«-w»*»»^*w**^%^^ 2109 her Jonathan Monthly Library, No. 3. .1168 1843 l T Copy 2 FRENCH WITHOUT A MASTER. In Six Easy Lessons. FIRST AMERICAN, FROM THE FOURTH BRUSSELS EDITION. NaD-Jtork: WILSON AND COMPANY, BROTHER JONATHAN PRESS. This number of the Monthly Library contains Two Sheets. Postage, under 100 miles, three cents ; over 100 miles, five cents, D3° Price 25 cents per copy. COURSE OF LESSONS IN THE PEENCH LANGUAGE, ON THE EOBERTSONIAN METHOD; INTENDED FOR THE USE OF PERSONS STUDYING THE LANGUAGE WITHOUT A TEACHER. A. H. MONTEITH, ESQ., HON. MEMB. OF THE W. L. C. FIRST AMERICAN, FROM THE FOURTH BRUSSELS EDITION. NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY WILSON & COMPANY, 162 NASSAU STREET. SOLD ALSO BY BURGESS AND STRINGER, 222 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. — ZEIBER AND CO., LEDGER BUILDINGS, PHILADELPHIA. REDDING AND CO., STATE ST., BOSTON. WILLIAM TAYLOR, BALTIMORE. — GEORGE JONES, ALBANY. — BRAVO AND MORGAN, MERCHANTS' EXCHANGE, NEW ORLEANS. A. HEAD, CHARLESTON, S. C. M. BOULLE- MET, MOBILE, ALA. — S. A. HOLMES, AUGUSTA, GA. — G. S. TAINTOR, NATCHEZ, MISS. W. N. HALDEMAN, LOUISVILLE, KY. J. B. LOAK, UTICA, N. Y. — JOHN JONES, ROCH- ESTER, N. Y. — L. SMITH, POUGHKEEPSIE, N. Y, — J. ROBERTSON, SYRACUSE, N. Y.— « JOHN GREEN, PROVIDENCE, R. I. — WOODWARD AND*M*THEWS, ST. LOUIS, MO. MDCCCXLIII. 4 PREFACE The object of the present course of lessons is to give persons disposed to study the French language without the aid of a teacher, some directions "for their guidance, and to furnish them with a model whereon their studies may be advantageously prose- cuted. In order the more perfectly to supply the part of a teacher, a comprehensive, and at the same time practical view of pronunciation has been given, together with such elucidations of the sounds peculiarly French as will enable the learner to enunciate them with a sufficient degree of accuracy. The prevalent notion that it is impossible to acquire French without a teacher, ap- pears to have arisen from the lugubrious attempts of grammarians who have under- taken to explain the pronunciation of the language. No human intellect could possi- bly digest, and bring to bear on the words of the language, the pages of unintelligible rules and ill-organized observations they have amassed with this view. In the present course of lessons this prolixity has been carefully avoided ; and while no useless de- tail has been introduced, every essential point is fully explained, and brought prom- inently before the observation of the learner. French words being written in most cases exactly as they should be pronounced, there is nothing to prevent the acquisition of their pronunciation by theory ; and the generality of persons who study the language, by relying upon the ear, that deceives them at every step, and by losing sight of the iheory, neglect the only certain means whereby they can acquire a really good pro- nunciation. A great many otherwise intelligent persons run away with the idea that French may be acquired by going to France ; this is an excessively vulgar notion, and means that the language may be acquired by intuition, or some other magical process. Whether in France or England, persons of mature years will not acquire the language thoroughly without a diligent and assiduous study of its principles ; hundreds of pounds have been expended by Englishmen, both in this country and in France, with a view to acquire French, without having attained the desired object: all the wealth of the Indies, and all the teachers in Christendom, will not suffice for the purpose, where diligence or intelligence is wanting on the part of the learner himself. On the other hand, any Englishman of ordinary capacity, whether in his own country or in France, whether with or without a teacher, if he set his mind earnestly to the subject, may, in the course of twelve or eighteen months, become perfectly conversant with the language. The present short course of lessons, besides containing a full expose of the pronun- ciation, comprises an explanation of the chief difficulties the learner has to encounter, and will enable the diligent student, without the aid of any kind of oral instruction whatever, to see his way clearly into the materiel of the language. & wu THE FRENCH LANGUAGE. LESSON FIRST. READING Trois voyageurs trouverent un tresor dans leur chemin. et dirent, "Nous avons faim, qu'un de nous aille acheter de quoi manger," un d'eux se detacha et alia dans l'intention de leur apporter de quoi faire un rep as. Before the learner can read the above, he must first be taught the pro- nunciation of the words and their meaning. We shall therefore first place under each word such a combination of letters as may convey a notion of its sound to the English student. Afterward we shall exhibit the meaning of each word in a literal translation of the entire passage. This done, the learner will be able to translate into English and to pro- nounce the text of the lesson, if not with absolute accuracy, at least with a sufficiently close approximation. It is not indeed to be expected that the learner should be altogether perfect the first step he makes in a lan- guage. A portion of each lesson will be reserved to point out the true pronunciation of such French sounds as can not be exactly exhibited by a combination of letters. The following is a repetition of our text, with the pronunciation of the words, as also their euphonic connexion one with another, according as the language is read and spoken by a well-educated native of Parts. Trois voyageurs trouverent un tresor dans leur chemin, Trwa wa-ee-a-shair troo-vair-t ^ un* trai-zor dan lair she-mzw, * £or the pronunciation of the combinations an, en, in, on, and wn, marked in italics, -we refer the student to the article Pronunciation, page 12. 