is fallen and has fallen, is descended and has descended, &c. In French, most neuter verbs are conjugated to this day with être. The same remark applies to other languages. Is it not likely that all our neuter verbs were originally compounded with the verb to be, and that the usage in regard of the more numerous class of active verbs was insensibly extended to them, after the proper and original force of the verb Have in these active compounds had ceased to be recognised?

Lake$60. COMPOUND TENSES FORMED WITH THE AUXILIARY Do.— We next proceed to exhibit the compound tenses,* formed by the help of the auxiliary Do.

(1) Do is a very energetic little word, and the compound tenses formed by combining its indefinite and past tenses with an infinitive are used, as the indefinite and past tenses of the verb whose infinitive is thus combined; 1st, To express either strong assertion, or contradiction of an assertion, or the answer to a question; 2d, In asking a question; and 3d, In negative propositions. A form with do is also sometimes used in imperative propositions. (2) These forms are employed for the purposes mentioned instead of the indefinite and past tenses of all the verbs in the language which have infinitives, except the auxiliaries, to be, and to have. Shall, will, may, can, must, ought, it will be recollected, have no infinitives. (3) The verb do itself has these compound tenses formed by the combination of its indefinite and past tenses with its own infinitive; thus, He DOES DO SO; He DID DO SO; DOES he DO so? DID he DO so? (4) The learner ought to guard against combining Do with HAVE. (5) He does have, and He did have, Does he have, and He don't have, &c., are incorrect forms of expression, and yet often used in some parts of the United States.† (6) No person accustomed to use the English language from childhood is in danger of combining do with be. * Perhaps we should rather call these forms modes.

This form of expression is unphilosophical-incongruous as regards meaning since the verb HAVE does not express energy, but mere passive possession. When we wish to express active or energetic having, we employ the verbs to possess, or to hold. And with both these, Do can with propriety be combined. But it is sufficient to condemn these combinations of do with have, that they are unsanctioned by respectable usage. No correct writer

§ 60. (1) What is said of DO, and for what purposes are the compound tenses formed by it used? (2) For what tenses are these forms employed? (3) What is said of the compound tenses of do itself? (4) Repeat the caution to the learner. (5) What is said of such expressions as, He does have, he did have, &c.? (6) Repeat remark about do and be.

(7) We present the compounds formed by DO in three modes, the emphatic, the interrogative and the negative. (8) The interrogative form is distinguished by the fact that the subject is arranged after the auxiliary; and the negative form takes the negative particle NOT after the auxiliary. (9) According to the present usage of our language we rarely employ the simple indefinite or past tense, except of the verbs to be and to have, in an interrogative or negative proposition. (10) Such forms of expression as Writes he? Goes he? He writes not, He goes not, are now scarcely used, except in poetry. We say now universally, DOES he write? Does he go? He DOES not write, &c. We shall mention an exception in interrogative forms presently. (11) By turning to the authorised English version of the Bible, or any book written in the same or any preceding age, we shall find the simple tenses very generally employed both in interrogative and negative propositions. "Believest thou not?" Know ye what?" "What went ye out to see?" stand ye here?" "Went not." 66 'Repented not." Instead of these expressions we now use, Dost thou not believe? Do ye know what? What did ye go out to see? Why do ye stand here? Did not go.

66

"Why

or speaker on either side of the Atlantic ever employs them. So far as we know, they are used by no class of persons, whether educated or uneducated, in the British Isles. The following caution therefore, has exclusive reference to the citizens of the United States.

Great care should be taken by all who wish to speak good English, to guard against the use of these combinations, which persons even of good education are subject to adopt insensibly in colloquial intercourse with the uneducated. Some attention should be given to this grammatical impropriety by teachers, wherever it prevails, not only by calling the attention of the learner to the nature of the mistake, and correcting it whenever it is made, but by exercises so constructed as to render the correct usage familiar in cases where such blunders would most likely be committed. We think it the more necessary to call the attention of teachers to these ungrammatical forms of expression, because in some places the use of them is so prevalent, that careless writers begin to introduce them in works prepared for the press, and because, so far as we know, this solecism is not noticed in the grammars in common use.

(7) Name the several compounds formed with DO. (8) How is the interrogative form distinguished? And how the negative form? (9) Repeat the remark in reference to the present usage of our language. (10) Repeat the illustration. (11) Describe the usage com.

Did not repent. (12) The forms with do are also employed in the Bible and in writings of that age; but they had not yet completely superseded the simple tenses in interrogative and negative propositions.

