Plain English Part 32

Notice carefully the use of the infinitives in the following sentences.

Underscore all infinitives.

1. To remain ignorant is to remain a slave.

2. Teach us to think and give us courage to act.

3. Children love to be praised, but hate to be censured.

4. To obey is the creed taught the working cla.s.s by the masters.

5. To be exploited has always been the fate of the workers.

6. Ferrer wrote on his prison wall, "To love a woman pa.s.sionately, to have an ideal which I can serve, to have the desire to fight until I win--what more can I wish or ask?"

7. The people wish the man to be punished for the crime.

8. Primitive man found plenty of wood to burn.

9. We have learned to use coal and oil.

10. The lecture to have been given this evening has been postponed.

11. They are eager to hear the news.

12. He has failed to come.

13. We felt the house shake on its foundation.

14. Have him find the book for me.

15. To be defeated is no crime; never to have dared is the real crime.

16. The rich will do anything for the poor except to get off their backs.

17. To have slept while others fought is your shame.

18. Claim your right to do, to dream and to dare.

Exercise 4

Write sentences containing the six infinitive forms of the verb _obey_.

DON'TS FOR INFINITIVES

+165.+ +Don't split your infinitives.+ Keep the _to_ and the infinitive together as much as possible. Don't say, _They intended to never come back_. Say rather, _They intended never to come back_. Sometimes, however, the meaning can be more aptly expressed by placing the adverb modifier between the _to_ and the infinitive, as for example:

To almost succeed is not enough.

It will be found to far exceed our expectations.

In these sentences the adverbs _almost_ and _far_ express our meaning more closely if they are placed between the _to_ and the infinitive.

Ordinarily, however, do not split your infinitives, but place the adverb modifier either before or after the infinitive.

+166.+ +Don't use _to_ by itself without the rest of the infinitive.+ Don't say, _Do as I tell you to_. Say instead, _Do as I tell you to do_; or, _Do as I tell you_. Don't say, _He deceived us once and he is likely to again_. Say rather, _He deceived us once and he is likely to deceive us again_, or _to do so again_.

+167.+ +Don't use _and_ for _to_. Don't say, _Try and go if you can_.

Say instead, _Try to go if you can_.

Correct the following sentences:

We ought to bravely fight for our rights.

I will do all my employer tells me to.

We shall try and get our lessons.

I ought to at least help my comrades but I am afraid to.

Exercise 5

Study carefully the infinitives in the following quotation. Notice which are active and which are pa.s.sive infinitives.

The twenty thousand men prematurely slain on a field of battle, mean, to the women of their race, twenty thousand human creatures _to be borne_ within them for months, _to be given_ birth to in anguish, _to be fed_ from their b.r.e.a.s.t.s and _to be reared_ with toil, if the members of the tribe and the strength of the nation are _to be maintained_. In nations continually at war, incessant and unbroken child-bearing is by war imposed on all women if the state is _to survive_; and whenever war occurs, if numbers are _to be maintained_, there must be an increased child-bearing and rearing. This throws upon woman, as woman, a war tax, compared with which all that the male expends in military preparations is comparatively light.

It is especially in the domain of war that we, the bearers of men's bodies, who supply its most valuable munition, who, not amid the clamor and ardor of battle, but singly, and alone, with a three-in-the-morning courage, shed our blood and face death that the battle-field might have its food, a food more precious to us than our heart's blood; it is we, especially, who, in the domain of war, have our word _to say_, a word no man can say for us. It is our intention _to enter_ into the domain of war and _to labor_ there till in the course of generations we have extinguished it.--_Olive Schreiner_.

Exercise 6

Mark the participles and infinitives.

Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold!

Bright and yellow, hard and cold, Molten, graven, hammer'd and roll'd; Heavy to get, and light to hold; h.o.a.rded, barter'd, bought, and sold, Stolen, borrow'd, squander'd, doled: Spurn'd by the young, but hugg'd by the old To the very verge of the churchyard mould; Price of many a crime untold: Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold!

Good or bad a thousand-fold!

How widely its agencies vary-- To save--to ruin--to curse--to bless-- As even its minted coins express, Now stamp'd with the image of Good Queen Bess, And now of a b.l.o.o.d.y Mary.--_Thos. Hood_.

SPELLING

LESSON 9

In our English lessons, we have been studying the division of words into parts of speech. We have been studying them as we use them in expressing our thoughts but we may study them in other ways also. We may study them as words alone.

Studied in this way we find that we have simple, compound and derivative words. For example, _man_, _man-slaughter_, _manly_. _Man_ is a simple word. _Man-slaughter_ is a compound word formed of two simple words.

_Manly_ is a derivative word derived from _man_.

When a compound word is first formed, it is usually written with a hyphen; but after the word has been used awhile the hyphen is often dropped and the two parts are written together as a simple word.

+A simple word is a single word which cannot be divided into other words without changing its meaning.+

+A compound word is composed of two or more simple words into which it may be divided, each retaining its own meaning.+

+A derivative word is one which is derived from a simple word by the addition of another syllable.+

In next week's lesson we will take up the study of these derivatives.

Divide the compound words in this week's lesson into the simple words of which they are composed.

+Monday+

Birthday Coal-tar Craftsman Foreman Gunpowder

+Tuesday+