4 TRANSLATION. et dirent, " Nous avons faim, qu'un de nous aille acheter de ai deer, Noo-z,^ av-o» fin, kun ^ d noo-z^ah-ye ash-tai w d quoi manger;" un d'eux se detacha et alia dans kwa maw-shay un d^ai w s day-tash-a ai al-la den l'intention de leur apporter de quoi faire un repas. in-ten-see-on^ d lair ap-por-tai > __, d kwa fair un re-pa. In order to read the above as it ought to be, the learner should deal with the verbal pronunciation we have given just as if the combina- tions of letters that represent the French sounds were so many English words. There are no unheard-of sounds in French that require the fea- tures to be distorted in enunciating them. The learner must avoid all straining, all effort, if he desires to speak French correctly. Before leaving this part of the subject we may observe, that a little attention to the pronunciation now will be worth more than a hundred times the amount of labor afterward ; the same words will occur over and over again throughout this and the lessons that are to follow, so that a correct pronunciation at the outset will be of the greatest utility. The sign w we have used, indicates that the words or letters it joins are to be pronounced as one word, and the sign - over the ai signifies that these letters should be pronounced with a more open sound than usual. TRANSLATION. Trois voyageurs trouverent un tresor dans leur chemin, et Three travellers found a treasure in their road, and dirent, " Nous avons faim, qu'un de nous aille said, " We have hunger, that one of us may go (let one of us go) acheter de quoi manger ;" un d'eux se detacha .to buy of what (whereof) to eat;" one of them himself detached et alia dans l'intention de leur apporter de quoi and went in the intention of to them to bring of what (whereof) faire un repas. to make a repast. Aided by the above translation the student may read into good English the text itself. And now that the meaning of the words, as well as their pro- nunciation are understood, the learner should accustom himself to reading the French aloud ; this exercise will familiarize the ear with a correct enunciation of the words, and serve to impress them more firmly on the memory. PHRASES. 5 VOCABULARY. As it is essential to the march of our method that the learner should be perfectly familiar with every French word introduced into a lesson, both as regards its general meaning and precise logical value, we shall range all the words with their various translations in separate columns, so that he may be enabled to test his proficiency in this particular. This may be done advantageously in the following manner : cover over with a card the English column, and translate each French word aloud; verify- ing this translation by removing the card from the translation given of it. After all the French words have been turned into English in this way, cover over the French column of words, and translate in the same man- ner the English words into French. This exercise should be repeated until all the English words can be rendered into French, and the French words into English with perfect facility. Trois . three de of voyageurs travellers aille may go trouverent found acheter to buy un . . ( one quoi what manger to eat tresor . treasure eux them dans in ( himself I themselves ( their ( to them se . . ieur detacha detached chemin . road alia . went et and la the dirent . said intention intention nous avons . C we I us have apporter faire . • to bring ( to make ( to do faim hunger i that repas . repast que I what It will be observed that some of the French words have two significa- tions, as in the case of the word leur, meaning in one case their, and in another, to them ; the reason of this will be explained under the head Construction. PHRASES. Not only must the learner, who desires to profit by our lessons, make himself familiar with each word in a sentence, but he must also observe carefully how words are made up into sentences, and the difference be- De quoi 6 CONVERSATION. tween the French and English manner of constructing phrases. All the points in which the French construction differs from the English must be sedulously noted and stored up in the memory. To assist the learner in doing this, we shall now arrange the sentences of the lesson, with their English equivalents, in opposite columns, so that the student may subject himself to a self-examination in the same manner as in the case of the previous exercise. Trois voyageurs trouverent un tre- Three travellers found a treasure sor Et dirent .... And said Nous avons faim . . . We are hungry ^ , j •„ { Let one of us go Quun de nous aille . . < ^ e ° ^ \ One of us must go Acheter And buy Whereof Wherewithal The wherewith _ Something Manger To eat Un d'eux . . . One of them Se detacha .... Departed Et alia And went Dans l'intention ... In the intention De leur apporter ... Of bringing to them De quoi faire .... Wherewith to make Un repas .... A meal It will be observed, that the phrases as well as the words have occa- sionally two translations in English ; qrfun de nous aille, for instance, is Tendered in English by one of us must go, as well as let one of us go. It -vill be observed, at the same time, that these English expressions are as marly as possible equivalent in meaning. CONVERSATION. One of the original features in the present course of lessons, and cer- tainly not one of the least utility, is that of introducing in the first lesson an exercise in conversation, on the subject-matter of the lesson, and in the words of which it consists. Facility in conversation is the object sought by every student of French ; but it is not to be attained by the usual mode of instruction. In this particular our first lesson will place the learner on a par with the student who has obtained his degrees at the University of Oxford or Cambridge, where the most able masters may be supposed to preside. CONVERSATION. 