Dans quel quartier de la ville tenez-vous boutique? I will make you an allowance for that. Les jours que le roi tient conseil. The days on which the king holds council. He has supplied the place of a father to me. Il tient table tous les deux jours, ou de deux jours l'un. He keeps a table every other day. Elle tient table ouverte tous les trois jours, ou de trois jours en trois jours. She keeps open house every third day. C'est un gaillard qui tient tête à tout le monde. He is a fellow who resists every body, or fights with every body. This list of examples might have been extended further; but, as these are thought sufficient for the regulation of the pupil, in the formation of similar sentences, we shall conclude here, with remarking, that, except in such examples, the article, in the purest style, seldom is omitted. LESSON THE THIRD. OF THE NOUN. RULE I. When two nouns in English are joined merely by a preposition or a preposition and article, either of these are generally rendered by de, with the article indicative or definite, or by the preposition and article contracted, according to circumstances of gender and number, or by the preposition de alone.-EXAMPLES: L'étude de la géométrie est fort | The study of geometry is very useful. utile. L'église est bâtie sur le sommet de la colline. La grandeur des vues, et la profondeur des idées, annoncent l'homme de génie. The church is built on the top of the hill. Greatness of views, and depth of ideas, bespeak the man of genius. Observe, that when, in English, two nouns are united by 8, with an apostrophe (thus 's), in French, the first noun is to be placed last, and the preposition de, with the article, or their contraction, between the two nouns.-EXAMPLES: J'ai vu les chevaux du roi, et les | La sœur de la femme de chambre I saw the king's horses, and the queen's apartments. An honest man's first concern is to avoid the reproaches of his conscience, and his second, the world's censure. The queen's favorite's chambermaid's sister is just married. But, if the first noun, in English, be preceded by a demonstrative article or possessive pronoun, or be a proper name, the preposition de must stand alone without the article.-EXAMPLES: Le langage de cet homme est in- | This man's language is unbecomdécent. ing. Did you see my father's library? I have found Julia's fan and gloves. Did you receive miss K.'s note ? RULE II.-When nouns of measure, such as inch, foot, fathom, ell, yard, are followed in English, by adjectives of dimension, such as long, wide, &c. or their abstract nouns, length, width, &c. then the abstract nouns of dimension are used, in French, with the preposition de preceding them, which must also be placed before the numerical article, or adjective of number, specifying the number of times that the noun of measure is understood.-EXAMPLES: J'ai sauté un fossé de vingt pieds | I jumped over a ditch twenty feet de largeur. wide, or in width. C'est une rivière de quinze brasses It is a river fifteen fathoms deep. de profondeur. Il me faut des planches de vingt-I want boards twenty-seven inches sept pouces de longueur et de quatre d'épaisseur. Voilà un clocher de trois cents pieds de hauteur. in length, and four inches in thickness. There is a steeple three hundred feet high. Observe, 1st. If, as in the examples following, the verb to be be used, the preposition de should be omitted before the numerical article, or adjective of number, and to be rendered by avoir.-EXAMPLES: Notre jardin a cent cinquante | Our garden is one hundred and pieds de longueur et quarante- fifty feet long and forty-eight huit de largeur. feet wide. L'église de St. Paul a 500 pieds de longueur en dedans, 100 de largeur à l'entrée; mais 249 d'un portique à l'autre. St. Paul's church is 500 feet long within, 100 feet in front; but 249 from one lateral portico to the other. 2d. That when two dimensions, belonging to the same object, are mentioned, the preposition sur will elegantly fill the place of the conjunction et; thus, we may properly say, Les murs d'Alger ont seize pieds | The walls of Algiers are sixteen dépaisseur sur trente de hau- feet thick, and thirty feet high. teur. M. Though it be more elegant, in French, to use the abstract nouns of dimension than the adjectives, yet the latter may also be used, as you will see, in the following examples: J'ai acheté un tapis long de six | I have bought a carpet six yards verges, et large de deux. long, and two wide. On a bâti une muraille épaisse de A wall twelve feet thick has douze pieds. been built. RULE III. When the title, rank, or degree of kindred, of a perɛon in a high or respectable station, is mentioned, polite custom often requires, that such expressions as monseigneur, monsieur, madame, or mademoiselle, should be expressed before the name of the individual entitled to that distinction.-EXAMPLES: Monseigneur le Prince de Galles | The Prince of Wales is the heirest l'héritier présomptif de la apparent to the crown of England. couronne d'Angleterre. Monsieur le colonel Williams s'est Colonel Williams was married marié hier au soir. J'ai causé au bal avec madame votre tante, et dansé avec mademoiselle sa fille. yesterday evening. I conversed at the ball with your aunt, and danced with her daughter. When we speak to or of our own relations, then, as tenderness should prevail over formality, such expressions as those above are omitted. M. We have now to touch on a very nice point in the French language, relating to the law of accord, or concordance; and, as its observance, together with its exceptions, constitute some of the principal difficulties of the French language, I advise you to give particular attention to the following rules. RULE IV.--The noun imposes its inflections on all its correspondents: on the article, which determines it; on the adjective and participle, which qualify it; on the pronoun, which recalls it to the mind; and on the verb, which announces as existing the object which the noun denominates.-EXAMPLES: Le plaisir, qui ne laisse après soi | Les consolations les plus touchan- That pleasure, which leaves be hind it nothing but remorse, is forbidden to man, because it is criminal. The most endearing consolations are offered to us by religion. Gentle and peaceful souls, who wish only for calm days and agreeable feelings, do not desire high stations. You see that, in the first of the above sentences, the noun plaisir makes the words in italics assume the inflections they are liable to; the articles and adjectives, its gender, which is masculine, and its number, which is singular; and the verb, the third person singular, because that noun is the thing spoken, of. In the second example, the noun consolations being plural feminine, the article and adjectives become so, while the verb is in the third person plural. In the third example, ames being in the second person plural, the verbs voulez and désirez, its correspondents, are also put in the second person plural. If you reflect, that an object could not be denominated under a gender and number, and be announced, qualified, recalled, and presented, as existing by its correspondents, under a different gender and number, without producing an irregularity, which would render vague and doubtful the relations of words with the ideas they are designed to pourtray, you will easily conceive why all the words we have just noticed appear with these inflections; and this more necessarily, as such a character of uniformity can only manifest their dependance upon the hero of the phrase (the noun), for the sake of which they are used. However rational this rule of concordance may appear, it is still liable to many exceptions, which custom, that imperious law-giver of language, and to whom even philosophers must bow, has introduced. Of these, without entering into any superfluous details, I shall inform you; my design being to acquaint you solely with the particulars of French Syntax. REMARK I.-Several nouns subjects, occurring in a sentence, although singular and of different genders, impose on their correspondents the plural number and masculine gender.-EXAMPLES: ' Le mérite et la vertu sont seuls | Virtue and merit alone are calcufaits pour plaire toujours." Le mari et la femme sont toujours malheureux, lorsqu'il ne règne pas entre eux l'union la plus parfaite. Notre valet et notre servante sont paresseux, impertinens, et rai sonneurs. lated to please us always. A husband and wife are always unhappy, when there does not reign between them the most perfect harmony. Our man and our maid arc idle, impertinent, and will retort. But, should the nouns be objects, instead of being subjects, then the correspondent should follow in number and gender those of the last noun.-EXAMPLES: |