The Grammar of English Grammars by Goold Brown (free ebook reader .txt) 📕

or was, 2. If thou wert, or wast, 3. If he were, or was; 1. If we were, 2. If ye or you were, 3. If they were."—Hall's Grammatical Assistant, p. 11. Again: "SUBJ. Present Tense. 1. If I love, 2. If thou lovest, 3. If he love," &c. "The remaining tenses of this mode, are, in general, similar to the correspondent tenses of the Indicative mode, only with the conjunction prefixed."—Ib., p. 20. Dr. Johnson observes, "The indicative and conjunctive moods are by modern writers frequently confounded; or rather the conjunctive is wholly neglected, when some convenience of versification does not invite its revival. It is used among the purer writers of former times; as, 'Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not.'"—Gram. in Joh. Dict., p. 9. To neglect the subjunctive mood, or to confound it with the indicative, is to augment several of the worst faults of the language. II. COMPOUND OR PROGRESSIVE FORM.

Active and neuter verbs may also be conjugated, by adding the Imperfect Participle to the auxiliary verb BE, through all its changes; as, "I am writing a letter."—"He is sitting idle."—"They are going." This form of the verb denotes a continuance of the action or state of being, and is, on many occasions, preferable to the simple form of the verb.

FOURTH EXAMPLE.

The irregular active verb READ, conjugated affirmatively, in the Compound Form.

PRINCIPAL PARTS OF THE SIMPLE VERB.

Present. Preterit. Imp. Participle. Perf. Participle. R=ead. R~ead. R=eading. R~ead.

INFINITIVE MOOD.

PRESENT TENSE.
To be reading.

PERFECT TENSE.
To have been reading.

INDICATIVE MOOD. PRESENT TENSE.

Singular. Plural. 1. I am reading, 1. We are reading, 2. Thou art reading, 2. You are reading, 3. He is reading; 3. They are reading.

IMPERFECT TENSE.

Singular. Plural. 1. I was reading, 1. We were reading, 2. Thou wast reading, 2. You were reading, 3. He was reading; 3. They were reading.

PERFECT TENSE.

Singular. Plural. 1. I have been reading, 1. We have been reading, 2. Thou hast been reading, 2. You have been reading, 3. He has been reading; 3. They have been reading.

PLUPERFECT TENSE.

Singular. Plural. 1. I had been reading, 1. We had been reading, 2. Thou hadst been reading, 2. You had been reading, 3. He had been reading; 3. They had been reading.

FIRST-FUTURE TENSE.

Singular. Plural. 1. I shall be reading, 1. We shall be reading, 2. Thou wilt be reading, 2. You will be reading, 3. He will be reading; 3. They will be reading.

SECOND-FUTURE TENSE.

Singular. Plural. 1. I shall have been reading, 1. We shall have been reading, 2. Thou wilt have been reading, 2. You will have been reading, 3. He will have been reading; 3. They will have been reading.

POTENTIAL MOOD. PRESENT TENSE.

Singular. Plural. 1. I may be reading, 1. We may be reading, 2. Thou mayst be reading, 2. You may be reading, 3. He may be reading; 3. They may be reading.

IMPERFECT TENSE.

Singular. Plural. 1. I might be reading, 1. We might be reading, 2. Thou mightst be reading, 2. You might be reading, 3. He might be reading; 3. They might be reading.

PERFECT TENSE.

Singular. Plural. 1. I may have been reading, 1. We may have been reading, 2. Thou mayst have been reading, 2. You may have been reading, 3. He may have been reading; 3. They may have been reading.

PLUPERFECT TENSE.

Singular. Plural. 1. I might have been reading, 1. We might have been reading, 2. Thou mightst have been reading, 2. You might have been reading, 3. He might have been reading; 3. They might have been reading.

SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD. PRESENT TENSE.

Singular. Plural. 1. If I be reading, 1. If we be reading, 2. If thou be reading, 2. If you be reading, 3. If he be reading; 3. If they be reading.

IMPERFECT TENSE.

Singular. Plural. 1. If I were reading, 1. If we were reading, 2. If thou were reading, 2. If you were reading, 3. If he were reading; 3. If they were reading.

IMPERATIVE MOOD.

Sing. 2. Be [thou] reading, or Do thou be reading;
Plur. 2. Be [ye or you] reading, or Do you be reading.

PARTICIPLES.

1. The Imperfect. 2. The Perfect. 3. The Preperfect. Being reading. ————- Having been reading.

FAMILIAR FORM WITH 'THOU.'