7 In order to converse in French it will be necessary to become familiar with the following words used in asking questions : — Ou Quand Qui where when who pronounced (i like oo in good. kang. kee. C giving the letters the sound Que what «< ki. < they have in the English ( word kill. lis 11 they he u « eel. eel. Pour for It poor. ( giving the o's the sound they I have in the word good. Le the before words in the singular pronounced like the letter I. Les the before words in the plural pronounced like le in the word let. Oui Non yes no pronounced we. nong. Monsieur sir u mos-y >ai* The pronunciation and meaning of all the other words introduced into the conversation have been already given. If then the previous exercises have been carefully gone over, there can be no difficulty with this. The learner should pronounce each question aloud, and proceed with the answers in the same manner as with the translation of the words and sentences. Que trouverent les trois voyageurs ? Un tresor. Les trois voyageurs trouverent-ils Oui, Monsieur. un tresor ? Ou ? Dans leur chemin. Trouverent-ils de quoi manger ? Non, Monsieur. Que dirent-ils 1 ... lis dirent " nous avons faim.* Quand ? . . . . Quand ils trouverent un tresor. Dirent-ils " nous avons de quoi Non, Monsieur. manger ?" Dirent-ils " nous avons de quoi Non, Monsieur. faire un repas V * We are always disposed to laugh when we hear an Englishman pronounce the word " Monsieur," he generally makes such a mess of it. It seems impossible to teach this sound by the ear: not two, in twenty Englishmen, who have been taught the language by a master, pronounce it correctly, and yet there is no French sound more easily depicted to the eye. "We have heard persons who had been one, two, nay three years under tutelage, pronounce the word as if written moo-soo ; now nothing could be more grating to the ear of a well-educated Frenchman than to hear himself addressed by such a barbarism as moo-soo. The word monsieur is pronounced as if written mos-yai, and the plural messieurs as if written mes-yai; could anything be plainer than this ? 8 CONSTRUCTION. Dirent-ils "qu'un de nous aille acheter de quoi manger ?" Quand dirent-ils "nous avons faim ?" Ou dirent-ils " qu'un de nous aille acheter de quoi manger ?" Qui se detacha ? Se detaeha-t-il ? Quand? ..... Pourquoi se detacha-t-il ? . Ou alla-t-il ? . Alla-t-il dans l'intention d'apporter de quoi faire un repas ? Quand? . Que dirent les trois voyageurs quand ils trouverent un tresor ? Quand les trois voyageurs dirent " nous avons faim," que trou- verent-ils ? Quand les trois voyageurs trouver- ent-ils un tresor 1 Oui, Monsieur. Quand ils trouverent le tresor. Dans leur ehemin. Un d'eux. Oui, Monsieur. Quand les voyageurs dirent " nous avons faim." Pour acheter de quoi manger. II alia leur acheter de quoi fair Un repas. Oui, Monsieur. Quand il se detacha. Qu'un de nous aille acheter de quoi faire un repas. Un tresor. Quand ils dirent "nous avons faim." CONSTRUCTION. We shall now point out such peculiarities in the structure of the pas- sage we have given as may serve to illustrate generally the construction of the language. I. Que trouverent les trois voyageurs ? Quand trouverent-ils le tresor ? Dans ^'intention, for dans la inten- tion What found the three traveller ? When found they the treasure ? In the intention. [t will be observed by these phrases, that the French word equivalent to the English article the has three forms, viz. — le, la, and les. The French article is disposed in the following manner : — le is used before a noun in the masculine gender. la " " feminine gender. les " " plural number of both genders. In English the word the is invariable ; whether it comes before a mas- culine, a feminine, or a plural noun, it is always the same. The English say, for instance, the man, the woman, and the women ; but a different form CONSTRUCTION. 9 of the article would be employed in French under these three circum- stances. We may observe here, that nouns in English are said to be of three genders : the word man is said to be of the masculine gender ; the word woman is said to be of the feminine gender ; and the word treasure is is said to be in the neuter, or no gender : this is a natural division, but somehow or other it does not happen to be a grammatical one. In French there is no such thing as a neuter gender ; all the nouns of the language must either be masculine or feminine ; the word tresor, for instance, is said to be masculine, and the word intention is said to be feminine. As a different form of the article must be used in each of these cases, it be- comes a matter of some moment to know to which of the two genders any particular word may belong, we shall therefore give rules that will enable the learner to distinguish the gender of nouns when they become necessary. In the meantime the gender of the words in the lesson must be judged by the form of the article that exists before them ; thus tresor will be recognised as masculine, since le stands before it. The learner, then, must take care always to render " the treasure" into French, by le tresor : it would be a blunder to write or pronounce la tresor. There is no difficulty about words in the plural, the same form of the article is al- ways before them ; thus we say les intentions and les voyageurs, although, as we have seen, the former of these words is feminine, and the latter masculine. II. Un d'eux ..... One of them. Dans Tintention .... In the intention. Qw'un de nous aille . . . Let one of us go. When the words le or la, the, que, that, or de, of, come before another word beginning with a vowel, the a of the one and the e's of the others are invariably cut