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Bechtel, John Hendricks, 1841-

"Slips of Speech : a Helpful Book for Everyone Who Aspires to Correct the Everyday Errors of Speaking"

" "We do not speak of a monosyllable's having a primary accent."
Change men's to men, and monosyllable's to monosyllable.
After verbs
Verbs do not govern participles. "I intend doing it," "I remember
meeting Longfellow," and similar expressions should be changed by the
substitution of the infinitive for the participle; as, "I intend to do
it," "I remember to have met Longfellow."
After verbs signifying to persevere, to desist, the participle ending
in ing is permitted; as, "So when they continued asking him, he lifted
up himself, and said unto them."
Place
In the use of participles and of verbal nouns, the leading word in
sense should always be made the leading word, and not the adjunct, in
the construction.
"They did not give notice of the pupil leaving." Here, the leading
idea is leaving. Pupil should, therefore, be subordinate by changing
its form to the possessive; as, "They did not give notice of the
pupil's leaving." Better still, "They did not give notice that the
pupil had left."
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Clearness
The word to which the participle relates should stand out clearly.


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