Plain English Part 90

Peace will be.......

Poverty is.......

Fill the blanks in the following sentences with a phrase used in the predicate complement.

His service was _for his cla.s.s_.

Socialism is.......

The workers are.......

The message shall be.......

The government is.......

The opportunity is.......

VERB PHRASES

+413.+ Note that in most of the sentences which we have used, we have used the simple form of the verb, the form that is used to express _past_ and _present_ time. In expressing other time forms we use verb phrases. Note the summary given in section 145, which gives the different time forms of the verb.

+414.+ Sometimes in using the verb phrase you will find that other words may separate the words forming the phrase. When you a.n.a.lyze your sentence this will not confuse you. You will easily be able to pick out the verb phrase. For example:

I shall very soon find out the trouble.

Here the adverbs, _very_ and _soon_, separate _find_ from its auxiliary _shall_. The verb phrase is, _shall find_. The negative _not_ very often separates the words forming a verb phrase. For example:

I will not go.

In this sentence, _will go_ is the verb phrase.

When we use the auxiliary verb _do_ to express emphasis, and also the negative _not_, _not_ comes between the auxiliary verb _do_, and the princ.i.p.al verb. For example:

I do not obey, I think.

In this sentence, _do obey_ is the verb phrase.

In interrogative sentences, the verb phrase is inverted and a part of the verb phrase is placed first and the subject after. For example:

Will you go with us?

_You_ is the subject of this interrogative sentence and _will go_ is the verb phrase; but in order to ask the question, the order is inverted and part of the verb phrase placed first. In using interrogative adverbs in asking a question, the same inverted order is used. For example:

When will this work be commenced?

In this sentence, _work_ is the subject of the sentence and _will be commenced_ is the verb phrase. If you should write this in a.s.sertive form, it would be:

This work will be commenced when?

By paying close attention we can easily distinguish the verb phrases even when they are used in the inverted form or when they are separated by other parts of speech.

LET US SUM UP

+415.+ The elements of a sentence are the words, phrases or clauses of which it is composed.

+A simple sentence is one which contains a single statement, question or command.+

+A simple sentence contains only words and phrases.+ It does not contain dependent clauses. The elements of a simple sentence are:

{The simple subject--the noun, or the The complete subject { word used in place of the noun--and { all its modifiers.

The complete predicate {The simple predicate--the verb, and { all its modifiers.

Exercise 6

In the following sentences, the simple subjects and the simple predicates of the princ.i.p.al clauses are printed in italics. Locate all the modifiers of the subjects and predicates, and determine the part of speech of each word in the sentence.

Sentences Nos. 1, 5, 6, 14, 15, 16, 18, 30, 31, 32 and 37 are simple sentences.

Sentences Nos. 2, 4, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 22, 26, 28, 33, 34 and 36 are complex.

Sentences Nos. 3, 10, 12, 21, 23, 24, 25, 29 and 35 are compound.

No. 8 is incomplete, having neither subject nor predicate.

No. 9 is incomplete, there being no predicate in the princ.i.p.al clause.

No. 20 is a simple sentence, with a complex sentence in parenthesis.

No. 27 consists of two dependent clauses.

In the complex sentences, draw a line under the dependent clauses.

"Br--r--r--r--r--r--r--r--r--."

1. What _are_ the _machines saying_, a hundred of them in one long room?

2. _They must be talking_ to themselves, for I see no one else for them to talk to.

3. But yes, there _is_ a boy's red _head_ bending over one of them, and beyond _I see_ a pale face fringed with brown curly locks.

4. There _are_ only five _boys_ in all, on the floor, half-hidden by the clattering machines, for one bright lad can manage twenty-five of them.

5. Each _machine makes_ one cheap, stout sock in five minutes, without seam, complete from toe to ankle, cutting the thread at the end and beginning another of its own accord.

6. The _boys have_ nothing to do but to clean and burnish and oil the steel rods and replace the spools of yarn.

7. But how rapidly and nervously _they do_ it--the slower hands straining to accomplish as much as the fastest!

8. Working at high tension for ten hours a day in the close, greasy air and endless whirr---- 9. _Boys_ who ought to be out playing ball in the fields or taking a swim in the river this fine summer afternoon.

10. And in these good times, the _machines go_ all night, and other _s.h.i.+fts_ of boys _are kept_ from their beds to watch them.

11. The young _girls_ in the mending and finis.h.i.+ng rooms downstairs _are_ not so strong as the boys.

12. _They have_ an unaccountable way of fainting and collapsing in the noise and smell, and then _they are_ of no use for the rest of the day.

13. The kind _stockholders have had_ to provide a room for collapsed girls and to employ a doctor, who finds it expedient not to understand this strange new disease.

14. Perhaps their _children will be_ more stalwart in the next generation.

15. Yet this _factory is_ one of the triumphs of our civilization.

16. With only twenty boys at a time at the machines in all the rooms, _it produces_ five thousand dozen pairs of socks in twenty-four hours for the toilers of the land.

17. _It would take_ an army of fifty thousand hand-knitters to do what these small boys perform.