off. This is done in order to avoid the too frequent recurrence of two vowels, these little words being very much used in French. The student, therefore, in writing, must take care when he has the two words de and eux for example coming together, to cut off the e of the de, and be careful at the same time to supply its place with an apostrophe, as in the sentences given above. III. Qu'un de nous aille That one of us may go The above phrase occurring in our text, exhibits a very common mode > Let one of us go. 10 CONSTRUCTION. of expression. The sentence " qu'im de nous aille" is incomplete ; the words " il faut," it is necessary, being understood. The phrase entire would be " il faut qu'un de nous aille," it is necessary that one of us go, or one of us must go. It is however the defective form of the phrase, the form which appears in our text, that is generally employed, and conse- quently that is the form the student ought to imitate when he has a simi- lar expression to turn into French. Being imperfect, the phrase when translated literally into English does not exhibit the sense it is meant to convey. The best way to deal with such a phrase, is to consider it en- tire, without regarding individually the words of which it is composed, and look upon it as equivalent to a certain other phrase in English ; deal with it, in short, in the same manner as if it were a single word. We can not approve of the manner adopted in a grammar of some note,* of ex- plaining this difficulty by saying, that " que" supplies an ellipsis, and ergo, that que is equal to let; such a solution of the difficulty is likely to beget a notion in the mind of the learner that que, in French, has the significa- tion of the English word let, while these two words have not, nor can they logically have, any meaning in common. A similar kind of construction to that under consideration occurs in the Latin language ; we find frequently the Roman writers employing the subjunctive as an imperative, for instance in the well-known verse of Virgil — ilia se jactet in aula iEolus, et clauso ventorum carcere regnet." " Qu' Eole se contente de regner sur ses rochers, et d'exercer son pou- voir dans ses sombres cachots." " Let JEolus vaunt himself 'in his own hall, and let him reign in the closed prison of the winds." Here we have a similar construction in Latin to that of " qu'un de nous aille" in French ; but think of a " tyro" translating the Latin relative qui by let ! We shall have occasion to revert to the logic of the construction of " qu'un de nous aille" in a future lesson. In the meantime it will be sufficient for the guidance of the student to say, that when he has an English phrase to translate, beginning with let, implying a command, he must set out in French with the word que. Two or three phrases of this kind will be introduced into the exercise on composition, in order to habituate the learner to this mode of expression. * Grammar of the French Language, by J. C. Delille. CONSTRUCTION. 11 IV. What did the three travellers find? What did they say ? Did they say ? Que trouverent les trois voyageurs ? ) What found the three travellers ? y Que dirent-ils ? What said they? Dirent-ils 1 Said they ? In English there are two ways of asking a question ; with the auxili- ary word did, or without it: a question can either be put in the form, " Did they say so and so," or, " Said they so and so." In French there is no such word as did, that can be made use of in this way, the French therefore can not put a question in the first of these forms, and conse- quently are obliged to employ the second. In framing a question, the student must always bear in mind, that the word did has no equivalent in French — he must bear in mind that there are two manners of asking a question in English, one of which accords with the French idiom, and may be translated literally : but that the other can not be rendered word for word into French. It will be observed that in English the word did is merely a sign of the past time, and may be dispensed with by using a past tense of the verb itself. In the phrases, " Did the travellers find a treasure ;" and, " Found the travellers a treasure ;" the words " did find" in the one, and the word " found" in the other, are precisely equivalent. Some English interrogative phrases containing the word did will be introduced into the exercises under the head of Composition. To trans- late these correctly into French, the learner must, as we have said, bear in mind that the question did he go ? can be put in a shape without the did, as, went he ? and that this last form of a question alone can be rendered literally into French. V. Les voyageurs trouverent-ils un The travellers found they a tresor ? treasure ? Les voyageurs dirent-ils, " Nous ~] The travellers said they, " We avons un tresor ?" have a treasure?" Quand les voyageurs trouverent-ils When the travellers found they un tresor ? a treasure ? Found the travellers a treasure ? Said the travellers, treasure ?" We have a When found the travellers a trea- sure? 12 PRONUNCIATION. We have said last section, that the English have two ways of asking a question ; one with the word did, as " Did three travellers find a treasure," and another without this auxiliary, as " Found three travellers a treasure." We also said that the first of these forms can not be ren- dered into French, there being no such auxiliary as did in the language, and consequently that the second of the two must always be translated. It is the practice also in French interrogations, to say " Three travel- lers found they so and so," " Three travellers said they so and so ;" in- stead of the English form, " Found three travellers so and so," " Said three travellers so and so." These last phrases, indeed, were they translated literally, would