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Theme 48.

The Article before Common Nouns, I and 2. 1. We shall go to the country next month. 2. Last week I received a letter from my brother. 3. Spring is a beautiful season. 4. I like autumn better. 5. Prudence is as necessary to a (the) general* as courage. 6. Have you green velvet like this? 7. We have no velvet of that quality. 8. We have beautiful velvet, green, black and blue. 9. Many young people spend their time in (à) loitering in the streets. 10. Most men are dissatisfied with their lot. 11. This white cloth (étoffe) costs fifty cents a meter. 12. We pay for (le)* coffee forty cents a pound. 13. He has lost one-half of his books. 14. Give me your hand, and let us be friends. 15. My cousin Alice has blue eyes and brown hair. 16. You have hurt my foot? 17. I have a pain in my arm.

The Article before Proper Names, 3. 18. I do not like the climate of England. 19. Germany is now united and very powerful. 20. The emperor of Germany is the oldest monarch of Europe. 21. I was in Germany when the war began between Germany and France. 22. Do you speak French? 23. I will study it next winter. 24. I will begin in autumn. 25. We intend to go to Europe in the spring.

FORTY-NINTH LESSON.

THE ADJECTIVE.-AGREEMENT.

1. An adjective qualifying two nouns in the singular, is put in the plural; if the nouns are of different genders the adjective is put in the masculine plural.

L'homme et la femme sont âgés. The man and the woman are old.

An adjective following two nouns connected by ou, agrees with the last.

Un homme ou une femme âgée.

* General sense.

An old man or an old woman.

+ Parlez vous français? After the verb parler the article is usually omitted before français, French, anglais, English, and other national names denoting languages

The adjectives demi, half, and nu, bare, are invariable when they precede the noun, and agree with the noun when they follow it; demi in gender only; une demi-heure, half an hour; deux heures et demie, two hours and a half; nu-pieds, or les pieds nus, barefooted.

The adjective feu, late, deceased, placed immediately before the noun, agrees with it; when separated from it by the article or a possessive adjective, it is invariable; la feue reine, the late queen; feu la reine, the deceased queen.

2.

ADJECTIVES USED AS NOUNS.

An adjective may be used as a noun to designate an individual, a class, or an abstract quality.

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Adjectives, as a rule, are placed after the noun, but the following

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Adjectives derived from proper names, those that denote color, form or shape, those that express physical or mental qualities, and past participles used as adjectives, always follow the noun.

La langue française.

Une table ronde.

Du drap noir.

Un homme aveugle.

Des plats cassés.

The French language.

A round table.

Black cloth.

A blind man.
Broken dishes.

Some adjectives have a different meaning, according as they precede or follow the noun. The following are a few of them :

Un brave homme, a worthy man.
Mon cher ami, my dear friend.
Un grand homme, a great man.
La dernière année, the last year
(of a series).

4.

Un homme brave, a brave man.
Une robe chère, a costly dress.
Un homme grand, a tall man.
L'année dernière, last year (the
preceding year).

GOVERNMENT.

Adjectives may be followed by a preposition and a noun, or a verb in the infinitive.

Adjectives that express our feelings, and those generally that are followed in English by of, from, with, require the preposition de before the noun or infinitive.

Je suis content de ce travail.

Je suis heureux de vous voir.

I am satisfied with this work.

I am happy to see you.

Adjectives that express advantage, likeness, fitness, or the opposite qualities, require the preposition à.

C'est utile à savoir.

C'est une chose difficile à faire.

That is useful to know.

That is a difficult thing to do.

Adjectives joined in construction with the impersonal verb il est, require, however, de before the infinitive.

Il est utile de savoir cela.

5.

It is useful to know that.

NUMERAL ADJECTIVES.

The numeral adjective un is used for the English indefinite article a or an; but the indefinite article is used, in English, in cases in which its equivalent is not used in French.

The numeral un is not used before nouns placed in apposition with, or explanatory of, preceding nouns.

Athalie, tragédie de Racine.

Il est français.

Son père était notaire.

Athaly, a tragedy of Racine.
He is a Frenchman.

His father was a notary.

REM. The numeral un is, however, used before the explanatory noun, when it is qualified or restricted by other words, as: Son père était un riche négociant. His father was a rich merchant.

The cardinal numbers are used for the ordinal after the names of sovereigns, and also to state the day of the month, and the chapter or page of a book, except for the first.

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1. Le père et la mère de ces enfants sont morts. 2. Le petit et så sœur sortent ensemble. 3. Hier ils sont venus demander du pain; ils étaient nu-pieds. 4. Vous me donnez une demi-livre de café, et je vous en ai demandé une livre et demie. 5. La malade n'a pas quitté le lit aujourd'hui. 6. L'avare meurt de faim au milieu de l'abondance. 7. La langue française et la langue anglaise sont utiles à celui qui va voyager en Europe. 8. J'ai étudié l'allemand, mais je ne le parle pas. 9. J'aime mieux une table ronde qu'une table carrée. 10. Coupez-moi, s'il vous plaît, un mètre et demi de ce drap noir. 11. Je suis content de mon sort; l'êtes-vous du vôtre? 12. Nous sommes fatigués

d'entendre parler de cela. 13. Il est inutile de me le dire. 14. Mon bottier est français. 15. Son frère est boulanger. 16. Notre boucher est anglais et mon tailleur est allemand. 17. Henri quatre, roi de France, était le père du peuple. 18. Vous trouverez cela dans votre histoire, livre premier, chapitre deux, page soixante.

Theme 49.

1. That gentleman and lady are our neighbors. 2. The children of the poor often go barefooted in the midst of winter. 3. Lend me half a sheet of letter paper. 4. I have studied this lesson for (pendant) an hour and a half. 5. The patient is (va) better; he has gone out. 6. The rich and the poor are alike before God. 7. The French language is more difficult than the German. 8. I like French better than German. 9. Here is a round table and a square table, which one do you wish? 10. That general is a great man, and his son is a tall man. 11. Our teacher is a worthy man. 12. The brave man does his duty, and fears none but (que) God. 13. My shoemaker is a Frenchman. 14. That German is a baker. 15. I am glad to see you. 16. You are very kind to have thought of me. 17. These words are difficult to pronounce. 18. It is difficult to satisfy everybody. 19. It is impossible to do it.

FIFTIETH LESSON.

THE PRONOUN.

See Lesson Eleventh to Lesson Nineteenth. We here add only what is necessary to complete the subject.)

A pronoun stands in the place of a noun. But the pronouns ce, ceci, cela, en, y, and the invariable pronoun le, may stand in the place of a sentence.

Je sais ce qui le désole.
Savez-vous ce qu'il a dit?
Cela est vrai.

Tout le monde en parle.
Je le sais.

I know what grieves him.
Do you know what he said?
That is true.

Everybody speaks of it.
I know it.

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