Part 1 (1/2)

Word Study and English Grammar

by Frederick W Hamilton

PREFACE

This volume, and those which follow it in Part VI of this series, is a compilation froinal treatise, but it does call for so text-books The books prepared for school use are too academic and too little related to the specific needs of the apprentice to serve the turn of those for whom this book is intended On the other hand the books for writers and printers are as a rule too advanced for the best service to the beginner The authors of this Part, therefore, have tried to coe of authorities such material as would be suited to the needs and the experience of the young apprentice

The ”Rules for the Use and Arrangement of Words” are taken with some modifications from ”How to Write Clearly,” Edwin A Abbott, Boston; Roberts Bros This is a very excellent little book but is now, I believe, out of print The tables of irregular verbs are the salish Grammar for Common Schools,” Robert C and Thomas Metcalf, New York; American Book Co

The student is recoreat care

There are rammars The one used in the schools in the apprentice's locality will probably do as well as any

The student should learn to use the dictionary intelligently and should accusto it freely and frequently

The student should also learn to use words correctly and freely There are ood books devoted to the study of words, soht to be easily available One of the latest and one of the best is ”Putnam's Word Book” published by Putnams, New York It costs about a dollar and a half

WORD STUDY AND ENGLISH GRAMMAR

_Ira printer for several reasons In the first place, disregard of the correct use and combination of words is a distinct mark of inferiority and a serious bar to business and social advancement A man's use of words is coe and even of his intelligence

Carelessness in this regard often causes a man to be held in much less esteem than he really deserves

In the second place, it is quite as i about the words and sentences which he puts on paper as it is that he should know so about the paper on which he puts them, or the type, ink, and press by means of which he puts thee of words and their uses is indispensable to correct proofreading which is itself a branch of the printer's craft

A working knowledge of words and their relations, that is, of rhetoric and grammar is therefore a tool and a very important tool of the printer

This little book is not intended to be either a rhetoric or a grammar

It is only intended to review some of the simplest principles of both subjects, to point out a few of the commonest mistakes, and to show the importance to the apprentice of the careful study and constant use of some of the many books on words, their combinations, and their uses

_The Word Fa to one or another of nine families, each of which family has a special duty If you will always res and just what that family does, you will be saved from many very common errors These nine families are: 1, nouns; 2, adjectives; 3, articles; 4, verbs; 5, pronouns; 6, adverbs; 7, prepositions; 8, conjunctions; 9, interjections This order of enurahly the order of the appearance of the nine fae Some forms of interjections, however, e properly so called

_Nouns_

A noun is a word used as the naht of, _John_, _boy_, _paper_, _cold_, _fear_, _crowd_ There are three things about a noun which indicate its relation to other words, its nuular_s_ to the singular There are a small number of nouns which form their plurals differently, _mouse_, _mice_; _child_, _children_; _foot_, _feet_ Thesebook There are soes in the final syllable when the _s_ is added, _torch_, _torches_; _staff_, _staves_; _fly_, _flies_ These also must be learned individually There are soular, such as _cattle_, _clothes_, some which have no plural, such as _physics_, _honesty_, _news_, and soular and plural, such as _deer_, _trout_, _series_ Care must be taken in the use of these nouns, as in so, _ular nouns having no plural, but owing to their form they are often mistaken for plurals

Compound nouns, that is to say, nouns formed by the cole idea, generally change the principal word in the forers-on_, _ink rollers_, but in a few cases both words change, for example, _men-servants_ These forms must be learned by observation and practice

It is very ihly learned and correctly used Do not make such mistakes as _brother-in-laws_, _man-servants_