IRREGULAR VERBS.

An irregular verb is one that does not form its past tense and perfect participle by adding d or ed to the present.

Regular verbs are sometimes called weak verbs, and irregular ones strong.

They may be divided into three classes; (1) those with only one form, (2) those with two forms, (3) those with three forms.

The chief of them are as follows:

It should be pointed out that mistakes occur most frequently in the verbs that exist in pairs as it were; such as, fall and fell, lie and lay, sit and set, dare (venture) and dare (challenge), teach and learn, &c. On examination it will be seen that one of these is generally transitive, the other intransitive.

Besides the various kinds of verbs already mentioned, there are two other sorts that must be noticed; viz., Impersonal and Defective verbs.

An Impersonal Verb is one in which the subject cannot be expressed in one word, but its place is supplied by the pronoun it; as, It rains, It matters little.

A Defective Verb is one that is wanting in some of its principal parts: the chief are, beware, ought, quoth, and the mood auxiliaries.

INFLECTION OF ADVERBS.

A few adverbs, chiefly those of manner, are inflected by Degrees of Comparison, like adjectives.

(1) Some by adding er, and est; as, soon, sooner, soonest. (2) Some by prefixing more and most; as, boldly, more boldly, most boldly.

(3) Others irregularly; as, well, better, best; much, more,

most.

ON THE DERIVATION OF WORDS.

The English language is derived mainly from the AngloSaxon, the language of the people who conquered our country after the Romans left it. It would, perhaps, be more correct to say that the English tongue is what was once called Anglo-Saxon, with words from many other languages grafted upon it. Taking the number of different words in our language at 40,000, about 30,000 of them are of the Saxon stock. Thus three out of every four words in our dictionaries form our "mother tongue as a Saxon people, while the proportion of such words in ordinary speaking and writing is still higher. About 8,000, or one-fifth of our words, are borrowed from the Latin, either directly or through the French.* Of the remaining 2000, words of Greek and Celtic origin are the most numerous; while the Italian, Spanish, Arabic, &c. have each supplied us with a few. The Saxon English words comprise all the short, easy words in the language, such as an Englishman never is at a loss for the meaning or application of. They include all the Articles, Pronouns, Auxiliary Verbs, Prepositions, and Conjunctions, besides the simpler words of the other classes.

The Latin words are mostly ecclesiastical, philosophical, scientific, or general terms.

The French words relate to rank, dignity, government, war, fashion.

The Greek words are nearly entirely technical and scientific. The Italian words are terms in music and the fine arts, &c.

* E. g., Regal and legal are direct from the Latin reg and leg respectively, while royal and loyal come from the same roots, but through the French roi and loi. Again, persecute and pursue are both from the Latin sequor, secut, but the latter reaches us through the French suiore.