Write correctly from your teacher's dictation the two forms of each of the following words:

Resolved, That John Halifax was wrong in losing his temper when Mr. Fletcher asked if he had ever been in jail.

Make an outline and follow it in debating the above question.

LESSON 28 COMPOSITION

Write a paragraph describing Phineas as John saw him at their first meeting; or write a paragraph telling why you think your school should celebrate Columbus Day. Test your work by the form given on page 5.

LESSON 29THE ADJECTIVE: DESCRIPTIVE AND LIMITING ADJECTIVES: THE PROPER ADJECTIVE

1. Development.

1. In garden were trees with branches.

2. In a garden were three trees with long branches.
3. In the garden were three old trees with long branches.
4. In the garden were three old fir trees with long, thick

branches.

Are you satisfied with what sentence 1 tells you? Do you want to know what garden is meant? Do you want

to know what kind of trees or how many trees grew in the garden? Do you want to know something about the branches of the trees?

Read sentence 2. What words have been added? How do these added words change the sentence? Notice that, although this sentence is more complete than the first one, a garden may be any garden in the city or in the country. Read sentence 3. How does it differ from sentence 2? Notice that the garden indicates a particular garden. What do you learn about the trees from this sentence that you did not know before?

Read sentence 4. How does it differ from sentence 3? What new fact have you learned about the trees? What new fact have you learned about the branches?

Each word as it was added to the original sentence told something about the garden, the trees, or the branches. In telling more about an object, each of these words modified your thought of the object; that is, each word, as it was added, changed or limited your thought.

What do you think or picture when you hear the word trees? You may think of young trees, old trees, small trees, or tall trees. You may think of a forest or an orchard or you may think of two trees in your school yard.

When you hear or read the words three trees, your picture or thought is changed. You do not see the forest, the orchard, or the two trees in the schoolyard. Your thought is limited to three trees. They may be young trees just set out or they may be old trees. They may be apple trees, maple trees, oak trees, or pine trees.

When you hear or read the words three old trees, how does your picture change? What disappear from the picture? How is your thought limited? What kinds of trees may you now see in your picture?

When you hear or read the words three old fir trees, how does your picture change?

Sometimes words change or modify the picture a noun or pronoun makes by describing the object-as, beautiful trees; sometimes words are used that merely limit our thought and so change the picture made by the noun or pronoun-as, three trees.

Learn:

A word that describes or limits the meaning of a noun or a pronoun is called an adjective.

An adjective that changes the meaning by describing a person or thing is called a descriptive adjective.

An adjective that tells which, how many, how much, etc., is called a limiting adjective.

Point out in the following sentences the nouns and pronouns, and the words that describe or limit them:

SENTENCES

MODEL

1. The faint, foggy daylight 1. Faint and foggy are adjectives

glimmered dimly.

2. He was sober, honest, and particularly quiet.

that modify the noun daylight by describing it.

2. Sober, honest, and quiet are
adjectives that describe
the person meant by he.

1. John Halifax had a serious, haggard face.
2. He had brown eyes and firm, close lips.

3. He had long, thick hair.

4. Soon the hungry, weary look came back.

5. My father called John an honest lad.

6. I noticed his muscular limbs, his square, broad shoulders, his healthy cheek, and his crisp curls.

7. We were in a narrow, dirty alley.

8. My father was a silent, stern man.

9. This day, I, a poorer and more helpless Jonathan, had found my David.

2. Written Exercise.

Write two sentences containing descriptive adjectives. Write two sentences containing limiting adjectives.

3. Proper and Common Adjectives.

Read the proper nouns given above, and the adjectives formed from them. Read the common nouns and the adjectives formed from them. With what kind of letter does each proper adjective begin?

Learn:

An adjective formed from a proper noun is called a proper adjective. A proper adjective begins with a capital letter.

LESSON 30 · POSITION OF ADJECTIVES: ADJECTIVES THAT ARE SOMETIMES PRONOUNS

1. The Position of Adjectives.

1. He had brown eyes.

2. His eyes were brown.

Adjectives are usually, but not always, placed before the word that they describe or limit. In sentence 1 it is easy to see that brown describes the noun eyes, which it immediately precedes. In sentence 2, also, brown describes the noun eyes, although the noun comes before the word brown in the sentence.

Select the nouns and pronouns in the following sentences. Select the words that limit or describe the meaning of the nouns or pronouns.

Use the model given in Lesson 29.

1. The alley was narrow and dirty.

2. The boy looked ragged and miserable.

3. He seemed weary.

4. His shoulders were broad.

5. He was tall and strong.

6. He was kind to me.

7. He was not so old as I.

8. We became sociable.

9. He was stern and grave, but he was very kind to me.

2. Adjectives That Are Sometimes Pronouns.

You have learned that the words his, whose, what, which, this, that, these, and those may be used instead of nouns, and are then pronouns. You will find, however, that these words are not always used as pronouns. They may be used to limit the meaning of nouns and are then adjectives. It is always the use of a word in a sentence that determines how it is classed.

The words my, our, your, thy, her, its, and their are used to limit the meaning of nouns, and are therefore adjectives.

Select the nouns and pronouns in the following sentences. Select the words that limit or describe the meaning of the nouns and pronouns.

1. That man went home.

2. He was kind to his son.

3. His son, who tells this story, was a cripple.

4. Which coin did John Halifax take?

5. Whose son was Jonathan?

6. These books are mine.

7. Those books are yours.