A, AN, THE._English Grammar in Familiar Lectures Accompanied by a compendium, embracing a new systematic order of parsing, a new system of punctuation, exercises in false syntax, and a system of philosophical grammar, in notes, to which are added an appendix and a key to the exercises : designed for the use of schools and private learners

In a scientific arrangement of grammatical principles, _a_ and _the_

belong to that class of adjectives denominated _definitives_ or

_restrictives_.

_A, an, ane_, or _one_, is the past participle of _ananad_, to add,

to join. It denotes that the thing to which it is prefixed, is

_added, united, aned, an-d, oned, (woned,)_ or made _one_.

_The_ and _that_. According to Horne Tooke, _the_ is the imperative,

and _that_, the past participle, of the Anglo-Saxon verb _thean_, to

get, take, assume. _The_ and _that_ had, originally, the same

meaning. The difference in their present application, is a modern

refinement. Hence, _that_, as well as _the_, was formerly used,

indifferently, before either a singular or a plural noun.

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English Grammar in Familiar Lectures Accompanied by a compendium, embracing a new systematic order of parsing, a new system of punctuation, exercises in false syntax, and a system of philosophical grammar, in notes, to which are added an appendix and a key to the exercises : designed for the use of schools and private learners · 第 83 / 369 题