point home. Dutton devotes six paragraphs to hammer home the difference between the English gerund (verbal noun) and the present participle. He is adamant that forms prefixed with u- may be used only as a present participle. In Speedwords the gerund must be expressed by the same form as the infinitive, i.e. the unmarked verb, e.g. g amt spe "they like speaking", gi ko & go "their coming and going" Furthermore the continuous tenses are formed with "to be" and the unmarked verb, e.g. s e ri "he is writing"; w y ri "we were writing". the perfect tenses are formed with the auxiliary h and the unmarked verb, e.g. s h ri "he has written; g hy spe "they had spoken". Noun affixes The plural, where necessary, is shown by the suffix -z, e.g. femz "women". Dutton is emphatic that if it is clear from context that the noun must be plural, the ending -z is not used, e.g. ud fem "many women"; cz on In the pre-1951 version of Speedwords, the possessive of nouns is , and written with an apostrophe, e.g. l fem' ryg "the woman's house"; but in 1951, Dutton introduced a new root word zy meaning "disease". It is very unlikely that Dutton would have retained the apostrophe with the same sound. But we do not know what he subsequently did. Adjective/ Adverb affixesme- comparative, more, -er (< me greater, increase, more), e.g. mebel "more beautiful(ly)"my- superlative, most, -est (< my most), e.g. mybel "most beautiful(ly)" Word Formative Suffixes-a unfavourable-b possibility, -ible, -able (< ib possible)-c collection (< co collect, collection)-e augmentative-f causative (after a vowel) (< fy cause, make, reason, render)-g (an idea having a general relationship to the root) (< ig general)-i association (after a consonant), possessive on pronouns-k quality, -ic (< ik property, quality)-l (an idea having a special relationship to the root) (< il particular, special, especial)-m thing (< om article, object, thing)-n negative, -less, in-, un- (< un negative)-o contrary, opposite (after a consonant)-p place (< ep location, place, position, put, set)-r person, agent, -er (< er person)-s (an idea having a complementary relationship to the root) (< is complement)-t diminutive, -ette (< et little, small)-u favorable-v association (after a vowel)-x contrary, opposite (after a vowel)-y causative (after a consonant) (< fy cause, make, reason, render)-z plural, -s-st professional, -ist (< ist professional) In "Dutton World Speedwords" we are given