When conjunctions connect words, these words must be alike; they must belong to the same class: prepositions may connect words of different classes. The principal function of conjunctions is to connect groups of words.

Among the more common conjunctions are: And, because, but either and or, for, if, lest, neither and nor, notwithstanding, since than, that, though or although, till or until, unless, yet.

Some words - -e. g.,1 after, before, however, nevertheless, still, when, while — serve partly as conjunctions, partly as adverbs.

Sometimes two or more words together are used as a conjunction. Such are: As long as, as soon as, as well as, in order that, not only but also, so that.

...

Both prepositions and conjunctions are called CONNEC

TIVES.

When I say "Sh! the dog barks,” I use

use a gesture, to impose silence.

Oh! listen to the cackling of

the hens!

Hurrah! the snow is falling.

"sh" as I might

In these examples, the words, or rather cries, in italics are thrown in to express feeling. Words of this class are called INTERJECTIONS.

- nouns,

In English, then, there are nine kinds of words, verbs, pronouns, articles, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections. These nine kinds of words are called PARTS OF SPEECH. Taken together, they make up the language.

It must not be supposed that there is a hard and fast line between each part of speech and every other, that a noun is always a noun, a verb always a verb, etc.

(1) Iron is a useful metal. (2) The girls will iron the starched clothes to-morrow. (3) As strong as iron bands.

In (1) iron is the name of a metal; it is therefore a noun. In (2) iron tells what the girls will do to the clothes; it is therefore a verb. In (3) iron tells what kind of bands are зpoken of; it is therefore an adjective.

(1) He was in the room, and went out of it. (2) He went in and out before the Lord. (3) The ins and outs of politics.

In (1) in is a preposition; in (2) in and out are adverbs; in (3) ins and outs are nouns.

(1) Nobody was there but me. (2) I was there, but nobody else was. (3) But me no buts.

In (1) but is a preposition, in (2) a conjunction, in (3) a verb and a noun.

To find out what part of speech a given word is, we must find out what it means in the place where it stands, and what relation it bears to the other words with which it is connected.

The parts of speech may be divided into two classes, those that do, and those that do not, suffer changes of form; that is, those that are, and those that are not, spelled sometimes in one way and sometimes in another. These changes of form are called INFLECTIONS. The parts of speech that have inflections are nouns, pronouns, verbs, and, to a very limited extent, adjectives and adverbs. Those that do not have inflections are articles, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.

As compared with many other languages, or with AngloSaxon and Early English, our language has very few inflections.

Nouns. When I say "Hero barks," I use the noun "Hero" to distinguish one dog from other dogs. When

I say "The dog barks," I use a noun which does not distinguish one dog from other dogs.

Julia is knitting.

Rome was not built in a day.

Mount Adams rises before us.

The girl is knitting.

The city was not built in a day.
The mountain rises before us.

Julia, Rome, and Mount Adams are nouns that distin guish individual persons or things from others of their class. Girl, city, and mountain are nouns that do not distinguish individual persons or things from others' of their class. Nouns that are the names of individual persons or things are called PROPER NOUNS. Nouns that are the names of any of the persons or things of a class are called COMMON NOUNS.

There are, of course, many Julias and several Romes in the world; but each Julia and each Rome has a proper name, and each of these names is a proper noun.

When I say "The army is on the march," I speak of a collection of soldiers, etc., forming one body.

The mob was noisy.

The fleet sailed away.

Mob is the name of a collection of human beings; fleet is the name of a collection of vessels. Names of collections of persons or things are called COLLECTIVE NOUNS. All nouns (whether proper, common, or collective) that name persons or things are called CONCRETE NOUNS.

When I say "Boyishness is the characteristic of boys," I use "boyishness" to name something which I think of as belonging to boys, but which I cannot perceive by my

senses.

Julia's industry is amazing.
Rome is famous for antiquity.

The grandeur of Mount Wash ington overwhelms one.

Industry is a quality belonging to Julia; antiquity, to Rome; grandeur, to Mount Washington. As we can think of these qualities apart from the persons or things to which

they belong, we can give them names. All nouns that name qualities or attributes are called ABSTRACT NOUNS.

The inflections of nouns are called DECLENSIONS.

Declensions show (1) the number of things denoted by the noun, and (2) the relations between the noun and other words.

When I say "The dog barked at the cats," I mean that one dog barked at two or more cats.

A boy is a strange creature.
The beaver lives in a house.

Boys will be boys.
Beavers live in houses.

Boy, beaver, or house names but one person or thing; boys, beavers, or houses names more than one person or thing. Nouns that name but one person or thing are said to be in the SINGULAR NUMBER; those that name more than one, in the PLURAL NUMBER.

In modern English, the majority of nouns form the plural by adding "s" to the singular.

Chatterton was a genius.

Homer and Shakspere were great geniuses.

Genii often pop into the "Arabian Nights' Entertainments."

Penny, genius, and a few other nouns have two plurals, ach with a separate meaning.

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Some nouns, e. g., “deer,” “sheep,” "cannon," heathen," have the same form in the singular and the plural. As the meaning of some nouns does not admit a plural, they have none: e. g., "gold," "pride," "redness."

Besides showing the number of the noun, declensions show the relation of the noun to other words.

When I say "Hero bit Fido," I use "Hero" to name the dog that bit, and "Fido" to name the dog that “Hero” bit.

John whipped William.

Cats fight dogs.

In each of these examples, the first noun stands in a different relation to the verb from that held by the second noun. The first is called the SUBJECT of the verb, and is said to be in the NOMINATIVE CASE; the second is called the OBJECT of the verb, and is said to be in the OBJECTIVE CASE.

If, instead of saying "Hero bit Fido," I say "Fido bit Hero," I make what was the object the subject of the verb, and what was the subject the object; the meaning is altered by a change in the position of the nouns, not by a change in their form.

John whipped William.

Cats fight dogs.

William whipped John.
Dogs fight cats.

In each pair of these examples, the change in meaning is caused by a change in order, without any change of form. The nominative case of every noun is identical in form with the objective case.

When I say "Hero's collar is too small," I mean that the collar which belongs to Hero is too small.