Secondly, verbs are divided into active, passive, neuter, and reflected. The active verb marks the action of its subject, or nominative case; and makes good sense with the accusative of its object, or the thing on which it acts; as, je mange du pain, I eat bread; tu bois de la bierre, thou drinkest beer; il chante une chanson, he sings a song. The passive verb marks the passion or suffering of its subject je suis aimé, I am loved; tu es puni, thou art punished; il est banni, he is banished. A neuter verb is a word denoting the action of its subject or nominative, which remains in the subject, and does not with propriety admit an accusative after it: as, Je dors, I sleep; il court, he runs. The reflected verbs receive their name from reflecting the action of a subject or nominative on itself; as, je me brule, I burn myself; il s'aime, he loves himself. There are also two auxiliary or helping verbs, être, to be; avoir, to have; these are called auxiliary, from their helping in the conjugation of other verbs. Four things are to be distinguished in verbs; the mood, the tense, the number, and the person. The mood expresses the different manner and use made of a verb positively, conditionally, or in an unspecified manner. There are four moods, infinitive, indicative, subjunctive, and imperative. The infinitive is the root of the verb; it expresses the action or passion in an indefinite sense, without any particular circumstance of time, number, or person. The indicative expresses the action or passion in a direct or positive manner, in a time present, past, or future. We shall have a more precise idea of the indicative in comparing it with the subjunctive mood. The subjunctive is a manner of expressing the action or passion with a modified affirmation or negation, always supposing another verb, which it follows, or it belongs to, or some conjunction by which it is governed.* *The differences between the indicative and the subjunctive are chiefly: 1. The tenses of the subjunctive affirm or deny indirectly, always supposing another verb affirming or denying directly; as in this phrase: I will have you do your duty, Je veux que vous fassiez votre devoir. Je veux is a direct affirmation, and independent of any other; whereas, que vous fassiez votre The imperative expresses the action or passion by commands, prohibitions, desires, &c. The future tense has sometimes the signification of the imperative mood, when it commands or forbids; as, thou shalt love the Lord thy God, tu aimeras le Seigneur ton Dieu. The tenses express the period of time in which an action or passion is, was, or shall be. They are properly three, the present, the past, and the future. Each tense has two numbers, singular and plural; and each number has three persons. VI. A PARTICIPLE partakes something of the nature of a verb, and something of an adjective. Besides the quality or attribute, which is the property of the adjective, the participle expresses time, together with the consideration of acting, or being acted upon, from whence the participle present or active, and the participle past or passive; as, Les hommes craignant Dieu; Dieu craint par les hommes. The Latins have also formed a participle future. If the definition of the verb is right which is to signify affirmation, the participles must be the root of the common Ellyptical verbs, since the parti ciple can be united only with the verb substantive to be, Etre; which verb substantive is reckoned by the best Grammarians to be the only verb, the sole verb. VII. An ADVERB marks the difference and circumstance of an action or passion. VIII. A PREPOSITION is a word placed before those nouns and pronouns which it governs, or before some verbs, in order to connect words one with another, and to show the relation between them. IX. A CONJUNCTION serves to connect one word with another, and sentences with sentences. X. An INTERJECTION expresses the motions or passions of the soul, as joy, grief, admiration, &c. The last four parts of speech are undeclinable. devoir is but an indirect affirmation, and depending on the first. 2. The tenses of the subjunctive are so depending on the words or conjunctions that are before them, that they cannot be separated from them without having an undetermined sense, nor, consequently, a simple affirmation. So from the foregoing example you take away je veux que, what follows, vous fassiez votre devoir, has no determined sense, and could not be put in the beginning of the phrase; whereas, the tenses of the indicative may be separated, and make by themselves, without the help of the conjunction, a clear and determined sense; as, I believe we shall have some rain, je crois que nous aurons de la pluie; take away je crois que, what follows, nous aurons de la pluie, has a determined sense, understood without any other word. CHAPTER II. Of Genders. To give rules for knowing the Gender of Substantives would be needless and puzzling: "They are so many," says Boyer, "so intricate, and liable to so many exceptions, that the best and easiest way is to learn them in his royal Dictionary." And, indeed, rules would be of no advantage to the learner. However, as some substantives are of the masculine gender in one sense, and of the feminine in another, it will not be amiss to give a list of those. MASCULINE. un aigle, an eagle. FEMININE. les aigles Romaines, the Roman eagles. un aire, a nest of birds of une aire, a threshing floor. une aune, an ell. une cornette, a woman's cor onet. une couple, a pair (two des délices, delights. une enseigne, a post sign. MASCULINE. FEMININE. uu garde, one of the guards. une garde, a guard; also a le greffe, the rolls. un livre, a book. sick person's nurse. une greffe, a slip of a tree. une livre, a pound. le gueule, the gules (in he- la gueule, the mouth of a dog, raldry.) un hale, dry weather. un quatrième, the fourth part of something. un lis, a lily. un loutre, a sort of hat. un manœuvre, a labourer. un manche, a handle. un mémoire, a bill, a memorandum. cat, lion, &c. une halle, a market hall. une quatrième, a sequence of four cards at piquet. la Lis, a river in Flanders. une loutre, an otter. la manœuvre, the tackling of a ship, and the working of it. une manche, a sleeve. la mémoire, memory. un mestre de camp, a colonel le mestre de camp, the first of horse. company of a regiment of horse. un mode, a mood, (philoso- une mode, a fashion. phical term.) un moule, a mould. un mousse, a cabin boy. un navire, a ship. un office, an office for busi ness. le grand œuvre, the philosopher's stone. un page, a young page. un palme, a hand's breadth. un parallèle, a comparison. un pendule, a pendulum. un période, a period, (a course of time.) personne, noboby, any body. un pique, a spade (at cards.) un pivoine, a gnat-snapper. une moule, a muscle. de la mousse, moss. la navire, the ship (a term of heraldry.) une office, a buttery. une œuvre de piété, a work of piety. une page, a page of a book. une palme, a branch of a palm-tree. une parallèle, a parallel line. une pendule, a pendulum clock. une période, a period (in discourse.) une personne, a person. MASCULINE. un poêle, a stove, a pell. un plane, a plane-tree. un poste, a post, an employ ment. le pourpre, the purples. d'un beau pourpre, of a fine purple colour. le réclame, the sign to call back a hawk. un satyre, a satyr, a heathen demi-god.' un somme, a sleep, a nap. un souris, a smile. un temple, a church. un triomphe, a triumph. un trompette, a trumpeter. un tour, a turn, a trick. un teneur de livres, a bookkeeper. a un vase, a jar, a vessel, a vase. un vigogne, a hat made of sort of Spanish wool. un voile, a veil. FEMININE. une poêle, a frying-pan. une plane, a plane. la poste, post, the post-office. la pourpre, the purple mark of regality, &c. de la pourpre Tyrienne : Tyrian purple. la réclame, the catch word. une satire, a satire (in poetry.) une somme, a sum. une souris, a mouse. la temple, the temple. une triomphe,trump at cards. une trompette, a trumpet. une tour, a tower. la teneur d'un acte, the tenor or contents of a writing. la vase, the bottom of the sea. de la vigogne, a sort of Spanish wool. une voile, a sail. Rather FEMININE. Rather MASculine. amour, love. amours, cupids. bronze, cast copper. absinthe, wormwood. amours, passions, intrigues. alcove, alcove. caque, cag or barrel. cloaque, common sewer or épitase, epitasis. According to the French Academy, this word is feminine when we speak of hymns in churches, otherwise it is masculine. |