second person. sented as spoken of; and both subject and verb are said to be in the third person. In the plural the verbs do not change in form, but the subjects do. Thus, first person, We go; second person, You go; third person, They go.

In He goes the subject is repre

ILLUSTRATION OF A PRESENT TENSE

243. The following tabulation shows the present tense of a verb, its different persons, and its two numbers.

244. When you have made up your mind to do a thing, you say I will. When you have made up your mind that some one else shall do a thing, you say You shall or He shall. So also in the plural you say We will and You shall and They shall to express your determination. But if you wish merely to express what will occur in the natural course of events, you say I shall and You will and He will. So also in the plural you say We shall and You will and They will to express future action.

The following sentences have long been used to illustrate the differences in question: I will drown; nobody shall help me. I shall drown; nobody will help me. Explain just what they mean.

UNREASONABLE CHANGE OF TENSE

245. Careless writers and speakers sometimes change the tense of their verbs when it is very bad taste to do so. For example: As I went along through the woods, I heard the chatter of a squirrel. I get ready to shoot, and just then a rabbit jumped up just ahead of me, and I fire at it instead. There is no reason for changing from the past to the present tense, and from present to past; the whole effect is very absurd. If you begin a narrative in the past tense, continue in that tense. Change tense only when you wish to express a change of time.

VOICE

246. Some verbs change in form to indicate whether the subject is represented as making or receiving the action expressed in the verb. Thus, in I see the sky the subject is acting, and the verb is said to be in the active voice. In The sky is seen the subject receives the action, and the verb is said to be in the passive voice.

247. Can you write out a tabulation of voice, tense, person, and number of some verb? If you try it, you will have to be careful in choosing your verb, for not all verbs can have a passive voice. For example, go, look, and limp cannot have the passive voice, for it would be absurd to say I am goed, or You were looked, or He has been limped. On the other hand, see, write, believe, and hurt may be written out in the passive form.

TRANSITIVE AND INTRANSITIVE VERBS

248. You have already learned that only those verbs that can have objects can have a passive form. For example, you may say I see a man, in which the verb "see" has the object "man." Now you can turn the sentence around and say The man is seen, in which the verb "is seen" is passive. Verbs that have objects are called transitive verbs; those that do not have objects are called intransitive verbs. Some verbs are transitive in some senses and intransitive in others. For example, in The man runs the verb "run" has no object and is intransitive; but in The man runs the engine the verb "runs" has an object and is transitive.

LINKING VERBS

249. Some verbs link predicate words to the subject. For example, in I am ill, I was afraid, I have been a pupil in that school, and I am he, the verbs link "ill," "afraid," "pupil," and "he" to the subjects. Hence the verbs are called linking verbs, and are, of course, intransitive. Other examples: This is he. This is she. The cream tastes sour. They appeared well. She seems cross. The rose smells sweet. I feel bad. You have already had something about this matter in section 139.

A STUDY OF VERBS

250. In the following sentences determine the tense, person, and number of the verbs. Determine whether they are transitive or intransitive; and, if

transitive, if they are in the active or the passive voice. Distinguish between the use of shall and will. 1. We heard the train coming around the curve. 2. The train was heard coming around the curve. 3. I have never seen the wreck of a train.

4. The wreck of a train has never been seen by any of us. 5. You will soon learn what fast traveling is.

6. The old-fashioned bicycle with a high front wheel is

never seen now.

7. Their car will be here before we are ready.

8. She had already got dinner ready when her mother came home.

9. She will have got dinner ready by the time her mother gets home.

10. We could not go out in the car until dinner had been eaten.

II. We shall not reach the station before train time.

12. We will reach the station in time even if we have

to run.

13. He shall do just what I command him to do.

14. The car ran as it had never run before.

15. We cannot get to the station unless we go faster.

16. My father drives too slowly at times.

17. And at times he has driven too rapidly.

18. Our horse travels rather fast for an animal of

his age.

19. Our carriage has been repainted, but it needs new tires.

20. Mr. Pearson's stable is too near the house, so it will be moved soon.

21. There are four horses in his stable, while we have but two.

22. His gray horse had been shod before the black one.

23. You have not yet seen my new pony.

24. We shall have finished our dinner by the time the car is here.

25. I will go whether you are willing or not.

26. She will go if you ask her; but I will not. 27. You shall go whether you want to or not.

28. The apples we got while on our ride taste very sour. 29. I feel too bad to go riding to-day.

THE NOUN

251. In the sentence This man is the soldier who brought the guns to the fort, are several words that are called nouns. The first one is "man," which is the subject of the sentence. The next is "soldier,' which is a predicate noun. The next is "guns," which is the object. The last is "fort," which is a substantive with a preposition. Likewise, in the sentence Soldiers, this is George Henderson, the man who brought the guns to the fort, are two nouns in other functions. The first is "soldiers," which is the nominative of address; the second is "man," which is in apposition with. "George Henderson." Any one of these words can easily be the subject of a sentence; that is, it is a kind of word that is normally talked about. Words in all these functions are called nouns.

Nouns are usually names of things. However, some words that are not names of things become nouns, or substantives, to use the exact term, by being subjects, objects, etc. Thus, in the sentence The teacher wrote "went" on the blackboard, "went," which is usually a verb, here becomes a substantive,