not be French. It will be also observed by the sentences given above, that in ques- tions, the pronoun and the verb must be connected with a line drawn be- twixt them. VI. . Ou alla-t-il ? Where did he go ? When in a question the verb ends in a vowel followed by the pronoun il, he, the letter t is inserted between. This is done in order to prevent the hiatus in pronunciation caused by two vowels coming together. It may be asked why is a ^ used for this purpose, in preference to any other consonant, when an n, an m, or a b, would answer the purpose, so far as euphony is concerned, quite as well. In order to answer this question, we must trace the language back to its source. We find in Latin, the parent language, that all the third persons of verbs end in a t, and we know that in French the t is only wanted when a question is asked in the third person. The phrase alla-t-il, did he go, is in Latin, word for word, ibat Me; in the Latin word we have a t. And although the t has been dropped in the affirmative form of the phrase in French, it makes its appearance again when wanted. The t moreover is still re- tained in the third person singular of some verbs, as il dit, he said, il avait, he had, and in cases where it has been lost, it appears again when a question is asked, as if to remind us that the language of Gaul is still the language of Caesar. PRONUNCIATION. NASAL N. When the letter n, preceded by any of the vowels, occurs before an- other consonant, it has what is termed a nasal sound, being partially PRONUNCIATION. 13 enunciated through the nose. The existence of this sound in the pro- nunciation of French, has given rise to a notion among the English, that the French are very much addicted to speaking through their noses, but nothing could be more erroneous ; the truth of the matter is that, if this peculiarity abounds in any language more than another, it is in English that it predominates. In the English words, clung, flung, swung, rang, fang, swang, there is a nasal sound, and a very decided one too ; it only differs from the French in being more nasal ! A Frenchman has the greatest possible difficulty in acquiring a correct pronunciation of the words we have named, for the unique reason that they are a great deal more nasal than his own. The French nasal sound is exceedingly nice, and must be enunciated with the utmost softness ; it possesses more the characteristics of a simple aspiration, than of the unequivocal nasal of the English ng. The prevailing vice of beginners in French lies in the pronunciation of the nasal n ; they either for the most part sound it too harshly, or do not enunciate it at all — faults that it is the special object of these remarks to guard them against. It may also be observed that in English the nasal sound is variously modified, according to the vowel that precedes the ng ; thus the ung of the word stung, and the ang of the word swang, are totally different in their inflection. We are led to mention this because beginners very generally make no distinction between the French sound of in and en, while in reality the difference between these two combinations is as. marked as between their equivalents, ang and ing, in English. Keeping in view, that the difference between the English and French nasal sounds, is that the former partake more abundantly of the nasal character, and that the latter must be formed by a slight aspiration, the nasal sound being almost imperceptible, the following table will enable the learner to pronounce the nasal n in all cases correctly : an ) are pronounced like ang in the word clang, giving the a the sound en j of that letter in the English word father. in is pronounced like eng or ang in the word anger, as that word is usually pronounced, that is, as if it were written eng- ger. on " like ong in song. un " like ung in the word sung. When n is followed by another n, the nasal sound is lost ; double n has the same sound as in English, but when it comes before any of the 14 COMPOSITION. other consonants, it is always nasal. It will therefore be seen from the table we have given, that the word " intention," in the lesson, should be pronounced as if written eng-tang-see-ong, the English nasal sounds of these letters being of course considerably modified. The student must bear in mind that n is only nasal when followed by a consonant ; when followed by a vowel, n has the same sound as in English. The same remarks apply also to the letter m ; the pronunciation of this letter resembles in every particular that of n. COMPOSITION. The text of our present lesson, though it be short, illustrates a great many points in the structure of the French language. We have noticed a few of these under the head Construction, and have exhibited the others by a comparison of the English and the French sentences that occur in the passage under the head Phrases. The student may now put the knowledge the text has opened to him into practice, by a little exercise in composition. We give a few phrases and sentences in Eng- lish to be rendered into French. In order to translate these, the French words that have already appeared in the lesson, alone are necessary ; all that the student has to do, in order to go through this exercise correctly, is to bear in mind the structure of the sentences contained in the text. We shall give a translation of these phrases in the next lesson, so that the learner may verify the accuracy of his version. We have. We have a treasure. We have the wherewith. We have the wherewithal to make a repast. We have the wherewith to buy some meat. Have we ? Have we anything to eat ? Have we wherewithal to buy a re- past? Have we anything to do (to make) ? Are we hungry ? What have we 1 Have we a meal ? Let one of us go. Let one of them go. Let him go and buy wherewithal to make a repast. Let one of us go and make a repast. Let the traveller go. They said, " We have a treasure." They said, " We are hungry." They said, " We have wherewithal to make a repast." They found something to eat. They found the road. We have the treasure. We have a meal. We are hungry. One of us. They said to us, " We are hungry." They found us in the way. We have their treasure. They found their treasure. They found their way. They told them to bring the treas- ure. COMPOSITION. 