A greater intellectual advance, however, is manifested at this time in the first intentional use of language in order to bring on a game of hide-and-seek. A key falls to the floor. The child picks it up quickly, holds it behind him, and to my question, "Where is the key?" answers _nicht mehr da_ (no longer there). As I found in the following months no falsehood, in the proper sense of the word, to record, but rather that the least error, the most trivial exaggeration, was corrected at once by the child himself, with peculiarly _naive_ seriousness, in a little story, with pauses between the separate words, so, too, in the present case the answer _nicht mehr da_ is no falsehood, but is to be understood as meaning that the key is no longer to be seen. The expression of the face was roguish at the time. The sole interrogative word continues still to be "Where?" e. g., _Where is ball?_ The demonstratives _da_ (there) and _dort_ (yonder) (_dort ist nass_--wet) were more frequently spoken correctly in answer. The "I" in place of his own name does not yet appear, because this word does not occur frequently enough in conversation with the child. The bad custom adults have of designating themselves in their talk with little children, not as in ordinary conversation by the word "I," but by the proper name, or as "aunt," "grandma," etc., postpones the time of saying "I" on the part of children. _Me_ is pretty often used at this period, for the reason that it is frequently heard at meal-times in "Give me!" _Bitte, liebe Mama, gib mir mehr Suppe_ (Please, dear mamma, give me more soup) is, to be sure, learned by heart; but such sentences are at the proper time and in the proper place modified and even independently applied. _Noch mehr_, _immer noch mehr_, _vielleicht_, _fast_ (more, more yet, perhaps, almost), are also expressions often properly employed, the last two, however, with uncertainty still. _Fast gefallen_ (almost fell) the child says when he has actually fallen down. Although declension and conjugation are as yet absolutely lacking, a transition has become established from the worst form of dysgrammatism to the beginning of correct diction by means of the more frequent use of the plural in nouns (_Rad_, _Raeder_), the more frequent employment of the article (_foer d[)e] Papa_), the not very rare strong inflection (_gegangen_ instead of the earlier _gegeht_; _genommen_ instead of the earlier _genehmt_). To be sure, the infinitive still stands in the place of the participle and the imperative in by far the great majority of cases. The auxiliaries are often omitted or employed in strange misformations, e. g., "Where have you been?" Answer, _paziren gewarent_ [something like _they wented 'alk_] (wir waren spazieren, spazieren gewesen).