PAGE, SEC. 324. Adjectives before or after the 422 423 326. Place of the Subject..... 327. The Verb and its Regimen. 432 328. Repetition of Pers. Pronouns.. 433 329. Peculiarities of Construction... 439 310. Remarks on the Pronoun Ce... 392 311. List of Simple Prepositions. 397 331. Remarks on the Use of the Art. 441 SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS AND STUDENTS. BEFORE entering upon the study of this Grammar, the student should carefully peruse the two introductory chapters, pp. 13–18. The First Chapter, on the letters and orthographic signs, should be read from time to time, particularly the article which treats of the use of the accents. The Second Chapter gives the parts of speech, their definitions and subdivisions, some general principles of grammar, and the terms used in the Lessons. A Lesson consists of five parts: the first part treats of Grammar; the second is a Vocabulary; the third gives Models: the fourth is an Oral Exercise; the fifth, a Theme. The Grammar part, or that portion of it which is in large type, should be attentively studied, so that all the facts relating to it, which occur in the Exercises, may be clearly understood. The portion of the Lesson which is printed in small type, need not at first engage the full attention of the student, but may be left for after-consideration. The Vocabulary is to be committed to memory. The Oral Exercise is to be recited in the class-room, the teacher giving questions to the students in turn, which they answer directly, in French, as: Teacher. Avez-vous le pain? Student. J'ai le pain. The student should previously study the Oral Exercise, and, while doing so, return mentally an answer to each question, so as to be prepared to go through it understandingly, when he comes to the class-room. The Theme is to be written in a book, and to be brought to the classroom for correction. The sentences of the Exercise should be written on the blackboard by the students, several writing at the same time. When the teacher corrects the sentences, the students should examine their own written exercises and make the necessary corrections therein, each student correcting his own exercise. In this manner the process of correcting all the exercises of a large class, need occupy but a few minutes. The Lessons have been framed so as to bring together before the mind subjects intimately connected, with a view to rapidly developing the principles and facts that constitute the chief elements of daily conversation. They contain too much matter for one session; but, as they are divided into sections, the teacher may, at his option, measure off a task suitable to the capacity of his pupils. Any spare time of the period devoted to the lesson, may be profitably employed in reviewing the Oral Exercises of preceding Lessons. Reviewing is of the utmost importance. No one can attain success and thoroughness, without going over the same ground again and again. When the close of a subject has been reached, it will be well to review, before entering upon a new subject, dwelling this time with more stress on the portions of the Lessons that are printed in small type. To render the review-lessons interesting and profitable, new words may be substituted for those with which the student is already familiar. For this purpose numerous additional Vocabularies are given in the Appendix. A portion of these may, at each review, be incorporated into the Oral Exercise. It will be found expedient to review at the close of the following Lessons, viz: the 4th, the 8th, the 12th, the 16th, the 19th, the 23d, the 27th, the 30th, the 34th. When the 34th Lesson has been reached, a general review of the ground gone over will be beneficial, if conducted in the following manner: Begin with the First Lesson, and use new words from the Vocabularies in the Appendix; change the tenses of the verbs in the sentences of the Oral Exercise; use all those tenses of the indicative mode with which the student has been made acquainted. Let the student, in answering the questions, substitute pronouns in the place of nouns. use, as far as practicable, of the irregular verbs. Make The second general review may commence at the close of the 40th Lesson, after which the regular Oral Exercises are discontinued, and Reading-lessons take their place. The Reading-lessons should be translated from Freuch into English, and back again from English into French, and then committed to memory, and be made the subject of conversation between the teacher and his pupils. The Six Lessons are added on the Study of Words for Composition. student should write sentences, incorporating some of these words. He should frequently refer to the dictionary, and make efforts to go beyond the subject indicated in the Lessons, so as to gradually free his mind from the leading-strings of a book. INTRODUCTION. CHAPTER FIRST. LETTERS AND ORTHOGRAPHIC SIGNS. THE French alphabet contains the same letters as the English, with the exception of the w, which is however found in some foreign words that have been adopted into French. The written language has accents, cedilla, diæresis, apostrophe, hyphen, and the ordinary punctuation marks. There are three accents: the acute ('), the grave (`), and the circumflex (^). The cedilla (,) is placed under the c (ç), before a, o, u, to indicate that it has the sound of s; as, ça, çon, çu. The diæresis (") is placed over a vowel which begins a new syllable after another vowel. It is also placed over the e which is added to the final syllable gu of adjectives, to form the feminine; as, aiguë, from aigu. It indicates that the u is sounded; for, after g, ue, final, is otherwise silent. The apostrophe (') indicates the suppression of a vowel, before another vowel, or before silent h; as, l'ami, for le ami; l'homme, for le homme. The hyphen (-) indicates the connection between two or more words or parts of a word; as, ai-je ? arc-en-ciel. VOWELS AND VOWEL-SOUNDS. There are six vowels: a, e, i, o, u, y. But there are thirteen vowel-sounds; nine of which are pure, and four nasal. Of the nine pure vowel-sounds, the letter e furnishes three: 1. The unaccented e, also called the mute or silent e. 2. The acute é. 3. The grave or long è, or ê. |