15 They told them to buy something to eat. They said to them, " We are hun- gry." He went to buy them wherewithal to make a repast. He went to make them a road. Did they say ? Did they say, " We have where- withal to make a repast ?" Did they say, " Let one of us go ?" Did they find their road ? Did they find a treasure ? Did they find wherewithal to make a repast ? Did he go 1 Did he depart ? He departed. When did he depart? Why did he depart ? Who departed ? They found a treasure. When did they find a treasure 1 Why did they find a treasure ! Where did they find a treasure % Where did they find us ? They said, " We are hungry." Did they say, " We are hungry V Who said, " We are hungry V He went. Did he go ? Who went ? When did he go ? Why did he go ? All these phrases the student will be able to render correctly into French, if he has paid attention to the construction of the text, and our observations upon it. This exercise will not only serve as an introduc- tion to writing French, but will tend also to impress the structure and idiomatical peculiarities of the sentences it contains on his memory, and thus a basis will be formed whereon the structure of the language may rest. The student will now have read, spoken, and written, a little French, and thus will have obtained a more extended notion of the language than if he had been turning over the pages of a grammar, with a master, for a twelvemonth. Each successive lesson will strengthen and augment the knowledge of the language the learner may now be supposed to have attained. LESSON SECOND READING. REPETITION. The following exercise in reading consists of a translation of the sen- tences given in the last lesson under the head Composition, as an exer- cise in writing French. The pronunciation and meaning of the words have already been given, so that the learner should be able to read and translate the whole without hesitation. Nous avons. Nous avons un tresor. Nous avons de quoi. Nous avons de quoi faire un repas. Nous avons de quoi acheter de la viande. Avons-nous ? Avons-nous de quoi manger? Avons-nous de quoi acheter pour un repas? Avons-nous de quoi faire ? Avons-nous f aim ? Q,u' avons- nous 1 Avons-nous un repas? Q,u'un de nous aiHe. Qu'un d'eux aille. Qu'il aille acheter de quoi faire un re- pas. Giu'un de nous aille faire un repas. Que le voya- geur aille. lis dirent nous avons un tresor. lis dirent " nous avons faim." lis dirent " nous avons de quoi faire un repas." lis trouverent de quoi manger. lis trouverent le chemin. Nous avons le tresor. Nous avons un repas. Nous avons faim. Un de nous. Us nous dirent " nous READING. 17 avons faim." lis nous trouverent dans le cliemin. Nous avons leur tresor. lis trouverent leur tresor. lis trouve- rent leur chemin. lis leur dirent d'apporter le tresor. lis leur dirent d'acheter de quoi manger. lis leur dirent " nous avons faim." II alia leur acheter de quoi faire un repas. II alia leur faire un chemin. Dirent-ils 1 Dirent-ils " nous avons de quoi faire un repas V Dirent-ils "qu'un de nous aille V Trouverent-ils leur chemin ? Trouverent-ils un tresor 1 Trouverent-ils de quoi faire un repas? Alla-t-il? Se detacha- t-il? II se-detacha. Quand se detacha-t-il? Pourquoi se detacha-t-il? Qui se detacha? lis trouverent un tresor. Quand trouverent-ils un tresor? Pourquoi trouverent-ils un tresor? Ou trouverent-ils un tresor! Ou nous trou- verent-ils ? lis dirent " nous avons faim." Dirent-ils " nous avons faim ?" Qui dit " nous avons faim ?" II alia. Alla- t-il ? Qui alia ? Quand alla-t-il ? Pourquoi alla-t-il 1 Mais chemin faisant, il dit en lui-meme, il faut que j'em- poisonne la viande afin que mes deux camarades meurent en la mangeant, et que je jouisse du tresor moi seul. II executa son dessein et rait du poison dans ce qu'il avait apporte a manger. In order that the learner may read, translate, and understand the above, we shall, as in the case of the text given in the previous lesson, proceed to give first the pronunciation of the words, as also their euphonic con- nexion, and then their signification. Mais chemin faisant, il dit en lui-meme, il faut May she-min fe-zcro, eel dee-t w en luee* maim, eel fo * For the pronunciation of the letter u, where we have marked it with an accent thus (u), we refer the student to the head Pronunciation, page 26, of the present lesson. 2 18 VOCABULARY que j'empoisonne la viande, aim que mes deux camarades ki ^sh e?t-pwa-son la vee-arad, afin w ki inai day ka-ma-rad meurent en la mangeant, et que je jouisse du tresor moi mair-t ^, en la man-shan, ai ki ^^ j shoo-ees du trai-zor mwa seul. II executa son dessein et mit du poison dans ce sail. Eel exe-ku-ta son d-sin ai mee du pwa-zon dan , s qu'il avait apporte a manger, k-eel av-ai-t w ap-por-tai a man-shay. In order to read the above correctly, the learner must bear in mind what we said in the last lesson, under the head Pronunciation, about the nasal sound. We continue to mark the n with its accompanying vowel, when it is nasal, in italics, so that this most important matter may not be neglected. We can not too strongly impress upon the learner the necessity of his attention to the pronunciation we have given of the words in the text, and their euphonic connexion. The same words will be re- peated over and over again in the exercises that are to follow, so