All the other persons are the same, except as to the subject,

(16) When the compound tenses are used interrogatively, the subject is placed after the first auxiliary word; and when used negatively, the negative particle is placed after the first auxiliary word. (17) The first auxiliary word in all compound tenses is really the verb-the assertive word, and always to be regarded as such. (18) Hence the subject in interrogation and the negative

mon in the authorised version of the Bible, and illustrate by examples. (12) Are the interrogative forms with Do employed in the Bible and writings of the same age?

(13) Repeat the indefinite tense of the emphatic form. Of the interrogative form. Of the negative form. (14) Repeat in like manner the past tense of the same forms. (15) Repeat the emphatic imperative form. (16) Where is the subject placed when compound tenses are used interrogatively? And where the negative particle when they are used negatively? (17) Repeat the remark in reference to the first auxiliary word. (18) Repeat the inference.

particle in negation regularly follow it, and have precedence of all the other parts of the combination.*

(19) REMARK.-In interrogative propositions generally, the subject follows the verb. EXCEPTION: (20) When the subject noun is an interrogative word, or is modified by an interrogative word, it is placed before the verb, like the subject in assertive propositions; (21) and, in this case, the simple indefinite and past tenses, and not the compounds with DO, are employed. (22) Examples: WHO GOES to the post-office this morning? WHICH HORSE RUNS fastest? WHAT HOUSE FELL? We shall consider the interrogative subject nouns in another place. (§ 98.)

(24) In the same manner questions are made with the compound tenses (yet to be considered) formed with the help of the verb to be and other auxiliaries. (25) The subject of the interrogative proposition, if not an interrogative word, is placed after the auxiliary; Is he writing? Is he called? Can he go? &c. With an interrogative word for subject, the order of arrangement is, Who is writing? Who is called? Which party can go? &c.

TIONS.

EXERCISES IN INTERROGATIVE, EMPHATIC AND NEGATIVE PROPOSIEXERCISE I.-Write a given number of interrogative propositions, using the indefinite and past tenses interrogative. This and all the following exercises to be repeated till the pupil is perfectly familiar

* In negative interrogation, the negative follows the subject; thus, Do 1 not write?

(19) Repeat the remark about the place of the subject in interrogative propositions. (20) Repeat the exception. (21) What form of the verb is employed in this case? (22) Repeat examples.

(23) Repeat the future tense interrogatively through all the persons. The perfect in like manner. The past perfect. The future. And the 3d persons of each tense with an interrogative word for subject. (24) What is said in reference to questions made with the compound tenses (yet to be considered) formed with to be and the other auxiliaries? (25) Repeat the illustration, and the examples.

with the form of the verb employed, and with the use of this kind of proposition.

EXERCISE II.-Write a given number of interrogative propositions employing verbs in the compound tenses.

EXERCISE III.-A given number of emphatic propositions in the indefinite and past tenses.

EXERCISES IV., V., &c.-Negative propositions in the indefinite and past tenses, and in the compound tenses.

EXERCISE VI., &C.-Write imperative propositions with the imperative emphatic form.

me.

61. COMPOUND TENSES FORMED BY THE COMBINATION OF INFINITIVES WITH MAY, CAN, MIGHT, COULD, WOULD, SHOULD.-(1) These tenses are usually represented as constituting what is called the POTENTIAL MODE. (2) They are generally used as before stated (§ 54: 10), either in the construction of the principal proposition in a conditional assertion, or in expressing the condition on which a conditional assertion depends. (3) The following sentences afford examples of both uses: I would go to the country, if you would go with I can follow, if you can lead. I may do it, if you may do it, &c. (4) The first proposition in each of these sentences contains an assertion dependent on a condition expressed in the second. (5) The first proposition in each is declarative, but in a conditional manner; the second performs the function of a subjoined or complementary proposition. (6) But all these compound tenses, and especially that formed with CAN, are employed sometimes to make unconditional assertions. (7) Examples: The boy CAN WRITE. John MAY PLAY to-morrow. Exercise WOULD greatly IMPROVE his health. Industry SHOULD BE rewarded. The young man MIGHT study more diligently. Socrates COULD govern his temper.

[(8) If we call these forms the conditional tenses, or the conditional mode, it is only because they are most frequently employed in connexion with a condition, or to express a condition, not because

§ 61. (1) What do the tenses formed with may, can, might, &c., constitute? (2) How are they generally used? (3) Repeat the examples. (4) What is said of the first proposition in each of these sentences? (5) What further is said of the first proposition? What of the second? (6) Repeat the remark made in regard to all these compound tenses? (7) Repeat the examples.

[(S) What reason is assigned for calling these the conditional tenses, or conditional mode? and what in fact indicates conditional assertion? See note.