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Exercise 1

In the following sentences mark all the progressive forms, and note whether they are present, past, future, present perfect, past perfect or future perfect.

1. The old order is passing.

2. Men will be struggling for freedom so long as slavery exists.

3. The class struggle has been growing more intense as wealth has accumulated.

4. The workers are realizing their power.

5. He had been talking for an hour when we arrived.

6. Next Monday I shall have been working for one year.

7. The workers will be paying interest on war debts for generations to come unless they repudiate.

8. While Marx was writing his books, he lived in abject poverty.

9. The Industrial Relations Commission has been investigating industrial conditions.

10. Ferrer was martyred because the Modern Schools were educating the people.

11. The nations of Europe had been preparing for war for many years.

ACTIVE AND PASSIVE

141. Notice carefully the following sentences; select the subjects in these sentences which show who or what performed the action; select the subjects that show who or what receives the action. Do you notice any difference in the meaning of these sentences? Do you notice any difference in their form?

The engine struck the man.

The man was struck by the engine.

The system enslaves men.

Men are enslaved by the system.

Leaders often betray the people.

The people are often betrayed by leaders.

Let us look carefully at the first two sentences. You remember when we studied transitive verbs we found that every transitive verb had an object which was the receiver of the action expressed in the verb. Now you notice in this first sentence, The engine struck the man, we have the transitive verb struck. Engine is the subject of the verb and man is the object of the verb, the receiver of the action expressed by the verb struck.

Now in the sentence, The man was struck by the engine, we have the same thought expressed but in a different manner. The word man, which was the object of the verb struck in the first sentence, has now become the subject of the sentence, and we have changed our verb form from struck to was struck. In the first sentence of the subject, engine was the actor. In the second sentence, The man was struck by the engine, the subject of the sentence, man, is the receiver of the action expressed in the verb.

142. So we have thus changed the verb form from struck to was struck to indicate that the subject of the verb is the receiver of the action. Struck is called the active form of the verb because the subject of the verb is the actor. Was struck is called the passive form of the verb because the subject receives the action. Passive means receiving. In the passive form the subject is the receiver of the action expressed in the verb.

143. You remember that complete verbs have no object or complement, therefore it would follow that they cannot be put in the passive form for there is no object to become the receiver of the action. Take the complete verb, sleep, for example. We do not sleep anything, hence sleep has no passive form for there is no object which can be used as the subject, the receiver of the action.

Only transitive verbs can be put into the passive form. Remember that a transitive verb in the passive form is one that represents its subject as receiving the action.

The present, past, future and all the perfect time forms of transitive verbs can be changed from active to passive. The progressive time forms can be changed into the passive, but it makes an awkward construction and should be avoided as much as possible. Occasionally, however, we find it worth our while to use these forms, as for example:

The book is being written by the man.

This is the passive form of the present progressive, The man is writing a book.

The book was being written by the man.

This is the passive form of the past progressive, The man was writing the book.

144. The future progressive passive is awkward, and the present and past progressive forms are the only forms we find used in the passive. The best writers use them sparingly for we can usually say the same thing by using the active form of the verb and have a sentence which sounds much better.

Exercise 2

All the verbs in the following sentences are transitive verbs in the active form. Rewrite each sentence, putting the verb into the passive form and making the object of the active verb the subject of the passive verb; as, for example, the first sentence should be rewritten as follows:

War on Russia was declared by Germany on August 1, 1914.

1. Germany declared war on Russia, August 1, 1914.

2. Who will sign the Emancipation Proclamation of the Proletariat?

3. Marx and Engels wrote the Communist Manifesto.

4. Spain murdered Francisco Ferrer, October 13, 1909.

5. We celebrate the first of May as International Labor Day.

6. The people of Paris stormed the Bastille, July 14, 1789.

7. Wat Tyler was leading the English workers in rebellion against the King when the Mayor of London stabbed him in 1381.

8. The Inquisition burned Bruno at the stake for heresy in 1600.

9. The Paris Commune followed the German siege of Paris in 1871.

SUMMARY

145. Now let us take the verb see and name all the time forms which we can describe with the changes in the verb forms which we have learned to make and also with the verb phrases which we can construct with the help of the verbs, be, have, shall and will.

