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speak of what has happened to him.-My house is (like parlons

est arrivé

comme

others); it has its beauties (as well as) its inconveniences.les autres; a beauté, f. ainsi que

incommodité, f.

She who (was speaking) to you is not yet married.-Her

parlait

encore marié.

father, mother, brothers, sisters, uncles, and aunts, in short,

oncle,

tante, f.

enfin, all her relations, are dead, and have left her a consiont laissé lui considerable fortune.-Those gentlemen have fine horses; but dérable2

parent, m. p.

1

mort,

beau cheval, m.

mine are finer than theirs.-Do you know

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any of those

connaissez

connais

Though they are young and handsome, they have (a great

elles

ont beau

deal) of modesty and virtue. Yes, niece; but they are both

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(How many) books (are there) in that library?—(There Combien de livres y a-t-il dans bibliothèque? Il y en are) three thousand seven hundred and twenty-five in the

a

library; sixty-two upon the table; and nineteen in my

room.-Whose house is this?—(There is) I know not what Il y a je ne sais

in that colour which pleases me much.-To what (does he couleur, f. plait s'ap

dans

apply himself)?—This apple, and that which he gave you, plique-t-il

are very good.-Give me (either of them).

donna

Donnez

l'une ou l'autre.

Turn, to whom is this house?

I (will send) you some thither.—I cannot

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ne puis

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beauty of the mind

Some love one thing, some another.

aiment

-She says that she hates that man; many think she loves

dit

hait

aime

him. He whom nobody pleases is more unhappy than he

à

plait

malheureux

near your sister when that J'étais auprès de

quand

who pleases nobody.-I was à happened to her.-Both his father and mother died on est arrivé

6

the same day.-Covetous as he is, he

Avare

moururent

gave me a guinea.

a donné

-(There are) many people whom we esteem, because we Il y a bien (p. 124) gens

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Learning is preferable to fortune, and virtue to both.Science, f. Some philosophers have thought that the fixed stars are philosophe, m. ont pensé

fixe

étoile1, f. son (so many) suns.-See with what care, attention, and perseautant de soleil. Voyez

verance, every animal (rears up) its (young ones).— tous les animaux élèvent leurs petit. (Here are) two grammars; which do you prefer? I prefer

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this to that. Both are very good.-He (believes nothing)

ne croit rien

of what you told him.-You blame him who does not avez dit

deserve it. mérite.

blâmez

The conjunction that is often understood in English, but its equivalent in French, que, is always expressed, and even repeated, before each verb.

F

CHAPTER V.

OF VERBS.

THE verb is a word signifying affirmation; that is to say, it serves to express what we do or feel.

Je suis heureux;

;

Je punis les méchans
Il est puni par son père ;

I am happy.

I punish the wicked.

he is punished by his father.

In the first example, I affirm that my state is that of happiness; in the second, the pronoun I, which is the subject, or nominative, of the verb punish, does the action, the end of which is directed on the wicked, called, for that reason, the object or accusative of the verb; and in the third, he, which is the subject of is punished, suffers the effect or impression of the action done by the father.

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An active or transitive verb expresses an action passing on, from the subject or nominative, to the object or accusative. A verb is known to be active, when you can put the name of a person or of a thing after it, without a preposition. To eat is active, because you can say, to eat an apple, to eat meat; to see is also active, because we say, to see a man, a person, &c.; but to think, to sleep, are not active, because, after to think, we must put the preposition of; to think of a person, of a thing; and because, after to sleep, we cannot put a noun substantive, to sleep a man, a thing.

The passive verb is that which expresses an action, received or suffered by the subject of the verb, and done by

another; it may always be followed by the preposition de or par, by.

Ex.

Les écoliers paresseux seront pu-
nis par leurs maîtres ;
Les gens vertueux sont estimés
de tout le monde ;

idle scholars will be punished
by their masters.
virtuous people are esteemed
by every body.

The neuter verbs are of various sorts. They express an action which is not transitive, as, to sleep, to die, to linger;

or they require a preposition between them I think of my father, we depend UPON you.

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and the noun,

Ex.

you injure my character *.

The reflective verb expresses an action that returns to, or is reflected upon, him who does it. It is conjugated with two pronouns. Ex.

Elle se loue;

Je me trompe;

Nous nous dépêchons;

she praises herself.

I am mistaken.
we make haste.

See, page 170, fuller explanations on the reflective verb. The impersonal verbs are used in the third person singular only. The pronoun il, which governs them, or is their subject, can never take the place of any noun.

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Ex.

CONJUGATION OF VERBS.

To conjugate verbs is to go through their different inflections or terminations, according to their moods, tenses, persons, and numbers.

Some verbs are active in English and neuter in French, and vice versa. This is one of the greatest difficulties learners have to encounter in studying French. See SUPPLEMENT.

These verbs have also frequently a meaning of reciprocity, as, ils se détestent, they hate each other.

Some verbs are regular, some are irregular, and some are defective.

A verb is regular, when it follows, in all its tenses and moods, all the terminations or forms which belong to one of the four conjugations*.

It is irregular when, in some of the tenses, it takes terminations or forms different from those which belong to the regular conjugations.

A verb is defective when it has not all the regular tenses, or when some of its tenses have not the usual number of persons.

There are auxiliary verbs, of which the principal are avoir, to have, and être, to be. They serve to form those compound tenses, by means of which we are able to express more precisely the time at which the action took place. Devoir, aller, venir, pouvoir, may also be considered as auxiliary verbst.

MOODS.

Mood or mode, in the sense in which it is used here, is a grammatical term, which means the manner of affirming or denoting, by different inflections.

There are, in the French language, four moods, absolutely distinct from each other by their inflections, and other differences. These moods are denominated as fol

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This mood is the root of the verb, and expresses the name of the action in an indefinite and indeterminate manner, without affirmation, and without any relation as to time, number, or person. Ex.

* See pages 136, 144, 149, 156, of the SUPPLEMENT.
+ See pages 116 and 120. See also the SUPPLEMENT.

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