You learned in § 62 that verbs have different forms, - that write, wrote, writes, writing, and written are not really different words, but different forms of the verb write. Other words besides verbs have different forms. Boy, boys, boy's and boys" are different forms of the noun boy. Bright, brighter, and brightest are forms of the adjective bright.

Hundreds of years ago it occurred to some one that changing the form of a word is like bending it into a new shape. Now to bend is to inflect; and so he called such a change an inflection, and it has ever since been so called.

The next exercises show that nouns and pronouns are inflected for several purposes.

Exercise 202. Development

girl, man, hat, ox, sheep, flock, goose, table, potato, deer, tooth, wife.

How many individuals does each noun name? Make a list of the forms of these words that are used to represent * more than one. How many words do you find that have but one form to denote either one or more than one?

Exercise 203. Development

he, she, it, who, I, this, you, which, that, other.

Which of these are personal pronouns? Which may be used as either conjunctive or interrogative pronouns?

Which may be used as conjunctive or adjective pronouns? Which may be used as adjective pronouns only?

Use these pronouns in sentences, letting each pronoun represent but one. Change the sentences, making the pronoun represent more than one. In how many cases did you have to change the form of the pronoun?