3. James, in company with his two friends, city (is, are). 4. All work and no play makes). in the Jack a dull boy (make, 9. Love, and love only - the loan for love (is, are). 10. The games, and not his work occupies). II. You and he his mind (occupy, planning a delightful trip (are, is). 12. The strong and the weak alike forced to work (were, was). 13. Three thousand a year a good salary (is, are). 14. A number of people waiting (was, were). necessary for proper 15. Mental and physical activity development (is, are). 16. A laggard in love and a dastard in war to wed the fair Ellen of brave Lochinvar (was, were). 263. Tenses of the Verb.-Verbs change their inflections to indicate the time of the action expressed. They may refer to present time, to past time, or to future time. The tenses that indicate the time when actions take place are called present, past, and future tenses. If the action is represented as having been completed at the time referred to, the tense is called present perfect, past perfect, or future perfect. 264. The Formation of the Past Tense. The past tense of verbs is formed in two ways. The regular verbs, sometimes called weak verbs, add d or ed to the infinitive. The irregular, or strong verbs, usually undergo a change in the stem vowel. A few verbs now have both forms for the past tense; and a few undergo other changes besides those mentioned. 265. The Principal Parts of Verbs.-The principal parts of verbs are those parts from which all other parts are formed. They consist of the present tense (first person), the present participle, the past tense, and the past participle. We may, as some writers do, omit the present participle from the list of principal parts, because it is always formed by adding ing to the present tense. 266. Rules for Forming the Present Participle.In adding the ing to the present tense to form the present participle, three rules must be kept in mind. 1. The Dropping of Final e.—In adding ing to words ending ia e, the final e is dropped, except in a few words, like singe, which retains the e (singeing) as a mark to distinguish it from singing. 2. The Doubling of Final Consonants.-In monosyllables ending in a single consonant preceded by a single vowel, the final consonant is doubled before adding ing. This rule applies to words of more than one syllable accented on the last, and to compounds of monosyllables, whether accented on the last syllable or not. 3. Changing ie to y.-Verbs ending in ie change ie to y before adding the ing. 267. Irregular, or Strong, Verbs.-The irregular verbs form not only the past tense by changing the stem vowel, but also form the past participle in the same way. The change to form the participle is often different from that to form the past tense: whereas regular verbs form past tense and past participle alike. The verbs of this class that need attention are the following: |