The grammar of this language may briefly be explained. The noun, as observed, is indeclinable; the particles _te_ or _tié_, mark the genitive, and always follow the noun; _eu_ the dative, which it precedes, and _tung_ or _tsung_ the ablative, before which they are also placed. As for example, Nom. _gai_ love. Gen. _gai-te_ of love. Dat. _eu-gai_ to love. Acc. _gai_ love. Abl. _tung_ or _tsung gai_, from or by love. And the same in the plural. Give me _your_ book, _Keu go_ NE-TE _shoo_. Dear _to_ men, _Quei_ EU _jin_. Come you _with_ him, _Ne-lai_ TUNG _ta_. The adjective is also formed from the genitive of the noun as _pai_, whiteness; _pai-tié_ white; _je_ heat; _je-tié_ hot; _lee_, reason; _lee-tié_, rational; _hau_ goodness; _hau tié_, good. But when the adjective precedes the noun, as it generally does, the particle _tié_ is omitted as, _hau jin_, a good man. _pai-ma_, a white horse. _je-swee_, hot water. The plural of nouns is expressed by prefixing some word signifying plurality, as _to-jin_, many men; _to-to jin_, a multitude of men; _chung jin_, all men; and sometimes by a repetition of the word as _jin-jin_, men. Adjectives are compared by placing the particle _keng_ before the comparative, as _yeou_, soft; _keng yeou_, softer. _hau_, good; _keng hau_, better. My book is _newer_ than yours, _Go-te shoo_ KENG _sin ne-te_. The superlative is marked by various particles, sometimes preceding, and sometimes following, the adjective, and it is also formed by repeating the positive, as _hau, hau tié_, very good. _whang-whang-tié_, very yellow. The personal pronouns are, _ngo_ (nasal) or _go, ne, ta, go-men, ne-men, ta-men._ I, thou, he, we, ye, they. And they become possessives, in the same manner as nouns are changed into adjectives, by the addition of _te_ or _tié_, as _go-te, ne-te, ta-te, go-men-te, ne-men-te, ta-men-te_. mine, thine, his, ours, yours, theirs. The verb has likewise neither conjugation nor inflection; and the tenses, or times of action or passion, are limited to three; the present, the past, and the future. The present is signified simply by the verb, as _go lai_, I come; the past, is expressed by the particle _leo_, as _go lai leo_, I did come, or I have come; and the future is formed by placing the particle _yau_ before the verb, as _go yau lai_, I will come; or, when something very determined is meant to be expressed, the compound _yuen-y_ precedes the verb, as _go yuen-y-lai_, I am determined to come. It may be observed, however, that although these, and other particles signifying the time and mode of action, are necessary in common speech, yet, in fine writing, they are entirely omitted, which is another cause of the obscurity and difficulty that occur to strangers in the study of the Chinese character.