NOTE.—In the familiar style, the second person singular of this verb, is usually and more properly formed thus: IND. Thou art reading, Thou was reading, Thou hast been reading, Thou had been reading, Thou shall or will be reading, Thou shall or will have been reading. POT. Thou may, can, or must be reading; Thou might, could, would, or should be reading; Thou may, can, or must have been reading; Thou might, could, would, or should have been reading. SUBJ. If thou be reading, If thou were reading. IMP. Be [thou,] reading, or Do thou be reading.

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.—Those verbs which, in their simple form, imply continuance, do not admit the compound form: thus we say, "I respect him;" but not, "I am respecting him." This compound form seems to imply that kind of action, which is susceptible of intermissions and renewals. Affections of the mind or heart are supposed to last; or, rather, actions of this kind are complete as soon as they exist. Hence, to love, to hate, to desire, to fear, to forget, to remember, and many other such verbs, are incapable of this method of conjugation.[265] It is true, we often find in grammars such models, as, "I was loving, Thou wast loving, He was loving," &c. But this language, to express what the authors intend by it, is not English. "He was loving," can only mean, "He was affectionate:" in which sense, loving is an adjective, and susceptible of comparison. Who, in common parlance, has ever said, "He was loving me," or any thing like it? Yet some have improperly published various examples, or even whole conjugations, of this spurious sort. See such in Adam's Gram., p. 91; Gould's Adam, 83; Bullions's English Gram., 52; his Analyt. and Pract. Gram., 92; Chandler's New Gram., 85 and 86; Clark's, 80; Cooper's Plain and Practical, 70; Frazee's Improved, 66 and 69; S. S. Greene's, 234; Guy's, 25; Hallock's, 103; Hart's, 88; Hendrick's, 38; Lennie's, 31; Lowth's, 40; Harrison's, 34; Perley's, 36; Pinneo's Primary, 101.

OBS. 2.—Verbs of this form have sometimes a passive signification; as, "The books are now selling."—Allen's Gram., p. 82. "As the money was paying down."—Ainsworth's Dict., w. As. "It requires no motion in the organs whilst it is forming."—Murray's Gram., p. 8. "Those works are long forming which must always last."—Dr. Chetwood. "While the work of the temple was carrying on."—Dr. J. Owen. "The designs of Providence are carrying on."—Bp. Butler. "A scheme, which has been carrying on, and is still carrying on."—Id., Analogy, p. 188. "We are permitted to know nothing of what is transacting in the regions above us."—Dr. Blair. "While these things were transacting in Germany."—Russell's Modern Europe, Part First, Let. 59. "As he was carrying to execution, he demanded to be heard."—Goldsmith's Greece, Vol. i, p. 163. "To declare that the action was doing or done."—Booth's Introd., p. 28. "It is doing by thousands now."—Abbott's Young Christian, p. 121. "While the experiment was making, he was watching every movement."—Ib., p. 309. "A series of communications from heaven, which had been making for fifteen hundred years."—Ib., p. 166. "Plutarch's Lives are re-printing."—L. Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 64. "My Lives are reprinting."—DR. JOHNSON: Worcester's Univ. and Crit. Dict., p. xlvi. "All this has been transacting within 130 miles of London."—BYRON: Perley's Gram., p. 37. "When the heart is corroding by vexations."—Student's Manual, p. 336. "The padlocks for our lips are forging."—WHITTIER: Liberator, No. 993. "When his throat is cutting."—Collier's Antoninus. "While your story is telling."—Adams's Rhet., i, 425. "But the seeds of it were sowing some time before."—Bolingbroke, on History, p. 168. "As soon as it was formed, nay even whilst it was forming."—Ib., p. 163. "Strange schemes of private ambition were formed and forming there."—Ib., p. 291. "Even when it was making and made."—Ib., 299. "Which have been made and are making."—HENRY CLAY: Liberator, ix, p. 141. "And they are in measure sanctified, or sanctifying, by the power thereof."—Barclay's Works, i, 537. "Which is now accomplishing amongst the uncivilized countries of the earth."—Chalmers, Sermons, p. 281. "Who are ruining, or ruined, [in] this way."—Locke, on Ed., p. 155. "Whilst they were undoing."—Ibid. "Whether he was employing fire to consume [something,] or was himself consuming by fire."—Crombie, on Etym. and Syntax, p. 148. "At home, the greatest exertions are making to promote its progress."—Sheridan's Elocution, p. iv. "With those [sounds] which are uttering."—Ib., p. 125. "Orders are now concerting for the dismissal of all officers of the Revenue marine."—Providence Journal, Feb. 1, 1850. Expressions of this kind are condemned by some critics, under the notion that the participle in ing must never be passive; but the usage is unquestionably of far better authority, and, according to my apprehension, in far better taste, than the more complex phraseology which some late writers adopt in its stead; as, "The books are now being sold."—"In all the towns about