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THE

PRACTICAL FRENCH TEACHER;

OR,

A NEW METHOD

OF

LEARNING TO READ, WRITE, AND SPEAK

THE

FRENCH LANGUAGE

BY NORMAN PINNEY, A. M.

NEW YORK:

PUBLISHED BY HUNTINGTON & SAVAGE.
HARTFORD:-H. E. ROBINS & CO.

CINCINNATI:-H. W. DERBY & COMPANY,

1849

1

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ENTERED according to Act of Congress, in the year 1846, by

ROBINS & SMITH,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Connecticut.

STEREOTYPED BY

RICHARD H. HOBBS,

HARTFORD, CONN.

PREFACE.

THE superiority of the method on which the following work is founded, is now so generally understood and acknowledged, that little need be said in its favor. While the older French grammars, like those generally used in teaching the dead languages, are useful only for imparting a theoretic knowledge of principles, and assisting one to read the language, this method, it is now well known, gives also the ability to write and speak it, an attainment which is far more difficult, but without which no living language can properly be said to be acquired. The improvements which have been made in this work since its first publication are considerable. Besides the correction of typographical errors, the change of particular words and phrases, and other slight alterations, a body of rules has been added, extending from page 339 to page 357 inclusive, and about thirty pages, which the experience of the author and other teachers suggested as the most susceptible of improvement, have been rewritten. By these changes, the author confidently believes that he has added materially to the value of the work, and rendered it more worthy of the favor which it has heretofore received.

Some of the principal advantages, which the present work is thought to offer over others on this method, are the following: An improved arrangement, fuller instruction and exercise on the subjunctive mood, on those tenses of the verb which present many irregularities as the first future, the present subjunctive, and the simple perfect, fuller explanations and exercises on the past tenses, on the use of the auxiliaries avoir and être, on the reflective verbs, and a greater fullness of rules and explanations generally. I would add, that this work is designed to teach the theory, as well as the practice of the language, and trust that those teachers who rely on it for this purpose, will find it inferior in this respect to no manual now in common use.

I take this opportunity to express my obligations to Mr. Julius Delchamps, of Mobile, for his diligent co-operation in the present work, also to Mr. M. F. J. Sobieski, of New Haven, for many valuable suggestions, and important aid.

NORMAN PINNEY.

N. B. In the use of the method, while considerable variety may be admissible with different teachers, the following particulars are earnestly recommended to all.

I. Let the vocabularies be so far committed to memory, that the learner can give readily, the French of all the English words, and phrases.

II. Let the English exercises be spoken aloud by the learner in French. III. Let there be as much practice as circumstances allow in asking and answering, the questions in French, on the lessons which have . been learnt and recited. For this exercise the key will be found useful to the teacher; and, by means of it, the learners also can often exercise each other to advantage.

The exercises marked in parenthesis are those which can best be omitted, when circumstances render some omission allowable. They commence on page 84.

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