scissors, snuffers, nippers, riches, &c. PERSON.

There are three persons, the first, second, and third.

The first person relates to pronouns only; the second and third relate both to nouns and pronouns.

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The first person is when the speaker speaks himself; as, I love, 1 strike, I move; or of himself in connexion with others; as, we love, we strike, we move, &c.

The second person is spoken to; as, Thou art good and wise.

The third person is spoken of; as Maria improves; Virtue exalts her.

When any particular person or thing is addressed, it becomes the second person; as, O sun! Oh Washington! The pronoun thou being understood; as, O thou sun! Oh thou Washington!

DECLENSION.

Declension, is the variation of nouns and pronouns by cases. CASE.

Case, in Grammar, expresses the variation of nouns and pronouns, either with respect to termination or situation. In English there are three cases.

The nominative case is simply the name of a person, place, or thing ; as, Albert, Boston, fire, wisdom, &c.

The possessive case expresses the relation of property or posses sion; and has an apostrophe, with the letters after it; as, Edwin's knife, Mary's ring, virtue's reward, &c.

When the plural ends in s, the other s is omitted, but the apostrophe (') is retained; as, On eagles' wings, the drapers' company. Sometimes also, when the singular ends in ss, the apostrophic s, is not added; as, For righteousness' sake, for goodness' sake.

The objective case expresses the object of an action, or of a relation, and follows an active verb, an active participle, or a preposition; as, John assists Charles. They live in London.

them. On seeing him, &c.

English substantives are declined thus:

With the indefinite article.

I prasse

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3. An adjective is a word used to express the quality of a noun; as, a sweet peach, a pleasant prospect.,

Adjectives admit of three degrees of comparison, the positive, the comparative, and the superlative.

The positive state expresses the simple quality; as, good, wise, great. The comparative increases or diminishes the signification of the positive; as, wiser, greater, less wise.

The superlative increases or diminishes the signification of the positive to the highest or lowest degree; as, wisest, greatest, least wise.* The positive degree is made the comparative by adding r or er; and the superlative, by st or est, when the positive ends in e; as, wise, wiser, wisest.

The adverbs more and most, set before adjectives, have the same effect as er or est added to them; as, wise, more wise, most wise.

Monosyllables are generally compared by er or est; and dissyllables by more and most; as, great, greater greatest;‡ frugal, more frugal, most frugal.

Some words are irregularly compared ; as,

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PRONOUNS.

4. A pronoun is a word used instead of a noun, to avoid repeating the same word; as, Maria improves because she (Maria) is diligent.

There are three kinds of pronouns; the personal, the relative, and the adjective.

The personal pronouns are so called because they relate to persons. There are five personal pronouns, viz. I, thou, he, she, it; with their plurals we, ye or you, they.

Pronouns have three persons in each number, viz.

I,

Thou,

is the first

person,

is the second: person,

He, she, or it, is the third person,

Singular.

In the superlative degree, the indefinite article should be changed into the definite.

To this rule there are exceptions.

Monosyllables, when compared by er or est, become dissyllables in the comparauve and superlative degrees.

We,

Ye or you,
They,

is the first

person,

is the second person, Plural.
is the third person,

Personal pronouns have two numbers, the singular, and plural: as, ngular, I, thou, he, she, it; plural, we, ye or you, they. Personal pronouns have gender, number, person, and case.

Gender has respect only to the third person singular of the pronouns; as, he, she, it.

Pronouns have three cases; the nominative, the possessive and the objective.

The objective case of pronouns has, in general, a form different from that of the nominative, or the possessive case.

The personal pronouns are thus declined.

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The relative pronouns are who, which, and that. They are called relative pronouns, because they relate to some word or phrase going before, which is thence called the antecedent; as, The man is happy who lives virtuously.

Who relates to persons; which to animals or inanimate things that may refer either to persons or things; as, The boy who is idle does not improve. The bird which sung so sweetly has flown.

What is a kind of a compound relative, including both the relative and the antecedent; and is the same as that which; as, This is what I saw, that is, the thing which I saw.

Who is the same in both numbers, and is thus declined.

*The compound pronouns, himself, herself, itvalf, ourselves yourselves, themselves, have no

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