Rule 20. If there is no nominative between the relative and the verb, the relative is nominative case to the verb.

Rule 21. When a nominative comes between the relative and the verb, the relative is governed by some word in its own member of the sentence.

Rule 22. Every adjective, and every adjective pronoun or participle used adjectively, belongs to some noun or pronoun expressed or understood.

Rule 23. Adverbs qualify verbs, adjectives, participles, and other adverbs. They sometimes also qualify a preposition. sometimes an article, and sometimes a phrase or whole sentence.

Rule 24. Conjunctions connect the same moods and tenses of verbs, and cases of nouns and pronouns.*

Rule 25. Two or more nouns, connected by a copulative conjunction, require the words with which they agree to be plural. If connected by a disjunctive conjunction, the verb, noun, or pronoun, with which they agree, must be singular.

Rule 26. A noun of multitude, or signifying many, has a verb or pronoun agreeing with it, either in the singular or plural number.

Rule 27. The infinitive mood may be governed by a verb, noun, adjective, or participle.t

* To this rule, there are some exceptions.

this rule, Part II.

See remarks on

It may also be governed by a conjunction, adverb, or preposition. See Part II.

ENGLISH GRAMMAR.

PART II.

Of Substantives.

A substantive or noun is the name of a thing. The word noun means name. Pen, paper, chair, table, book, gratitude, truth, bravery, are nouns. Substantives or nouns are either proper or common.

Proper substantives are names appropriated to individuals without any reference to kindGeorge, Henry, Charles, Edward, are of this class. Also names appropriated to particular places; as Boston, New-York, Baltimore.These names have reference to no particular species of animals or things, but are used to designate particular individuals, or particular places; and they are therefore called proper

names.

Common names or substantives are appropriated to kinds, or whole species, containing many individuals under them. Man, tree, bird, fish, are of this class The term man has reference to no particular person, but to the human species, and may be applied to any individual pertaining to the species. So with tree, bird, or fish. These names stand for no partic

T

ular objects, but may be applied to any one of the whole species. There may be innumerable trees and innumerable kinds of trees, yet the general name tree, may with equal propriety be applied to any one of them. All those

names or nouns which are collected in dictionaries, with definitions attached to them, are of the class called common nouns.

When proper names have an article annexed to them, they are used as common names; as, He is the Cicero of his age; he is reading the lives of the twelve Cæsars.

Common names may also be used to signify individuals, by the addition of articles or pronouns; as, The boy is studious; that girl is discreet.

Nouns may also be divided into the following classes:

Collective nouns, or nouns of multitude; as, the people, the parliament, the army abstract nouns, or the names of qualities abstracted from their substances; as, knowledge, goodness, whiteness: verbal nouns; as, lover, accuser, betrayer, beggar: participial nouns ; as, beginning, understanding, hearing, writing. To substantives belong gender, number, and

case.

Substantives also admit of a second and third person. The person speaking, or first person, employs the pronoun instead of the noun; consequently nouns have no first person. They have two persons only; and they are all of the third person when spoken of, and of the second

when spoken to. Thus when we say, Children, obey your parents; the noun children is the second person, because children are spoken to; and the word parents is the third person because they are spoken of. But change the expression and say, Parents, provoke not your children to wrath; and the order of persons is changed. Parents, being spoken to becomes the second; and children, who are spoken of, the third. So in all cases. When we speak of or about a thing, it is in the third person; but when we speak to it, it is in the second.

Gender.

Gender is the distinction of nouns with regard to sex.

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

The masculine gender denotes animals of the male kind; as, a man, a horse, an ox.

The feminine gender signifies animals of the female kind; as, a woman, a duck, a hen.

The neuter gender denotes objects which are neither male nor female; as a field, a house, a garden.

Some substantives, naturally neuter, are by a figure of speech converted into the masculine or feminine gender; as, when we say of the sun, He is setting; and of a ship, She sails well.

Figuratively, in the English tongue, we conmonly give the masculine gender to nouns which are conspicuous for the attributes of im

parting or communicating, and which are by nature strong and efficacious. Those, again, are made feminine, which are conspicuous for the attributes of containing or bringing forth, or which are peculiarly beautiful or amiable. Upon these principles, the sun is said to be masculine; and the moon being the receptacle of the sun's light, to be feminine. The earth is generally feminine; a ship, a country, a city. &c. are likewise made feminine, being receivers or containers. Time is always masculine on account of its mighty elhcacy. Virtue is feminine from its beauty, and its being the object of love. Fortune, and also the church, are generally put in the feminine gender.

The English language has three methods of distinguishing the sex, viz:

1. By different words: as,

3. By a noun, pronoun, or adjective, being prefixed to the substantive: as,

Male.

A man-servant.

A he-goat.

Female.

A maid-servant.

A she-goat.

Male-descendants. Female-descendants, &c.