Chapter 15
Section 15 of 1001 Questions and Answers on English Grammar. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Christy Carpenter.
1001 Questions and Answers on English Grammar by Benjamin Hathaway. Articles. 1. Give the rule for articles and tell where they should be placed in sentences. Articles limit nouns as the riot, an army, a battle. Articles should always be placed before the nouns they limit.
2. If an article and an adjective both limit the same noun, does the article precede or follow the adjective? It generally precedes the adjective, as, an equitable court. However, after the adjectives many, such, both, what, and all, and other adjectives preceded by the adverbs to, as, so, and how, the article follows the adjective. As. 3. When two or more adjectives qualify the same noun and an article precedes the first adjective, should it precede all the others?
It should be placed before the first adjective only, as, I have a red, white, and blue flag. But when the adjectives qualify different nouns, the article should be used with each, as, I have a red, a white, and a blue flag. Three flags. 4. When two or more nouns are connected by and, should the article be used with each? It is generally used with the first only, as, the sun, moon, and stars, comets, and planets, or Herschel's constant study.
5. What if the nouns are connected disjunctively? Then, the article is used with each noun, as, an idle man or an idle woman will find poverty. 6. Why is the article thus used? Because there are two women indicated, and, the article is needed to point out each. 7. Explain the use of the article in the sentence, An early spring is no sign of a fruitful season.
An limits the noun spring, as, limited by early, and a limits fruitful season, and, therefore, the article is regarded as limiting a phrase. 8. Explain the use of the article in the Hudson, the animal and vegetable world. It is used in each case to limit the noun understood, as, the river Hudson, the animal world, etc. 9. Give five exceptions to the rule, An is used before words beginning with a vowel. 1. Before once, one, and its compounds, a, is used, as, in a once lordly house, lives a one-eyed woman.
2. A is used before words beginning with E, followed by U or W, as, a eulogist, a U. 3. A is used before words beginning with W or Y, as, a wonder, a youth. 4. Before words beginning with silent H, or when H is sounded and the accent is on the second syllable, An is used instead of a, as, an hour, an historian. 5. Before words beginning with U, when its sound involves that of Y, a is used, as, a useless man.
10. Give examples coming under these exceptions. A youth, a head, an herb, a eulogy, a wonder, an harmonic, a handkerchief, an hour, a one, a once, an herodian, a herod, a one-sided story, a ewer, an honest, a useless, a hundred. 11. How should the rule read to apply to most cases in the language? 12. How is the used in the following?
The oftener I see her, the more I respect her. Neither if we eat are we the better. It is seemingly used adverbially and relates to the adverb following in the first instance and the adjective in the second. 13. Where does A seem to have a prepositional use? When prefixed to participles ending in ing, as, they burst out a laughing. The men went a fishing. The letter A is probably of French origin and signifies to, at, on, in, or of. Note, these forms are nearly obsolete.
14. Give examples of false syntax. Example 1. An or a humble heart shall find favor. Example 2. Passing from an, incorrect, a, earthly, to a, incorrect, an, heavenly diadem. Example 3. An, incorrect, a, ounce of prevention is worth a, incorrect, an, hundred pounds of cure. Example 4. The book was read by the old and the young.
Example 5. Not a word was uttered nor a sign given. Example 6. He is a much better writer than reader, incorrect, than he is reader. Example 7. I expected some such, incorrect, an, answer. Example 8. He was an abler mathematician than, incorrect, a, linguist. Example 9. I would rather have an orange than an apple.
Example 10. A great and, incorrect, a, good man looks beyond time. 15. Give the program for parsing articles. 1. Name the part of speech. 2. Name its class. 3. Give its construction.
4. Name or recite the rule. 16. Parse an in the following sentence. 3. Barley corns make an inch. 4. Anne is an article, indefinite, and limits inch. Rule.
17. Parse the italicized words in the following sentence. A unit figure occupies the lowest place in whole numbers. A is an article, indefinite, and limits the phrase unit figure. The is an article, indefinite, and limits the phrase lowest place. End of section 15.
