Vocabulary Parts of Speech - Requisites
It is very easy to learn how to speak and write correctly, as for all
purposes of ordinary conversation and communication, only about 2,000
different words are required. The mastery of just twenty hundred words,
the knowing where to place them, will make us not masters of the English
language, but masters of correct speaking and writing. Small number, you
will say, compared with what is in the dictionary! But nobody ever uses
all the words in the dictionary or could use them did he live to be the
age of Methuselah, and there is no necessity for using them.
There are upwards of 200,000 words in the recent editions of the large
dictionaries, but the one-hundredth part of this number will suffice for
all your wants. Of course you may think not, and you may not be content
to call things by their common names; you may be ambitious to show
superiority over others and display your learning or, rather, your
pedantry and lack of learning. For instance, you may not want to call a
spade a spade. You may prefer to call it a spatulous device for abrading
the surface of the soil. Better, however, to stick to the old familiar,
simple name that your grandfather called it. It has stood the test of
time, and old friends are always good friends.
To use a big word or a foreign word when a small one and a familiar one
will answer the same purpose, is a sign of ignorance. Great scholars and
writers and polite speakers use simple words.
To go back to the number necessary for all purposes of conversation
correspondence and writing, 2,000, we find that a great many people who
pass in society as being polished, refined and educated use less, for
they know less. The greatest scholar alive hasn't more than four thousand
different words at his command, and he never has occasion to use half the
number.
In the works of Shakespeare, the most wonderful genius the world has ever
known, there is the enormous number of 15,000 different words, but almost
10,000 of them are obsolete or meaningless today.
Every person of intelligence should be able to use his mother tongue
correctly. It only requires a little pains, a little care, a little study
to enable one to do so, and the recompense is great.
Consider the contrast between the well-bred, polite man who knows how to
choose and use his words correctly and the underbred, vulgar boor, whose
language grates upon the ear and jars the sensitiveness of the finer
feelings. The blunders of the latter, his infringement of all the canons
of grammar, his absurdities and monstrosities of language, make his very
presence a pain, and one is glad to escape from his company.
The proper grammatical formation of the English language, so that one may
acquit himself as a correct conversationalist in the best society or be
able to write and express his thoughts and ideas upon paper in the right
manner, may be acquired in a few lessons.
It is the purpose of this book, as briefly and concisely as possible, to
direct the reader along a straight course, pointing out the mistakes he
must avoid and giving him such assistance as will enable him to reach the
goal of a correct knowledge of the English language. It is not a Grammar
in any sense, but a guide, a silent signal-post pointing the way in the
right direction.
Next: THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN A NUTSHELL
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