Page:A handbook of the Cornish language; Chiefly in its latest stages with some account of its history and literature.djvu/178

THE CONSTRUCTION OF SENTENCES 159 If the auxiliary verb is bos, to be, it often happens that the inflected form of it is used in an affirmative sentence when the tense is the continuous present or imperfect. In these cases the order is : Auxiliary Verb Subject Participle of Main Verb Complement. Thus : , Thov vi ow m6s dho Loundres, I am going to London. Therough why oiv ids adre, you were coming home. But with the preterite tense the simple impersonal form is more usual. Thus : Mi a ve gennes en Kernow, I was born in Cornwall. The same applies to the present and imperfect of bos when it is not an auxiliary. Thus : Thov vi lowen dho 'gas gwelas, I am glad to see you. The inflected form of the verb is rare in simple direct affirmative sentences, except when it is used as a Celtic substitute for " yes." It may be used in verse, but it is rather affected in prose. In negative, interrogative, and dependent sentences it is the only form to use, but even then it is the inflected auxiliaries, parts of gwil, to do, menny, to will, gaily, to be able, etc., with the infinitive of the main verb that are more commonly used, rather than the inflected form of the main verb itself. In the third person singular it is of course only distinguishable from the impersonal form by the position of the subject, which in the inflected form would follow the verb. The inflectional form of the third person plural is only used when the pronoun "they" is the subject. When the subject is a plural noun the verb is always in the singular. The inflected form, either of the auxiliary gwil with the infinitive of the main verb, or of the main verb itself, is always used for the imperative. In late