that on the amount of attention paid at the outset will depend the learner's ac- curacy throughout the lesson. TRANSLATION. Mais chemin faisant il dit en lui-meme, il But road making (going along) he said in himself. it faut que j'empoisonne la viande afin que mes deux is necessary that I may poison the meat to end (in order) that my two camarades meurent en la mangeant, et que je jouisse du companions may die in it eating, and that I may enjoy of the tresor moi seul. II executa son dessein et mit du poison treasure me alone. He executed his design and put of the poison dans ce qu'il avait apporte a manger, in what he had brought to to eat. The student can now read and pronounce the new portion of text ; the next thing is to turn the words acquired to a practical account. VOCABULARY. We again range the words of the text opposite their English equiva- lents, in order that the student may test his knowledge of them before entering upon the more essential exercises of the lesson. Mais . chemin faisant il dit . en lui-m6me faut . que . je . empoisonne la viande afin . mes . deux . camarades meurent PHRASES. but road mangeant et making he jouisse du . it tresor said moi in seul . himself executa is necessary that son dessein I mit poison du . the meat poison dans . in order ce que my avait . two apporte companions a may die manger PHR/ VSES. 19 eatmg and may enjoy of the treasure me alone executed his design put of the poison into what had brought to to eat The value of each word being known, the meanings of the sentences have next to be observed. As we have had occasion to remark under this head in the preceding lesson, it sometimes happens that combinations of words have acquired a meaning they do not exhibit when translated literally ; thus chemin faisant is, when translated into English, word for word, road making ; but the two words together are in French employed to signify going along, just as the phrases making way and going ahead are employed in English occasionally to express a similar notion. In con- sidering the phrases, therefore, the power of the words collectively must be regarded more than their individual meaning. Mais ..... Chemin faisant II dit en lui-meme II faut que j'empoisonne la viande Arm que ..... Mes deux camarades meurent . En la mangeant Et que ..... Je jouisse moi seul du tresor II executa son dessein Et mit du poison Dans ce que .... II avait apporte a manger . But Going along He said to himself I must poison the meat In order that My two companions may die In eating it And that I alone may enjoy the treasure He executed his design And put poison In what He had brought to eat. 20 CONVERSATION. CONVERSATION. As in the preceding lesson, we shall now proceed to a conversation on the subject involved in the text of the present lesson. It will be neces- sary for the student to bear in mind the words given as an introduction to the previous colloquial exercise, in addition to which the following will have to be acquired : — M j „, , , , T , ( giving the a's the sound they Madame, Madam, pronounced Madam ^ * ^ ^ ^ WOX(ipart Cela, that, " ( giving the de the sound these < letters ha f word debt Des, of the, sla. de letters have in the English Ses, his Que dit un des voyageurs ? A qui dit-il cela ? Quand ? . Qui dit, il faut que j'empoisonne la viande ? Quand dit-il cela ? . . Pourquoi faut-il que le voyageur em- poisonne la viande ? Le voyageur dit-il, il faut que j'em- poisonne mes camarades 1 Dit-il, il faut que je jouisse du tre- sor moi seul ? Avait-il trois camarades ? . Avait-il deux camarades 1 . Qui avait deux camarades ? Pourquoi faut-il que ses camarades meurent 1 Qu'avait-il apporte a manger ? Avait-il apporte de la viande ? Avait-il le tresor 1 Qui avait le tresor 1 . Qu'avait un des trois voyageurs Executa-t-il son dessein 1 . Qu'executa un des trois voyageurs ? Avait-il apporte de quoi manger ? Avait-il apporte le tresor ? ( like se in the English word \ sent. II faut que j'empoisonne la viande. A lui-meme. Chemin faisant. Un des trois voyageurs. Chemin faisant. Ann que ses deux camarades meu- rent en la mange ant. Non, Madame. Oui, Madame. Non, Madame. Oui, Madame. Un des trois voyageurs. Ann qu'il jouisse seul du tresor. De la viande. Oui, Madame. Non, Madame. Ses deux camarades. Un dessein. Oui, Madame. II executa son dessein. Oui, Madame. Non, Madame. CONSTRUCTION. 21 Dans quoi un des trois voyageurs Dans ce qu'il avait apporte a man- mit-il du poison ? ger. Avait-il apporte de la viande ? . Oui, Madame. Mit-il du poison dans la viande Oui, Madame. qu'il avait apporte a, manger ? Pourquoi ? Afin que ses deux camarades mou- russent en la mangeant, et qu'il jouisse seul du tresor. Quand mit-il du poison dans ce qu'il Chemin faisant. avait apporte a manger. CONSTRUCTION. Under this head we shall continue to bring into view the points of the text that illustrate the general structure of the language. These re- marks, as we stated in last lesson, are intended to guide and facilitate the learner in writing French. VII. Ilfaut que /empoisonne la viande. I must poison the meat. In our progress we shall occasionally fall in with a French word that has no corresponding word in the English language, and sometimes we shall in the same way have to deal with an English word that can not be rendered into French by any single word of that language ; this is the case with the English word must in the sentence before us. There is no single word in French that is precisely equivalent to the English must : and as this word must is very much employed in English, it be- comes to the learner a matter of some importance to know how a sen- tence in which must occurs, may be rendered correctly into French — a difficulty that our text by chance amply illustrates. We find in the sen- tence quoted above, that / must is represented in the French sentence by ilfaut que je, and it is by these four words arranged as we see them, that / must is most usually rendered in French. The essential word of the equivalent for the English I must, is faut, and it will be seen from the translation of the text, that this word faut is equivalent to the two English words is necessary ; so that the French phrase ilfaut que je, conveying the idea of I must, is literally in English, it is necessary that I. The learner, therefore, in order to render / must in French, has to translate literally the phrase it is necessary that I, bearing in mind that the single word/a?