First, we want to express the present, what is happening now, and we want to put it in both the active and passive forms, so we say:

Note that the only change in the verb form in the present ACTIVE is the s-form for the third person singular. In the present passive the only change is the special form of the verb be for the first and third persons, singular.

When we want to tell what occurred yesterday or some time in the past, stated in the active and passive form, we say:

We have one other division of time which we must express—the future. Primitive man doubtless lived principally in the present, but with the development of memory and the means of recording events by a written language, he was able to make the deeds and achievements of the past a vital part of his life. But not until the faculty of thinking developed was the mind able to project itself into the future and make tomorrow the hope of today. Future time expresses hope, desire, growth.

Then you remember we had to devise a way of describing an action perfected or completed at the present or at some time in the past or at some time in the future—so we have present perfect, past perfect and future perfect.

146. But these are not all the phases of time which we can express. We have progressive, continuous action. So each of these six time forms has a progressive form.

Only the Present and Past Progressive forms have a passive form. The rest of the Progressive forms are expressed in the active forms only.

Exercise 3

Write the four following sentences in their active and passive forms, as the sentence, War sweeps the earth, is written.

1. Education gives power.

2. Knowledge frees men.

3. Labor unions help the workers.

4. The people seek justice.

Exercise 4

Underscore all the verbs and verb phrases in the following quotation. Write all the time forms of the transitive verb, lose, as the time forms of the verb see are written in the foregoing table.

When we study the animal world and try to explain to ourselves that struggle for existence which is maintained by each living being against adverse circumstances and against its enemies, we realize that the more the principles of solidarity and equality are developed in an animal society, and have become habitual to it, the more chance it has of surviving and coming triumphantly out of the struggle against hardships and foes. The more thoroughly each member of the society feels his solidarity with each other member of the society, the more completely are developed in all of them those two qualities which are the main factors of all progress; courage, on the one hand, and, on the other, free individual initiative. And, on the contrary, the more any animal society, or little group of animals, loses this feeling of solidarity—which may chance as the result of exceptional scarcity or else of exceptional plenty—the more the two other factors of progress, courage and individual initiative, diminish; in the end they disappear, and the society falls into decay and sinks before its foes. Without mutual confidence no struggle is possible; there is no courage, no initiative, no solidarity—and no victory!—Kropotkin.

SPELLING
LESSON 8

In pronouncing words of more than one syllable we always lay a little greater stress upon one syllable of the word; that is, that syllable receives the emphasis of the voice so as to make it more prominent than the other syllables. This is called accent, and the syllable which receives the special stress is called the accented syllable.

Accent is the stress of the voice upon one syllable of the word.

You will notice when you look up the pronunciation of words in your dictionary that a little mark called the accent mark is placed after the accented syllable, as for example: di-vide'.

Many words differ in meaning according to which syllable receives the accent. Our spelling lesson for this week contains a number of these words.

These words, when accented on the first syllable, are nouns; when accented on the second syllable, they are verbs.

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

PLAIN ENGLISH
LESSON 9

Dear Comrade:

You have been studying several weeks now in this Plain English Course and we trust you are enjoying the unfolding of the powers of expression. We have been necessarily studying rules to some extent but you have seen how these grew out of the need for expression. We have been breaking the sentence up into its different parts. First we had the names of things and now we are studying the words used to tell what these things do and are—namely verbs. And as our life has grown complex and our powers of thinking diversified covering the whole range of time, past, present and future, we have had to invent many forms of the verb to express it all.

Now do not try to commit these facts concerning the verb to memory. You are not studying English in order to know rules. You are studying English that you may be able to say and write the things you think. So first of all, think, think! That is your inalienable right! Do not accept anything just by blind belief. Think it out for yourself. Study until you see the 'why' of it all. "Independent thinking has given us the present, and we will forever continue to make tomorrow better than today. The right to think is inalienable, or a man is a machine. Thought is life or a human soul is a thing."

And do not lack the courage of your own thoughts. You do not need to cringe or apologize to any man. "Our life is not an apology but a life." Dare to think and dare to express and live your thought.

Did you ever read Emerson's definition of genius? "To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men,—that is genius." Then he says, "We dismiss without notice our own thoughts, because they are ours. Tomorrow a stranger will say with masterly good sense, precisely what we have thought and felt all along and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion from another."

