DANS L'ÉTUDE DE LA LANGUE FRANCAISE OR FIRST STEPS IN LEARNING FRENCH CONSISTING IN A GRADUAL SERIES OF WORDS AND PHRASES, FULLY EXPLAINED, BY H. TARVER Bachelier-ès-Lettres: French Master, Eton College LONDON LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, AND ROBERTS 1860 303. C, 137, PREFACE AND INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE. THE lessons contained in this volume are intended to be a first step towards the acquirement of a knowledge of French. They are to be partly read, partly committed to memory, and partly translated. On the principle of teaching, by example, the lessons will consist in numerous illustrations, properly classed and explained, of the various forms of the language, but especially of certain stumblingblocks which hinder people for years from understanding French, and should be mastered at the outset. In a gradual process towards these difficulties, all the parts of speech have been exemplified in turn, as in a delectus. In course of time, the learner is led on to the more difficult combinations which are to be learnt and understood by him, and duly remembered when occasion requires, either for reading or speaking. The examples to which the construing lessons apply, are all translated individually, and their nature explained generally. With regard to the explanations and remarks, they will be found to be in English when the examples that follow are to illustrate constructions peculiar to the French; in French whenever the observation is a mere grammatical rule that may be ferred to at will, and which, in proceeding through the book, it will suffice to understand by the means of the examples given. re The whole would be better learnt with the help of a master, especially the part that concerns the pronunciation. This part should not be disregarded, because in performing its own peculiar office in the book it is intended at the same time to teach the meaning of a number of words, and thus be made useful in two ways. The lessons in columns should be learnt by heart, and the text in lines, and the reading lessons at the end, construed or translated in writing. The French grammatical rules should be read as soon as the learner is able to make them out. |