Sentence and Theme; Composition for the First Year of High School (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: LESSON 3 SOME COMMON VERB-FORMS 7. The ending ying. You know how to spell study studying and hurry-hurrying, but can you1 do as well with accompany-accompanying? Is your eye used to that ying? A few little verbs of different form have the same ending: tie- tying, lie-lying, die-dying. Think of these verbs in sentences: "We were lying in the shade", "Why do you suppose he is tying himself in a bow-knot ?'' Tying, lying, and dying are the only ones that often occur in school themes. Think of them with trying: " I am trying to keep him from untying the parcel that is lying on the table.'' 8. The forms of lie. The verb lie, meaning "to tell an untruth," is regular: lie, lies, lied. It is well known by everyone. But the lie that means '' to recline ", " to be in a position,'' has to be taught in school. Its past tense is lay. Very few pupils can say, "Last winter, when I had the measles, I lay abed four days," or "My overcoat lay in a cedar chest all summer," or "The snow lay two feet deep here last April." Some young Americans never really feel that lay is a past tense at all, because it sounds incomplete; they are always skeptical about it, always suspicious that it is a grammatical fancy, not actually necessary for fleshTand-blood people. Some seem to suppose that lie is a dead word, but such very live places as business colleges still have to teach it. Get accustomed to it. Make yourself say, "The ship lies at anchor", "She had been lying there all night", "She will lie at anchor several days," "She lay at anchor in the same spot last week", "How long did you say she had lain there ?'' lie lay lain lying 9. The endings ies and led. The change in tie and lie is unusual. The opposite change?from y to i?is most common. try tries tried study studies studied hurry hur...