Have you not experienced this? How often we hear some one express a truth and we say to ourselves, "That is just what I have long believed but I have never dared say so." We have been so taught all our lives to depend on some outside power and discredit the power within ourselves, that we pay no attention to the thoughts that are ours for who are we that we should dare to think and perchance disagree with those who have assumed authority over us! But that is precisely what we should dare to do—to think and to do our own thinking always. Who dares place anything before a man!

So think as you study these lessons and use these rules and formulas simply as means to an end, as tools to aid you in expressing these thoughts.

Yours for Education,

THE PEOPLE'S COLLEGE.

PARTICIPLES

147. We have found that the verb has five forms, made by internal changes in the verb itself,—the present time form, the s-form, the past time form, the present participle and the past participle.

We have also found that we can express various time forms by verb phrases formed by using the helping verbs, shall, will, have and be with one of the verb forms. All of these forms are used as the asserting word in the sentence. So long as the verb or verb phrase forms the predicate—the word or words that assert something of the subject—it still remains a verb. But we have found that the participle forms of the verb may be used as other parts of speech while still retaining some of the qualities of the verb.

148. You remember a sentence which we used when we studied participles, Making shoes is his work. Here we have the present participle making, with its object shoes, used as the subject of the verb is. Now a noun never takes an object, so making in this sentence is partly a verb, partly a noun, and is called a participle, which means partaker.

We have studied and used two forms of participles, the present and the past participle. The present participle always ends in ing and expresses action or existence in the present, or at the time mentioned in the sentence. For example, being, bringing, working, seeing, loving, hating, etc.

The past participle we found to be one of the principal parts of the verb. It expresses action or existence which is past or completed, at the time mentioned in the sentence. It is formed by adding d or ed to the regular verbs and by a change in the form in irregular verbs. For example, regular verbs: learned from learn, defeated from defeat, watched from watch. Irregular verbs: taught from teach, seen from see, won from win.

We have found that these participles may be used either as nouns or as adjectives. As for example:

The crying of the child annoyed the people.

The crying child ran to its mother.

The coming of the new day will bring peace.

We await the coming day of peace.

PARTICIPLE PHRASES

149. The present and the past participles are each single words; but we may also have participle phrases; that is, two or more words used as a participle, as for example:

His having joined the strikers caused him to lose his job.

The man, having been discharged, left the mill.

In these sentences we have the participle phrases, having joined and having been discharged. Having joined is a participle phrase used as a noun, the subject of the verb caused. Having been discharged is a participle phrase used as an adjective to modify the noun man. Notice that having joined is an active participle describing the action performed by the man who is referred to by the pronoun his. Having been discharged is a passive participle expressing an action of which the subject of the sentence, man, is the receiver.

These are both perfect participles, expressing actions which are complete at the present time.

150. We have also progressive participles expressing action which is continuing or progressing. These progressive participles are also used in both the active and the passive forms. The progressive active participle is formed by using having been with the present participle, as having been working. The progressive passive participle is formed by using being with the past participle, as for example, being watched, being driven, being gone, etc. So we have six participles, three active and three passive.

Note the following table:

These participle phrases may be used either as nouns or as adjectives.

Exercise 1

In the following sentences mark the participles and the participle phrases. Underscore those used as nouns with a single line; those used as adjectives with two lines.

1. He denies having been hired by the employer.

2. Our friends, having arrived, joined us at dinner.

3. The rain, falling incessantly, kept us from going.

4. Having often seen him passing, I judged he lived near.

5. The man, being discouraged and ill, was unable to do his work well.

6. Happiness shared is happiness doubled.

7. Having finished his work, he rests at last.

8. The army, beaten but not vanquished, waited for the morrow.

9. The men, having been unemployed for months, were desperate.

10. Being prepared will not save us from war.

 
11. "Rest is not quitting this busy career;
Rest is the fitting of self to its sphere.
It's loving and serving the highest and best;
It's onward, not swerving; and that is true rest."
 

Exercise 2

Write the six participle forms of the verbs see and teach, and use in sentences of your own construction.

INFINITIVES

151. We have found that the various forms of the participles may be used as other parts of speech. They partake of the nature of a verb and either of a noun or an adjective. Notice the following sentences:

Traveling is pleasant.

