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Declension.

Who is the only interrogative that varies its form. It is

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It is often said that every sentence containing an interrogative pronoun should be punctuated with an interrogation point; but this is not true. Compare these sentences:

1. Who went home with her?

2.

I know who went home with her.

3. I don't remember who went home with her.
4. Perry asked me who went home with her.
5. I told him who went home with her.

The last four sentences contain the same interrogative pronoun that was used in the first; but these sentences are indirect, not direct, questions. They belong to the subject of indirect quotation (Chapter XXXIV). Indirect quotations never take a question mark.

INDEFINITE PRONOUNS

The Forms of the Indefinite Pronouns.

Many of the indefinite pronouns are compound, but no hyphen is used. The most important are one, anyone, every

one, some one, no one, none, one another, each other, anybody, anybody else, everybody, everybody else, nobody, nobody else, somebody, somebody else. Only a few have plurals:

You may have the large apples; I'll take the small ones.
These people are rated as mere nobodies in their own community.

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Caution. Remember that with the exception of none, which is singular or plural, all of the indefinites are singular both in form and use. They must be referred to, therefore, by singular pronouns, and must have their predicates also in the singular. Instead of are, were, and have, we must use is, was, and has :

1. Not one in a hundred was dissatisfied.

2. Which one of you is willing to go?

3. I am sure that everyone has done his best and should receive his reward.

4. Nobody but the speakers and reporters was allowed on the platform.

ADJECTIVE PRONOUNS

Relation to Adjectives.

By an adjective pronoun is meant any pronoun that may be used as an adjective. In "I want each student to read this book," each and this are adjectives because they modify the nouns student and book. In "This is an excellent book, and each of you should read it," This and each are pronouns in the nominative case. The most important of the adjective pronouns are each, any, other, some, either, neither, what, which, this, that, the former, the latter, several, few, many, all.

Differences in Use.

The words this and that, plural these and those, are often called demonstrative pronouns because they point out: this denotes something near at hand; that something farther from the speaker.

Either, neither, and each are always singular:

1. Either sentence is correct, but neither is suitable.

2. Neither of us was able to help him.

3. The judge thinks that each of them is partly to blame.

Either and neither are used only of two; but each may mean one of two or one of more than two. Thus Kingsley writes of three fishermen :

Each thought on the woman who loved him the best.

EXERCISES

I

Tell what case each of the following relative pronouns is in, and why:

1. Do you know the man that passed us?

2. The dog that you shot has died.

3. American literature, which Englishmen rarely read sixty years ago, now counts its English readers by the thousands. 4. Yonder is the bird that I aimed at.

5. My father, who has just left his room, has been ill a week. 6. In the lexicon of youth, which fate reserves for a bright manhood, there's no such word as fail.

7. Ralph Waldo Emerson, who was once a preacher but whom

the world knows best as a great essayist, was a friend of Thomas Carlyle's.

II

Tell what case each of the following interrogative pronouns is in, and why:

1. Who is going with you?
2. Whom did you consult?
3. Which do you like best?

4. I'll tell you which I like best.

5. With what did you defend yourself?

6. What were you talking about?

7. What is the largest animal that you ever saw?

8. Whose buggy did you ride in?

9. I know who1 told you.

III

Use interrogative who or whom in each of the following blanks; give a reason for your choice:

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IV

1. Decline all of the indefinite pronouns through the singular.

2. Illustrate the three ways of avoiding the use of indefinite

one.

3. Use everyone as the subject of a sentence, refer to it by his, and use was as the predicate.

4. What do you think of the following sentence?

I want everybody to bring his or her dictionary to class.

V

1. Show by sentences that each of the adjective pronouns may be used as an adjective.

2. Illustrate by sentences the grammatical number of either, neither, and each.

CHAPTER LXVIII

I. OUR FLAG

For Study and Composition

Many poems have been written about our flag but the greatest is The Star-Spangled Banner by Francis Scott Key. It was not written to order but sprang as a sudden inspiration from the brain and heart of its author. No other poem ever written by an American has been so honored as our National Anthem. Here are three paragraphs about it from the United States Navy Regulations. You will remember that "at colors " means "at the lowering or the raising of the flag," and "covered or uncovered" means "with the hat on or off":

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