Ch. 2 - The System

Basic English Chapter 2 . The System

ABC

I. For English Translators

Use all Nouns, Adjectives, and Particles as in Standard English, avoiding obscure idioms, far-fetched metaphors, and intricate word order. Nouns must not, of course, be used as verbs.
The usual variants from the sixteen Operators (Verb-forms) and the seven Pronouns in the vocabulary are available; also Plurals, Comparatives, Adjectives used as Nouns, Adverbs (in -ly) formed from Adjectives, and the prefix un-.
Noun forms can generate four derivatives: two nouns (-er and -ing suffixes) and two adjectives (-ing and -ed suffixes), where these are in use in Standard English.
Proper names, Mathematical and Metric systems, and International terms (q.v.) may be incorporated at discretion.

Note: An idiomatic use of the vocabulary with less attention to detail than uniformity would demand may (though less frequently than the majority of existing dialects) necessitate occasional reference to a Standard Dictionary on the part of those whose knowledge is confirmed to Basic. Where a word has two or more widely different senses in Standard English, the Basic use is given in the The Basic Words -- in which all necessary and legitimate extensions and idioms have been fully covered. Some acquaintance with The ABC of Basic English is also desirable, if The Basic Dictionary (for translators) is to be used effectively.

II. For Learners

1. THE NOUN

Rule for Plurals

^1.

Feet, teeth; men, women; knives, leaves, selves.

Nouns ending in 'y' proceeded by a consonant spell the plural with 'ies' instead of 'ys'.
Nouns ending in 's', 'x', 'sh', 'ch', or 'o', spell the plural with 'es', instead of 's' alone.

Rule for Compounds.

^2.

birthday, copyright, milkman, newspaper, outhouse, overland, raincoat, sundown.

Rule for Derivatives.

ing

^1. Scissors and trousers have a plural from only; sheep is invariable; news has a plural form but is used in the singular.
^2. Among these compound forms are a few which are essential tot the vocabulary, but not self-evident in their formation : away, become, cupboard, income, inside, to-day, upright, without. They are omitted from the word-list because they are phonetic compounds, and are historically derived from their component parts.

2. The ADJECTIVE (QUALIFIER)

Rule for Comparatives.

good, better, best,

bad, worse, worst

first, second, last, past, present, future, right, left, male, female, cut, same, etc.

Rule for Adverbs.

ing

boiling, hanging, living, waiting

Good

well ), cut, like, awake, same, short, shut, small, tall

Female

ill

high, low, left, right, straight, parallel

ble

tic

tric

ally

the

^1. The learner must be prepared to find that the comparative and superlative of certain adjectives are more generally formed by the addition of the suffixes -er and -est respectively.

FORMS OF 'OPERATORS'

	PRESENT		PAST	-ING	SPECIAL
			FORM		PAST FORM
Person	One	More than one
1,2	Come	Come	Came	Coming	Come
1,2	Get	Get	Got	Getting	Got
1,2	Give	Give	Gave	Giving	Given
1,2	Go *	Go	Went	Going	Gone
1,2	Keep	Keep	Kept	Keeping	Kept
1,2	Let	Let	Let	Letting	Let
1,2	Make	Make	Made	Making	Made
1,2	Put	Put	Put	Putting	Put
1,2	Seem	Seem	Seemed	Seeming	Seemed
1,2	Take	Take	Took	Taking	Taken
1. I	Am		Was	Being	Been
2. We	Are	Are	Were	Being	Been
3. He	Is	Are	Was	Being	Been
1,2	Do *	Do	Did	Doing	Done
1,2	Have **	Have	Had	Having	Had
1,2	Say	Say	Said	Saying	Said
1,2	See	See	Saw	Seeing	Seen
1,2	Send	Send	Sent	Sending	Sent

he, she, it

Have

has

3. THE OPERATORS

will

Future: Will		Past: Would
Future: May.		Past: Might

Simple Present \_	See tabulated forms (p-36).
Simple Past /
Infinitive ^1.	Unconjugated form with to in front of it.
Simple Future ^2.	Unconjugated form with *will.*
Present Perfect	Past participle with present of *have.*
Conditional	Unconjugated form with past of *will*, used as conditional.

^1.

e.g., To do this is right

Being is greater than doing.

e.g., I came to see you.

^2.

Possibility

may

I may do it.

Necessity

have

I have to do it.

Passive

It is done.

Impersonal

makes me sad to see you crying.

4 . THE PREPOSITION (DIRECTIVE)

5 . THE ADVERB (MODIFIER)

e.g.

There is a hole here instead

far, farther, farthest; little, less, least; much, more, most; near, nearer, nearest; well, better, best; in, inner; out, outer.

6 . THE PRONOUN

NUMBER	SEX	FORM FOR	FORM FOR THING	FORM FOR OWNER
		DOER of Act	to Which Act
			is Done
One	All	This	This
More	Al	These	These
One	All	That	That
More	All	Those	Those
All	M & F	Who	Whom	Whose
	N	Which	Which
All	N	What	What
One	All	I	Me	My
More	All	We	Us	Our
One	M	He	Him	His
	F	She	Her	Her
	N	I	It	Its
More	All	They	Them	Their
All	All	You	You	Your

One

this is my

this is mine

yours, ours, theirs, his, hers

7 . THE CONJUNCTION

after, before, till.

that, who

which, what

how, when, where, why

8 . COMPARISON.

than

e.g. The sun is more bright than the moon.

The moon is less bright than the sun.

e.g. A women is as old as she seems.

9 . WORD-ORDER.

Model Sentences:

(1) I will give simple rules to the boy slowly.

(2) The camera man who made an attempt to take a moving picture of the society women, before they got their hats off, did not get off the ship till he was questioned by the police.

Clauses

Nouns

Pronouns

Adjectives:

get table ready, keep door shut, make hole wide

the

Operators

Tenses

May }_	*have been done*
Will }

Prepositions

Adverbs

Adverbs expressing degree (almost, any, little, much, no, only, quite, so, very

Prepositional adverbs

e.g. The ship is far from land. Humor is out of place in a book on language.

Conjunctive adverbs

The adverb of negation

Ever

Conjunctions

Questions

Is this soft

Who (which, what )

What is this, and how did it get here?

10. INTERNATIONAL TERMS, MEASUREMENT, ETC.

i.e.

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