17. The, signifies that some particular person. or thing is referred to; as the man, the ship. Hence it is called the definite article.

A is used before a consonant, and an before a vowel, or silent h.

A or an is applied only to nouns in the singular number. The is used before nouns in either number.

Where no article is prefixed, the substantive is taken in a general and comprehensive sense; as Man is mortal.

The article, is considered by some grammarians as included among the Adjectives.

OF NOUNS.

18. A Noun or Substantive is the name of whatever we distinctly perceive, understand or discourse of; as a man, a tree, goodness, truth.

Direction. If, therefore, we prefix the words “I speak of,"-whatever word completes the sense, is a noun; as I speak of virtue, wisdom, gold.

19. Nouns may be divided into Common and Proper.

20. A noun common belongs to all of a kind: as, a man, a city, a river.

21. A noun proper is the name of an individual of a kind; as, Julius Cæsar, Philadelphia, the Delaware.

The terminations or endings of nouns are changed on account of Number, Case and Gender. OF NUMBER.

22. There are two numbers, the singular and the plural.

23. The singular number speaks of but one;

as, a song.

24. The plural number expresses more than one; as, songs.

Some nouns want the singular number; as, ashes, lungs, news, &c. Some have no plural; as the names of Virtues and Vices, justice, temperance, &c. of Metals, as brass, gold, &c. with many others, and all Proper Names. In several, the singular and plural terminations, are alike; as sheep, deer. Some words taken from foreign languages retain their original plurals : as cherub, cherubim; seraph, seraphim; erratum, errata; phænomenon, phænomena; radius, radii; beau, beaux ; with many others.

Proper names may be used as common ones in a figurative sense, and then admit of a plural; as the Alexanders, the Ciceros, to express great conquerors, or famous orators.

Or they may be taken plurally to denote more persons than one of the same name; as the Scipios, the Howards.

Some nouns which, in their general sense, are confined to the singular number, as wine, cloth, are made plural to express different species of the same kind; as plenty of good wines, excellent cloths.

25. The plural number is generally formed by adding s or es to the singular, as river, rivers, fish, fishes.

26. Es is added where s alone cannot be sounded, viz. after ch, s, sh, x and z; as torch, torches, ax, axes.

Many words ending in for fe, make their plural in ves; as calf, calves; knife, knives; but others follow the general rule; as grief, griefs; so also, cliff, dwarf, hoof, roof, mischief, handkerchief, relief, muff, ruff, cuff, puff, stuff.

27. If the singular end in y or ey, preceded by a consonant, the plural shall end in ies; as beauty, beauties; chimney, chimnies.

28. Many plurals are formed irregularly; as man, foot, feet.

To which may be added, woman, women; child, children; brother, brethren; ox, oxen; as also, die, dice; louse, lice; mouse, mice; goose, geese; sow, swine; pen•ny, pence; tooth, teeth, &c.

Note. Brother has two plurals in use, brothers and brethren; the former of which is applied to natural relations, the latter is used in a figurative sense, as when we say, "Men and Brethren." Die, dice, is used by gamesters; die used by coiners has the regular plural dies.

OF CASE.

29. There are three CASES, the NOMINATIVE, the POSSESSIVE, and the OFJECTIVE.

30. The nominative case is the name itself; as George.

31. The possessive denotes property or possession; as, George's book.

32. The objective usually follows transitive verbs, participles, and prepositions; as, George loves play; I am seeking him, he pleads for George.

33. The possessive is formed by adding s, with an apostrophe before it, to the nominative; as,

man, man's.

The apostrophe denotes the want of an i, which was formerly inserted; as Godis grace, for God's grace. The vulgar error, that it was a contraction of the pronoun his has long been exploded, It would be absurd to suppose that Mary's book was put for Mary his book, or the children's play for the children his play. But the regular derivation of this case from the Sazon possessive, determines the matter beyond a doubt.

When several names are coupled together, in the possessive case, the apostrophe with the s, may be joined to the last of them, and understood to the rest; as, John, James and Robert's horse.

B

34. To a plural noun ending in s, and sometimes to a singular in ss, the apostrophe alone is added; as the soldiers' valour; for righteousness' sake.

The s is sometimes omitted after proper names ending in x ors; as, "Festus came into Felix' room.” "The wrath of Pelus' son." This is less allowable in prose than poetry. Lowth.

If the term denoting property or possession, consist of several words, the apostrophe is usually subjoined to the last of them; as the Congress of the United States army.

OF GENDER.

35. Nouns have properly two GENDERS; the MASCULINE to denote the male kind; and the FEMININE to denote the female.

36. When there is no distinction of sex, some nouns are of the NEUTER gender; as, chair, desk. But others are of COMMON gender; as, friend, neighbour, &c.

When personified, the following words are considered as masculine, sun, time, death, sleep, love.

Virtue and vice with their species; the soul; the earth; the moon; the church; religion, nature, fortune, ship, vessel, gun, with the names of countries and cities, are feminine.

37. The feminine gender is sometimes expressed by adding ess to the masculine; as lion, lioness; but generally without regard to rule.

With some analogy to this rule, we find the following nouns; abbot, abbess; duke, dutchess, governor, governess; marquis, marchioness; master, mistress; lad, lass, (laddess.)

Some masculines in tor make their feminines in trix, as executor, executrix; hero makes heroine.

The distinction of sex is frequently denoted by different words, as in the following table.

The sex is also marked by the addition of words that belong to particular males and females, or by the pronouns he and she; as a jack-ass, a cock-sparrow; a be-goat.

38. Inflection of a regular noun.

Plur.

We gene

The possessive plural is seldom used. rally choose to express the same idea by the help of the preposition of; as the banks of the rivers, rather than the rivers' banks. The harsh termination of some possessives in the singular number is avoided in the same manner: house's situation, would be better rendered the situation of the house.