of time, viz. Present, Imperfect, Perfect, Pluperfect, and First and Second Future.

The SUBJUNCTIVE has also the same six tenses.

The POTENTIAL has four, viz. the Present, the Imperfect, the Perfect, and Pluperfect.

The INFINITIVE has two, the Present and Perfect.*

The IMPERATIVE has one, the Present.

I will directly explain to you, how all the tenses of the indicative mood are formed and distinguished: but before I do that, I must inform you, that verbs are either regular, or irregular, and explain to you the difference between those which are called regular, and those called irregular.

The verbs which form their imperfect tense, and perfect or passive participles, by adding either d, or ed, to the present tense, are regular; and those which form their imperfect tense, and perfect or passive participles otherwise, are irregular. Take the regular verb love, for example: as,

Present Tense.

I love,

Imperfect.
I loved,

Perfect, or Passive Participle. loved.

Here you perceive that the imperfect tense, and the perfect participle, are formed by adding d to the present tense, love ; but when the present tense does not end in e, ed must be added to form the imperfect tense and perfect participle of regular verbs: as,

Perfect, or Passive Participle. walked. laboured.

But observe how the following form their imperfect tense,

When I first explained the Participle to you, in a former Conversation, I told you there were three participles, viz. the present, the perfect, and the compound perfect. The present, or active participle, I explained then: you now have the per

fect; and the compound perfect is formed by placing having, before the perfect participle.

The three participles, then, of the verb love, labour, teach,

You will perceive, that the imperfect tense, and perfect participle, of all regular verbs, and of many irregular verbs, are spelled alike.

George. I have observed, that the verbs love and teach, make loved and taught, in the imperfect and participle; loved and taught, then, are sometimes verbs in the imperfect tense, and sometimes perfect or passive participles. How shall we know when these words are verbs, and when participles?

Tutor. If you observe the conjugation of the verbs, you will perceive, that the imperfect tense of the verb has a nominative, but the participle has none: as,

Present.
I teach,

Imperfect.
I taught,

I write,

I wrote,

Perfect Participle.
taught.
written.

Whenever you have a verb to parse, the first thing you must do, is, to find whether it is regular or irregular, by conjugating it in the Present and the Imperfect tenses, and naming the perfect participle: as,

Here you perceive, that the imperfect tense, and the participle of the verb leave, are spelled alike, but the verb has a nominative-the participle has not.

The conjugation of a verb, is the regular combination and arrangement of its several numbers, persons, moods, and tenses. Or it is coupling the verb with its nominative of the different numbers and persons, and making it agree with that nominative, through all the moods and tenses.

I will now present to you the conjugation of the regular verb walk, in the indicative mood.

To form the Perfect Tense, prefix have to the perfect parti

To form the Pluperfect Tense, prefix had to the perfect

participle: as,

Singular.

I had walked,

Thou hadst walked,

PLUPERFECT TENSE.

He, she, or it had walked.

Plural.

We had walked,

Ye or you had walked,
They had walked.

To form the First Future Tense, prefix shall or will to the

To form the Second Future Tense, prefix shall have or will have to the perfect participle: as,

Now observe the Present and Imperfect Tenses.-These are denoted by the simple verbs: I walk, thou walkest, &c. in the present tense; and I walked, thou walkedst, in the imperfect. These, therefore, are called simple tenses. But the four other tenses, you perceive, are formed by the help of other words, called auxiliary verbs, or helping verbs. You must also remember, that when have, or had, is used as an auxiliary verb, it must be used with the participle, and not with the imperfect tense of the verb.

All the tenses which are formed by auxiliary verbs are called compound tenses.

I will now give you a list, which contains nearly all the irregular verbs in our language; the others are, of course, regular, and are to be conjugated like walk.

Many verbs become irregular by contraction : as," feed, fed ; leave, left:" others, by the termination en: as, "fall, fell, fallen:" others, by the termination ght: as, " buy, bought; teach, taught," &c.

Now you can conjugate these verbs, except am, in the Indicative Mood, through all the six tenses, with the personal pronouns in the different persons and numbers, as walk was conjugated: as,

HE

Bear, to bring forth bare
Bear, to carry

Beat

Begin
Bend
Bereave

Beseech

bore
beat
began

bent
bereft, R.

besought

borne
beaten, beat

begun

bent

bereft

besought