ACCENTS. 6. Accents are generally used to modify the sound of the vowels over which they are placed; they sometimes merely serve to distinguish from each other words spelt alike, but of a different signification. 7. There are three accents: the acute (), l'accent aigu; the grave (`), l'accent grave; and the circumflex (^), l'accent circonflexe. 8. The acute is placed over the vowel é to give it an acute or slender sound; as in été, vérité. 9. The grave is placed on è to give it a broad sound; as in père, très, and also on à (to), là (there), où (where), and dès (from), to distinguish these words from a (has), la (the), ou (or), and des (of the). 10. The circumflex is placed over vowels to give them a broad and long sound. It generally denotes the suppression of a letter once used, as in apôtre (from the Latin apostolus), which was formerly written apostre; âge, formerly aage (atas), âme (anima), nous chantâmes (cantavimus). APOSTROPHE. 11. The apostrophe ('), l'apostrophe, denotes the suppression of the vowels a, e, or i at the end of a word, before another word beginning with a vowel or h mute, in order to avoid the hiatus. Ex., l'enfant, l'homme, l'amitié, s'il, j'ai ; for le enfant, le homme, la amitié, si il, je ai. CEDILLA. 12. The cedilla (,), la cédille, is placed under the letter g before a, o, and u, to give it a soft sound. Ex., garçon, reçu, façade, balançoire; which are pronounced garson, resu, fasade, balansoire. DIÆRESIS. 13. The diæresis (...), le tréma, is put over the vowels e, i, u, to separate them in pronunciation from the preceding vowel. Ex., Noël, Saül, Héloïse; which are pronounced No-el, Sa-ul, Hélo-ise. HYPHEN. 14. The hyphen (-), le trait d'union or tiret, is used to connect words together. Ex., arc-boutant, allons-nous-en, dix-huit. UNION OF WORDS. 15. The final consonant of a word is generally pronounced with the initial vowel or silent h of the next, when the two words are connected together by the sense. 16. In this union of words s and x take the sound of z, d of t, g of k, and ƒ of v; as (?) (!) full stop or period. comma. colon. semicolon. point d'interrogation, sign of interrogation. point d'exclamation, sign of exclamation. (...) points de suspension, points of suspension. inverted commas, quotation. RECAPITULATORY EXERCISE ON PRONUNCIATION. 18. VOWELS, ACCENTS, AND SIGNS. ma, ta, sa, papa, ananas, ratifia, rat, chat. le, me, ne, que, heureux, bleu, jeune, beurre. très, succès, fête, têtu, maison, reine. ni, ami, imiter, mystère, gîte, physique. notre, école, rose, le nôtre, pôle, eau, beaume. an, ensuite. ambroisie, d'emblée, empereur. vin, pain, ceinture, faim, Benjamin, Edimbourg, Dublin. mon, bonbon, Londres, allons, Toulon, melon. brun, humble, parfum, lundi, Melun, à-jeun. citoyen (citoi-ien), royal (roi-ial), paysan (pai isan). l'arbre, l'enfant, je t'aime, jusqu'à la fin. garçon, façade, avançons, Français, sans façon. naïf, Saül, baïonnette, Moïse, ciguë. Ver-à-soie, parlez-vous, vis-a-vis, tête-à-tête. A METHOD FOR LEARNING A GREAT NUMBER OF FRENCH WORDS. 19. Most words are alike in both languages when having the following terminations: métal, général, royal, libéral, radical, etc. race, préface, grimace, justice, service, etc. brigade, cavalcade, multitude, prélude, etc. spectacle, oracle, tabernacle, article, etc. distance, chance, éloquence, silence, etc. constant, éléphant, accident, compliment, etc. adorable, visible, noble, Bible, double, etc. âge, collége, refuge, vestige, orange, etc. 20. Many French words differ from the English only in their termination : ty (after a vowel), . ", beauty, beauté. y, other than the preceding, ie, modesty, modestie. 21. Most proper names, of women and goddesses, ending in a, become French by changing a into e, as, Bertha, Berthe; Julia, Julie; Minerva, Minerve. 22. Most of the English verbs ending in ate, fy, ish, ise, yse, use, and ute, become French by changing their termination as follows:: ACCIDENCE. PARTS OF SPEECH. 23. There are in French ten parts of speech, viz.,-the Article, the Substantive, the Adjective, the Pronoun, the Verb, the Participle, the Adverb, the Preposition, the Conjunction, and the Interjection. 24. The first six are variable, and consequently, subject to the rule of agreement with the word to which they relate. The last four are invariable. CHAPTER I. OF THE ARTICLE. 25. The Article is a word placed before substantives to specify the extent of their signification, and to point out their gender, number, and case. 26. There are in French three articles, the Definite, the Indefinite, and the Partitive. DEFINITE ARTICLE. 27. The Definite article in its simple form, le, la, les (the) answers to the nominative and accusative cases; it is used Les, plural of both genders, Les hommes, les femmes, the child. Le père, le lion, the father. the La mère, la rose, the mother. the l'histoire, the 20 |