Some words, derived from the learned languages, are confined to the plural number: as, antipodes, credenda, literati, minutia.

The following nouns being, in Latin, both singular and plural, are used in the same manner when adopted into ou tongué: hiatus, apparatus, series, species.

SECTION 4.-Of Case.

THE Cases of substantives signify their different terminations, which serve to express the relations of one thing to another.

In English, substantives have but two cases, the nominative, and the possessive or genitive.

The nominative case simply expresses the name of a thing, or the subject of the verb: as, "The boy plays;" "The girls learn."

*Genii, when denoting ærial spirits: Geniuses, when signi fying persons of genius.

Indexes, when it signifies pointers, or Tables of contents: Indices when referring to Algebraic quantities,

The possessive or genitive case expresses the relation of property or possession; and has an apostrophe with the letter s comin after it: as, "The scholar's duty;""My father's house:" that is, " The duty of the scholar," "The house of my father."

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 terminates in ss, the apostrophic s is not added: as, "For goodness' sake:" "For righteousness' sake."

English substantives may be declined in the following manner.

慈

The English language, express different connexions and relations of one thing to another, uses, for the most part, prepositions. The Greek and Latin among the ancient, and some too among the modern languages, as the German, vary the termination or ending of the substantive, to answer the same purpose; an example of which, in the Latin, is inserted, as explanatory of the nature and use of cases, viz.

king." This will be more evident to the scholar, if we supply what is understood after each genitive, and transpose the phrase: as, "Of my brother's books, a book;" or, "Of my brother's books, one;" and so of the rest.

CHAPTER IV.

OF PRONOUNS.

A PRONOUN is a word used instead of a noun, to avoid the too frequent repetition of the same word: as, "The man is happy; he is benevolent; he is useful."

There are three kinds of pronouns, viz. the PERSONAL, the RELATIVE, and the ADJECTIVE PRONOUNS.

SECTION 1.Of the Personal Pronouns.

THERE are five Personal Pronouns, viz. I, thou, he, she, it; with their plurals, we, ye or you, they. Personal Pronouns admit of person, number, gen

This account of persons will be very intelligible, when we reflect, that there are three persons who may be the subject of any discourse: first, the person who speaks, may speak of himself; secondly, he may speak of the person to:

By the indulgence of grammarians, the pronoun it is allowed to rank amongst the personal pronouns. It conveniently of ficiates as a third person to the verb.

whom he addresses himself; thirdly, he may speak of some other person and as the speakers, the persons spoken to, and the other persons spoken of, may be many, so each of these persons must have the plural number.

The Numbers of pronouns, like those of substantives, are two, the singular and the plural: as, I, thou, he; we, ye or you, they.

Gender has respect only to the third person singular of the pronouns, he, she, it. He is masculine; she is feminine; it is neuter.

The persons speaking and spoken to, being at the same time the subjects of the discourse, are supposed to be present; from which, and other circumstances, their sex is commonly known, and needs not to be marked by a dis tinction of gender in the pronouns : but the third person or thing spoken of, being absent, and in many respects. unknown, it is necessary that it should be marked by a distinction of gender; at least when some particular person or thing is spoken of, that ought to be more distinctly marked: accordingly the pronoun singular of the third person has the three genders, he, she, it.

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

The objective case follows a verb active, or a preposition, expressing the object of an action, or of relation.

SECTION 2.-Of the Relative Pronouns.

/ RELATIVE Pronouns are such as relate, in general, to some word or phrase going before, which is thence called the antecedent: they are, who, which, and that :)as, "The man is happy who lives virtuously.*.

What is a kind of compound relative, including both the antecedent and the relative, and is equivalent to that which :)as, "This is what I wanted;" that is to say, "the thing which I wanted."

Who is applied to persons, which to animals and inanimate things: as, "He is a friend, who is faithful in adversity;" "The bird, which sung so sweetly, is flown;" "This is the tree, which produces no fruit."

That, as a relative, is often used to prevent the too frequent repetition of who and which. It is applied to both persons and things: as, "He that acts wisely deserves praise;" "Modesty is a quality that highly adorns a woman."

* The relative pronoun, when used interrogatively, relates to a word or phrase, which is not antecedent, but subsequent to the relative. See note under the VI. Rule of Syntax.