An Alphabetical list of many of the French Adjectives,

each agreeing in Gender and Number with a different

Substantive to make them understood.

CHAP. IV.

A List of Adjectives, with the manner of their being placed

before or after their Substantives, and their Significa-

tion in either Case.

CHAP. V.

17

3333

Of the Notes and Points made use of in writing French. 36

CHAP. VI.

Of Accents made use of in writing French.

A vocabulary, French and English.

Familiar and easy Dialogues for young Beginners.

PART II.

CHAP. I.

A SHORT Analysis of the Parts of Speech.

Of Genders.

CHAP. II.

CHAP. III.

Of the formation of the Feminine Gender of Adjectives.

CHAP. IV.

Of the formation of Plural of Nouns.

Conjugation of the Regular Verbs.

Termination of the Primitive Tenses of the regular

Verbs.

Conjugation of the irregular Verbs, alphabetically.

Particular Observations upon some Verbs, chiefly defec-

tive, and their Manner of being conjugated and used,

in alphabetical order.

85

148

SECT. I. Personal Pronouns.

Rules and Observations upon Nouns.

Rules and Observations upon Nouns exemplified for the

Scholar's Practice.

Rules and Observations upon Pronouns.

Personal Pronouns exemplified for the Scholar's

Practice.

164

166

171

171

176

SECT. II. Possessive Pronouns.

181

Possessive Pronouns exemplified for the Scho-

lar's Practice.

183

SECT. III. Demonstrative Pronouns.

Demonstrative Pronouns exemplified for the

Scholar's Practice.

SECT. V. Interrogative Pronouns.

191

193

196

196

199

204

213

214

Interrogative Pronouns exemplified for the

Scholar's Practice.

SECT. VI. Indefinite or Indeterminate Pronouns.

Indeterminate Pronouns exemplified for the

Scholar's Practice.

SECT. VII. The supplying Pronouns, le, en, y.

Supplying Pronouns exemplified for the Scho-

lar's Practice.

CHAP. IV.

Rules and Observations upon the Degrees of Compari-

son.

The Degrees of Comparison exemplified for the Scho-

lar's Practice.

217

221

CHAP. V.

Rules and Observations upon Verbs.

226

SECT. I. The Use of Tenses.

228

The Tenses of Verbs exemplified for the

Scholar's Practice.

SECT. II. The Use of the Subjunctive mood.

The Subjunctive Mood exemplified for the

Scholar's Practice.

SECT. III. The Government of Verbs.

The Government of Verbs exemplified for the

Scholar's Practice.

CHAP. VI.

Rules and Observations upon Impersonal Verbs.

Rules and Observations upon Impersonal Verbs exempli-

SECT. II. The Participle passive or past.

261

Rules and Observations upon Participles, exem-

plified for the Scholar's Practice.

264

CHAP. VIII.

Rules and Observations upon Adverbs.

269

Further Remarks upon the Prepositions à and de.

286

Rules and Observations upon Prepositions exemplified for

the Scholar's Practice.

287

CHAP. X.

Observations upon the conjunctions si and que.

The Conjunction que exemplified for the Scholar's Prac-

297

tice.

299

PART IV.

PRACTICAL Irregularities of the French Tongue al-

phabetically disposed, with the choice of Words and

Phrases, warranted by the most approved Authors, and

especially by the decisions of the FRENCH ACADEMY.

303

OF THE

FRENCH TONGUE.

PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.

IN every congregation of men, certain sounds have been agreed upon to express their wants, their sensations, and their opinions on things seen, felt, heard, or supposed to exist. Every language is either auricular or ocular; that is, that the communication of thought is made to the organ of sense either in writing to the eye, or in speaking to the ear. A person may learn a language ocularly, and auricularly not understand a word, i. e. he may read and write and be understood, and yet speak and not be understood at all. To speak or write accurately a language we must never use two words to express an idea when one will serve the same purpose. In the refinement of language, certain modes of expression have been adopted by each society of people separately, which can only be expressed mentally by another mode among another society. This difference of the mode of expression in the various modes of articulation agreed upon by the diverse sects of society, form what is generally termed the idioms of language; and were it not for these idioms, connected with the various modes of the terminology of inflected words, one general grammar would suffice. Every language is built upon the congregated sounds of the learned of those who speak it, and on that basis rests. To speak and write a language correctly, he who speaks and writes, must divest himself of all foreign idioms: that is, he must speak and write the language as the most fashionable of the natives do. Idiom belongs both to writing and speaking, to the ear and to the eye; but pronunciation belongs to the ear only. It is by this alone that the native can be distinguished from the foreigner; hence to learn the French accurately, we must begin with the pronunciation of the French Alphabet.

T. W.