although we cannot think that anything is being done to "praise." Independently, then, of the active or passive meaning, all verbs that have the active form are said to be in the active voice; all verbs that have the passive form are said to be in the passive voice.

2. The form of the Passive Voice is always compound; that is, it consists of at least two words. One part of the compound is some form of the verb to be; the other is the passive participle. But the form of the Active Voice may be simple; that is, it may consist of but one word.

3. Verbs have differences of form according to mode (or mood or manner) of expression. In a plain declaration or statement, the verb is in the Indicative Mood. In a command or demand, the verb is in the Imperative Mood. A verb used without a subject is in the Infinitive Mood, though this is not a true mood, as a verb in this form has the construction, in a sentence, of another part of speech; that is, noun, adjective, or adverb. A fourth mood, the Subjunctive, must be studied later.

4. The subject of a verb in the Imperative Mood is usually not expressed, but "understood," in modern English. From the nature of such a verb, its subject must be in the "second person," singular or plural (thou or you), and this "understood" subject should always be mentioned in parsing the imperative.

5. The Infinitive Mood is commonly preceded by to, which is sometimes called its sign. But the infinitive is often used without to.

6. Verbs have different forms to express present, past, or future time, the word Tense being used for these forms, instead of the common word "time." The following group of forms,

is called the Present Tense (Indicative Mood) of the verb

to study.

The general past tense is called Preterit; as,

would be possible to
But it is very impor-

By using this general past tense, it
mention any occurrence in past time.
tant to us to have two others, one related to present time, the
other to past time. When we say that something has hap-
pened to-day, or this week, or this year, we refer to both past
and present time in the same verb. For example,

I have studied my lessons this afternoon.

I have written a composition this week.
I have studied Latin this year.

The full

Such verbs are said to be in the Perfect Tense.
name of this tense is the Present-Perfect, since the action,
although past, is completed, or perfected, in present time; but
it usually goes by the name of the perfect tense. It has
always an auxiliary: have, has (hast, hath), which may be
called the sign of the perfect tense.

When we mention something as having happened in the past, before another event also in the past, we use what is called the Pluperfect Tense; as,

66

I had studied my lesson when my cousin came in.

Here the pluperfect "had studied " is related to the preterit came" in much the same way as a verb in the perfect tense is related to present time. (Plus or plu- is the Latin word meaning more.) Had is the auxiliary of the pluperfect tense, and may be called its sign.

Besides the simple Future Tense,

we have the Future Perfect, with the auxiliary have, like the perfect tense:

I shall have studied

You will have studied, etc.

7. We may arrange these tense-names as follows:

8. The emphatic form, I did study, and the continuous, or progressive, form, I was studying, are preterit, since they refer to past time in general, and are not related to the present or to another past.

CONJUNCTION

It is not always easy to see what a conjunction connects. If, however, we look first at the word or group of words directly following the conjunction, we shall have less difficulty in finding the other word or words.