A grammar of english words [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION I. What this Book Is First, as its title indicates, it is a grammar. It is not, however, the sort of grammar that contains chapters defining, describing and explaining respectively the noun, pronomi, verb, adjective, etc., in classified order, nor is it a grammar of which each chapter is devoted to some part of the sentence {subject, predicate, direct object, etc.) ; it contains, as a matter of fact, no chapters at all. Like a dictionary it is a collection of words in alphabetical order, but unlike a dictionary it gives the grammar of each word in detail; it is a grammar of words. Grammar in general may be that of forms Or that of words. A grammar of forms treats of grammatical categories from the laroadest down to the narrowest subdivision: such are the best-known and most popular grammars. The New Method Grammar is a book of that type. A grammar of words treats of the grammar pertaining to single words. A and the, for instance, are words which are traditionally and universally difiicult on account of their grammatical peculiarities. Some and any, shall and will, do and have, and most of the prepositions and conjunctions are words that are difficult not only on account of their varied meanings but because each one is bound up with its particular grammatical usages. When the foreign student of English complains that EngUsh grammar is " difficult," or composes imgrammatical sentences and constructions, it is usually not because he is ignorant of the grammatical categories (noun, verb, subject, complement, interrogative, etc.), but because he is not aware of the grammatical pecuharities pertaining to individual words. This book goes beyond what is indicated by its concise title. It might also be entitled : A Grammatical Dictionary of English Words. It is a manual of the usage of those EngUsh words that have been found by experience to constitute the bulk of learning-effort on the part of the student of English as a foreign language. English contains about 20,000 words in fairly current use. Of these about 1000 present considerable difficulty to the foreign student of English; the remainder (apart from pronunciation) present little or no difiiculty. It is in connection with these 1000 words that the ^eat majority of mistakes in grammar and composition are made; it is these 1000 words that prevent the foreign student in the early stages from using English correctly and effectively.