ORAL AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE 63 



tion. It is of advantage to drill one day on regular verbs, 

 separating them completely from irregular forms. The ear 

 is aided by this plan. Saw and did are among the first drills 

 of the year, although they also belonged to first grade work. 

 The simple verb, I did it, is not drilled upon at the same 

 time as the compound form, I have done it. These are two 

 drills, for separate days even. Many children use the past 

 participles of these two verbs correctly; consequently, the 

 drills given are for learning to use correctly the words saw 

 and did, comparatively new to many children. In this way 

 it is possible to escape falling into the solecism, "I have 

 saw," an error often blundered into through over-zealous 

 efforts to use the new words. 



When the mistake is in the use of the past participle, the 

 drills are on these forms of the verbs, saying nothing about 

 the past tenses, which are probably being used correctly. 

 The past participles specially suggested to the teachers of 

 this grade are: written, broken, eaten, bitten, flown, blown. 

 The past tenses for special drills are : ran, did, saw, ate, flew, 

 blew, dug. 



Drills continue in the use of the period and interrogation 

 mark. The comma is used in address, for attention words, 



to separate words in a series, to precede a 

 Punctuation , , . , . 



Word Drills quotation. Several new abbreviations are 



learned, accompanied by the required period. 

 Word exercises are frequent, as in distinguishing between 

 their and there ; to and two ; too is included as soon as used. 

 Many common adverbs are taught; as, well, nicely, slowly, 

 kindly. Such colloquialisms as " busted," " ketched," " slung," 

 and others taken from the pupils' vocabularies are discour- 

 aged by suggesting better forms in their places. While it 



