MODIFICATIONS OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH.
Reading edition
LESSON 78.
NOUNS AND PRONOUNS.
You have learned that two words may express a thought, and that the thought may be varied by adding modifying words. You are now to learn that the meaning or use of a word may sometimes be changed by simply changing its form. The English language has lost many of its inflections, or forms, so that frequently changes in the meaning and use of words are not marked by changes in form. These changes in the form, meaning, and use of the parts of speech, we call their +Modifications+.
The boy shouts. The boys shout. I have changed the form of the subject boy by adding an s to it. The meaning has changed. Boy denotes one lad; boys, two or more lads. This change in the form and meaning of nouns is called +Number+. The word boy, denoting one thing, is in the +Singular Number;+ and boys, denoting more than one thing, is in the +Plural Number+.
Let the teacher write other nouns on the board, and require the pupils to form the plural of them.
DEFINITIONS.
+Modifications of the Parts of Speech are changes in their form, meaning, and use+.
NUMBER.
+Number is that modification of a noun or pronoun which denotes one thing or more than one+.
+The Singular Number denotes one thing+.
+The Plural Number denotes more than one thing+.
+RULE.—The plural of nouns is regularly formed by adding s to the singular+.
Write the plural of the following nouns.
Tree, bird, insect, cricket, grasshopper, wing, stick, stone, flower, meadow, pasture, grove, worm, bug, cow, eagle, hawk, wren, plough, shovel.
When a singular noun ends in the sound of s, x, z, sh, or ch, it is not easy to add the sound of s, so es is added to make another syllable.
Write the plural of the following nouns.
Guess, box, topaz, lash, birch, compass, fox, waltz, sash, bench, gas, tax, adz, brush, arch.
Many nouns ending in o preceded by a consonant form the plural by adding es without increasing the number of syllables.
Write the plural of the following nouns.
Hero, cargo, negro, potato, echo, volcano, mosquito, motto.
Common nouns ending in y preceded by a consonant form the plural by changing y into i and adding es without increasing the number of syllables.
Write the plural of the following nouns.
Lady, balcony, family, city, country, daisy, fairy, cherry, study, sky.
Some nouns ending in f and fe form the plural by changing f or fe into ves without increasing the number of syllables.
Write the plural of the following nouns.
Sheaf, loaf, beef, thief, calf, half, elf, shelf, self, wolf, life, knife, wife.