15. The warmth and closeness of the room oppressed me. 16. The river was deepened by dredging.

17. Thoughtfulness and gentleness are stored away with heedlessness in a noisy boy.

18. The choir sang "Elijah.”

19. The joy of acquiring knowledge is a compensation for the necessary labor.

A class noun is any common noun that is not a collective, an abstract, or a verbal noun; as, chair, book, door, etc.

Exercise 5

Copy the nouns, arranging abstract nouns in the first column, collective in the second, verbal in the third, and class in the fourth:

I. Misery and vice love company.

2.

The lady's singing pleased the audience.

3. A letter is a form of composition.

4. Writing for a long time becomes tedious.

5. Harry's eating green apples made him sick.

6. Your son's accepting a position like this is for

tunate.

7. Good reading elevates the understanding.

8. A host of Indian warriors rushed across the plain. 9. We gazed with pleasure on those happy islands. I did not think of your leaving so soon.

IO.

II. The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is the knowledge of our own ignorance.

12. Frugality may be termed the daughter of prudence, the sister of temperance, and the parent of liberty.

13. The army halted for two days to collect food.

14. Laziness travels so slowly that poverty overtakes him.

15. The crowd is becoming noisy.

16. The committee is composed of two men and three

women.

17. The cost of running this machine is very high.

I like the simplicity of his remarks.

19. Webster was a man whom the country will remember with pride.

20. The savage army was in war-paint, plumed for battle.

PROPERTIES OF NOUNS

NUMBER

Number is that quality of a word which shows whether it refers to one or more than one.

Singular number refers to one; as, month, book, table, pencil, etc.

Plural number refers to more than one; as, months, books, tables, pencils, etc.

Plurals of most singular nouns are formed by adding s or es to the singular; as, state, states; note, notes; book, books; box, boxes; dish, dishes.

Nouns ending in y preceded by a vowel (a, e, i, o, u) add s; as, valley, valleys; attorney, attorneys.

Nouns ending in y preceded by a consonant (any letter other than a vowel) change y to i and add es; as, candy, candies; army, armies.

Most nouns ending in ƒ or fe add s; as, scarf, scarfs; safe, safes.

A few change ƒ or fe to v and add es; as, wife, wives; beef, beeves.

Most nouns ending in o preceded by a consonant add es; as, tomato, tomatoes; cargo, cargoes; volcano, volcanoes; motto, mottoes; negro, negroes.

Nouns ending in o preceded by a vowel add s; as, studio, studios; cameo, cameos; folio, folios; nuncio, nuncios; trio, trios.

Many nouns form their plurals irregularly; as, man, men; ox, oxen; goose, geese; foot, feet; mouse, mice. Letters, figures, characters, etc., add the apostrophe and s; as, 6, 6's; x, x's; * *'s.

In forming the plurals of proper names where a title is used, either the title or the name may be put in the plural form; as, the Misses Brown or the Miss Browns.

Some nouns are the same in both singular and plural ; as, deer, series, means, gross, sheep, etc.

Some nouns are always plural in form, but singular in meaning; as, politics, news, molasses, ethics.

Some nouns have two plurals that differ in meaning:

Compound nouns are those formed by the union of two words, either two nouns or a noun joined to some descriptive word or phrase; as, man-servant, mother-inlaw, attorney-at-law.

The plural number of compound nouns is usually shown by adding s to the principal word; as, mothers-in-law, courts-martial. In a few compounds both parts take a plural form; as, men-servants, knights-templars.

Exercise 6

Write the plural, if any, of every singular noun in the following list; and the singular, if any, of every plural noun. Note those having no singular and those having no plural.

When in doubt about any of these forms, consult an unabridged dictionary:

Mr. Anderson country-man hanger-on

major-general geese

memento

why

Miss Smith

oxen

man-servant

strata

GENDER

Gender is that quality of a noun or pronoun that distinguishes objects in regard to sex.

There are four genders: masculine, feminine, common, and neuter.

The masculine gender denotes males; as, man, boy, king.

The feminine gender denotes females; as, woman, girl, queen.

The common gender denotes males or females, or both; as, student, person, friend.

The neuter gender denotes objects without sex; as, book, stone, house.

When neuter nouns represent objects possessing strength, size, or other qualities usually found in males, they are referred to as masculine; when they represent gentleness, beauty, or other qualities peculiar to females, they are referred to as feminine. Thus, we speak of the sun, the north wind, winter, as masculine; of the moon and spring, as feminine.

In speaking of young children or of the lower animals, the sex is generally disregarded and the neuter form it is used.

The present-day tendency is to drop the suffix ess and to use such words as author, editor, poet, doctor, to denote persons of either sex.

Exercise 7

Rule a sheet of paper in four columns, heading them noun, kind, number, gender. Classify the nouns in the following sentences:

I. Formosa is famous for the production of tea and camphor.