It is over fifty years now since the formation of the Joint Committee on Grammatical Terminology, and the presentation of its Report and it seems to be high time that teachers of languages considered, first, how successful they have been in carrying out its recommendations, and secondly, what modifications are called for in the light of more recent knowledge. The Committee was a strong one, with E. A. Sonnenschein in the chair and R. S. Conway as the original secretary, both representing the Classical Association; the Modern Language Association, the English Association, and various educational bodies sent equally distinguished representatives. Their recommendations, apart from a few reservations by individuals on comparatively minor points, were unanimous, and have on the whole won fairly general neglect, not as a rule through disagreement with them, but simply because it was less trouble to go on using whatever terms one had been in the habit of using before, however inconvenient, confusing, or inexact they might be. Before discussing the recommendations it seems desirable to glance at the history of the ‘old’ terminology in order to see what was unsatisfactory about it and why it needed to be changed.