ADJECTIVES OF DIMENSION. Rule 29.-There are different ways of translating adjectives of dimension into French. EXAMPLES: The Vendôme column is two hundred feet high, And without the verb. A column two hundred feet high, La colonne Vendôme a deux cents pieds de haut, or de hauteur. La colonne Vendôme EST haute de deux cents pieds. Une colonne de deux cents pieds de haut, or de hauteur. Une colonne haute de ceux cents pieds. OBSERVE. When there are two or more dimensions mentioned, the conjunction and is expressed by sur, and de is not repeated, as un appartement de cinquante pieds de longueur SUR trente de largeur. EXERCISE ON THE ADJECTIVES OF DIMENSION. The walls of Algiers are sixteen feet thick, and thirty high. The ditch was thirty-five feet long, and three paces broad. This street is about one mile long, and eighty feet wide. That well is two hundred and fifty feet deep by twenty in circumference. The smallest man in that regiment is six feet high. The famous mine of Potosi in Peru, is more than fifteen hundred feet deep. The old London2 Bridgel was nine hundred feet long, forty-three high, and seventythree wide. The monument of London is a round2 pillar of the dorîc2 order1, two hundred feet high; it stands on a pedestal twenty feet high. fondeur. circonférence, f. * The preposition in, preceding a word of dimension, is usually expressed by de, and not by en or dans. OF THE COMPARISON OF ADJECTIVES. To the explanation already given in the first part of this grammar, on the degrees of comparison in adjectives, we will now add a few rules, to point out the difference of construction between the English and the French Languages, in some modes of expression. Rule 30.-By, expressed by de. The preposition by used after a comparative to denote how much a thing exceeds or is less than another, is expressed by de. EXAMPLE: He is taller than his brother by the whole head, Rule 31.—Than expressed by que de; que ne, and de. Than used as a correlative and coming before an infinitive, is expressed by que de. EXAMPLE: It is more noble to pardon than to revenge, Than after a comparative and before any tense of the indicative, is expressed by que ne.* EXAMPLE: He is more industrious than I thought, Than after a comparative, and followed by a numeral adjective, is expressed by de. The ne is left out whenever the first part is either interrogative or negative; and when there is a conjunction between que and the verb. EXAMPLES: Est-il plus heureux QUE vous l'étiez? Il n'est pas plus heureux QUE vous l'étiez, not que vous NE l'étiez. Vous êtes plus heureux QUE quand vous étiez en Afrique, not que quand vous N'étiez en Afrique, EXAMPLE: He has more than ten children, Il a plus DE dix enfants. EXERCISE ON THE TWO PRECEDING RULES. I am stronger than he by much. He is heavier than you by ten pounds. The Condor is a bird of Peru, bigger than the ostrich by much. I am older than your brother by five years. It is greater to overcome one's passions than to conquer whole nations'. He had better study than play. It it is easier to command than to obey. He is older than I thought. I give you more than you deserve. There are persons who write better than they speak, and others who speak better than they write. We flatter ourselves more than we should. I succeeded better than I hoped. You are better than when you were on the continent. Is he better treated than you were? He remained more than ten years in prison. It is said that the celebrated Spanish poet1 Lope de Vega, wrote more than eighteen hundred plays all in verse; and that more than twenty-one millions of lines of his are in print. Rule 32.—In the, expressed by du. After a superlative, in the is expressed in French by du, de la, de l'. EXAMPLE: The greatest nation in the world, la plus grandet nation du monde. * Turn, of his lines. When the adjective used in the superlative does not precede the noun, the article is repeated thus: la nation LA plus belliqueuse DU monde. Rule 33.-The more, the less, expressed by plus, moins. The more and the less, repeated in comparatives of proportion, is expressed in French by plus, moins, without an article. EXAMPLE: The more he earns, the less he spends, Rule 34.-The longer, the shorter, before an adjective, or a substantive. The longer, the shorter, coming before an adjective, or a substantive, are also expressed by plus and moins. EXAMPLE: The longer the day is, the shorter the night,* EXERCISE ON THE THREE PRECEDING RULES. The English2 nation is the most mercantile in the world. His father was the richest merchant in the city. I intend to transcribe all the finest passages in the book. The Duke of Treviso was one of the oldest marshals in the French army. China is the greatest empire in the world. The more I see them, the more I like them. The more he studies French, the more he likes it. The less you study, the less you will improve. The more difficult a thing is, the more honourable. The more attentive you are, the less trouble you will have. The richer he is, the more charitable he becomes. Rule 35.-So much the more, so much the less. So much the more and so much the less, are expressed in French by d'autant plus, d'autant moins. The English may leave out the verb to be, and say: the longer the day, the shorter the night, but it cannot be suppressed in French. EXAMPLES: That action is so much the more laudable, He is so much the less to blame for it as.... Il est D'AUTANT MOINS à blamer que.......... Rule 36.-The more, the less for it. The more or the less for it, is expressed in French by en before the verb, with davantage or plus for the more; and moins for the less. EXAMPLES: He will love her the more for it, EXERCISE ON THE PRECEDING RULES. You will not be the richer for it. I esteem him the more, because* he is poor. I admire him the more for it. You shall not be the less praised for it. I respect him so much the more because he is your father. He goes there the less willingly, because he knows that he is to be punished. I am not the more happy for it. That is so much the less excusable. Do you think him the less guilty? Your action is so much the more laudable. Rule 37.-In addressing relations, the English often omit the possessive adjectives; this omission does not usually take place in French, except before papa, maman. * Because in all such sentenees must be rendered by que. |