Cobbett's English Grammar (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1906 edition. Excerpt: ...with moderate chastity in a wife. 222. To secure yourself against the risk of committing such errors, you have only to take care to ascertain the full meaning of every word you employ. LETTER XIX SYNTAX, AS RELATING TO VERBS 223. LET us, my dear James, get well through this Letter; and then we may, I think, safely say, that we know something of Grammar: a little more, I hope, than is known by the greater part of those who call themselves Latin and Greek scholars, and who dignify their having studied those languages with the name of 'Liberal Education.' 224. There can be no sentence, there can be no sense in words, unless there be a verb either expressed or understood. Each of the other parts of speech may alternately be dispensed with; but the verb never can. The verb being, then, of so much importance, you will do well to read again, before you proceed further, paragraphs 23, 24, 25, and 26, in Letter III, and the whole of Letter VIII. 225. Well, then, we have now to see how verbs are used in sentences, and how a misuse of them affects the meaning of the writer. There must, you will bear in mind, always be a verb expressed or understood. One would think that this was not the case in the direction written on a post letter. To John Goldsmith, Esq., Hambledon, Hampshire. But what do these words really mean? Why, they mean: 'This letter is to be delivered to John Goldsmith, who is an Esquire, who lives at Hambledon, which is in Hampshire.' Thus, there are no less than five verbs where we thought there was no verb at all. 'Sir, I beg you to give me a bit of bread.' The sentence which follows the Sir is complete; but the Sir appears to stand wholly without connexion. However, the full meaning is this: ...