Eating is necessary.

Can you think of any other way in which you could express the same thought? Do you not sometimes say,

To travel is pleasant.

To eat is necessary.

We have expressed practically the same thought in these two sentences, which is expressed in the sentences above, where we used the participle. To travel and to eat are used as nouns, subjects of the verb is just as traveling and eating are used as nouns, the subjects of the verb is.

Here we have another form of the verb used as a noun. When we use the verb in this way, we are not speaking of the traveling or eating as belonging to or being done by any particular person, nor do we indicate whether one person or more than one is concerned in the action. It might be anyone doing the traveling or eating, and it might be one person or a thousand. We are making a general statement of everybody in the world, so we call this form the infinitive.

152. Infinite means unlimited, without limit as to persons or number. Almost every verb in the language may be used in this way, and since to is generally used before the infinitive, to is often called the sign of the infinitive. For example:

To be, or not to be, that is the question.

To have and to hold is the problem.

He likes to travel.

You note in all of these infinitives to is used with the simple form of the verb.

153. To is generally omitted after verbs like help, hear, bid, feel, let, make, see and have, or words of similar meaning. For example:

Help me (to) find it.

He bade me (to) stay.

Feel it (to) shake.

Make him (to) come.

Hear me (to) sing.

Let us (to) go.

See him (to) run.

Have him (to) copy this.

154. To is also omitted after need and dare when not is used.

155. To is sometimes omitted after prepositions:

He will do anything for his class, except (to) fight for it.

He would do nothing but (to) go away.

156. We have a number of different forms of the infinitive, both active and passive. Note the following table:

157. Notice that only the present and perfect infinitives have the passive form. The progressive infinitives cannot be used in the passive. Remember also that only incomplete verbs, those which require an object to receive the action, can have a passive form.

The verb loved, which we have used in the above table, has a passive form because it is an incomplete verb, for there must be that which is the object of our love.

158. The complete verbs,—verbs which require no object,—cannot have a passive form for there is no object to become the receiver of the action. Take for example the verb dwell. This is a complete verb which can have no passive form. You cannot dwell anything, therefore you cannot say to be dwelt or to have been dwelt.

So complete verbs have only the four active forms, as follows:

159. Infinitives, like participles, may be used either as nouns or adjectives. When used as nouns, they are used in the various ways in which nouns are used. The infinitive may be the subject of a sentence, thus:

To hesitate now will be fatal.

To be defeated is no crime.

160. The infinitive may be the object or complement of the verb. For example:

He wanted to see you.

His desire is to learn.

161. The infinitive may be used as the object of a preposition; as,

He is about to go.

They will do anything for the cause except to live for it.

162. The infinitive may be used as an adjective to modify a noun. For example:

He showed me the way to go.

We must have food to eat and clothes to wear.

The question to be decided is before us.

Claim your right to live.

163. The infinitive may also be used as an adverb to modify the meaning of a verb, adjective or adverb, thus:

He was forced to go.

They are slow to learn.

The fruit was not ripe enough to eat.

Note that the infinitives in these sentences may all be changed into adverb phrases. As for example in the first sentence, He was forced to go, the infinitive to go, which modifies the verb forced, may be changed to the adverb phrase, into going, thus, He was forced into going. In the second sentence, They are slow to learn, the infinitive to learn may be changed into the adverb phrase in learning, thus, They are slow in learning. In the last sentence, The fruit is not ripe enough to eat, the infinitive to eat, which modifies the adverb enough, may be changed into the adverb phrase, for eating, as for example, The fruit was not ripe enough for eating.

164. The infinitive is quite a useful form of the verb, and we will find that we use it very frequently in expressing our ideas. While it is not the asserting word in the sentence, it retains the nature of a verb and may have both an object and an adverb modifier. As for example, in the sentence:

I wish to learn my lesson quickly.

To learn is the infinitive, used as a noun, the object of the verb wish. The infinitive also has an object, to learn—what? My lesson is the object of the infinitive to learn. We also have an adverb modifier in the adverb quickly, which tells how I wish to learn my lesson. So the infinitive retains its verb nature, in that it may have an object and it may be modified by an adverb.