^ is equivalent to the two English words is necessary. 22 CONSTRUCTION. In the same way when you must, we must, he must, or they must, have to be rendered into French, a similar process is to be gone through, sub- stituting for the je the pronouns equivalent to you, we, he, and they ; thus in order to say, he must poison the meat, the phrase, it is necessary that he may poison the meat will have to be taken and translated literally \ the result will be, ilfaut quit empoisonne la viande, and so in all similar cases. We shall introduce some phrases of this kind into the exercise on Com- position, which Ave shall expect the learner, aided by the foregoing re- marks, to render correctly into French. It will no doubt occur to the observing student, that " it is necessary that he may poison the meat," is rather a clumsy way of saying " he must poison the meat," and most certainly such is the case. The French are as sensible of this defect in their language as an Englishman can be, and in order to remedy the evil, the words " il faut" are occasionally omitted in such phrases, the other part of the sentence being made to answer the purpose. An instance of this kind of abbreviation occurred in the text of our last lesson, where we have the phrase " one of us must go" rendered by " qu'un de nous aille ;" the words " il faut" it is necessary, being entirely suppressed. We stated in speaking of this sentence, Sec- tion III. of our last lesson, that the words " il faut" were frequently omitted in such expressions, and the fact of the contracted form being found in our text may be cited as a proof that the abbreviated form of such sentences is employed by the best writers in the language. We would suggest the learner to refer back to our previous observations on this construction, before reading the next section. VIII. Pourquoi faut-il que le voyageur Why must the traveller poison his empoisonne ses camarades ? companions 1 The above phrase occurring in the exercise on Conversation, ex hibits to us the manner of dealing with the English must when the word occurs in an interrogation. Translated literally the phrase in question appears as follows : — Pourquoi faut-il que le voyageur empoisonne ses Why is .necessary it that the traveller may poison his camarades ? companions ? Here it will be observed that faut-il, literally signifies " is it neces- CONSTRUCTION. 23 sary," just as we have seen the literal equivalent for il faut is " it is necessary." It is possible and usual to omit the words il faut in expressing a com- mand, but when a question is asked, the case is altered, for in an inter- rogation ilfaut is not so easily disposed of. It is perfectly good French to say, " Qu'un de nous aille," instead of " II faut qu'un de nous aille," but it is quite impossible to ask a question with such an assemblage of words as " Qu'un de nous aille." In order to say, " Must one of us go," the faut-il can not be dispensed with, the phrase entire is required, and must be written " Faut-il qu'un de nous aille ;" in such a case ilfaut becomes an indispensable adjunct. In the previous section we have noticed the exceedingly clumsy sub- stitute that exists in the French language for the English word must, and we have stated that the means adopted to remedy the evil is by omitting the words il faut, but we have seen that il faut can not always be so dispensed with, and is absolutely necessary in an interrogation. In order to say in French, " Must we eat V the phrase " Is it necessary that we may eat" would have to be employed ; decidedly too long and round about to answer the purpose : brevity is the soul of social con- verse, and in the intercourse of common life long heavy locutions like this are totally inadmissible. The expedient adapted to abridge such expressions is to suppress the pronoun and the que, employing only the indispensable faut-il with the simple form of the verb ; thus instead of saying " Faut-il que nous mangions," must we eat, the following construc- tion is usually employed : — Faut-il manger ? Must we eat ? It will be observed that this phrase, Faut-il manger, implies nothing more than, Is it necessary to eat ? and consequently may be employed to express, must I eat ? or must you eat ? as well as must we eat ? When, however, a question of this kind is to be put in the third person, no ab- breviation is practicable ; thus, must he go? must they die? will have to be rendered in French, faut-il qu'il aille? faut-il qu'ils meurent? We shall introduce into the exercise on Composition some English in- terrogative phrases containing the word must, to be rendered into French, in order that the learner may be habituated to this kind of construc- tion. 24 CONSTRUCTION. IX. Le tresor .... The treasure. La viande .... The meat. In the first section of the remarks, under the head Construction, we have stated that all words in the French language are either masculine or feminine, and also that the is rendered by le before masculine words, and by la before feminine words. The learner must bear in mind, when he has to render the English article the into French, that he can not use the words la or le indiscriminately ; it very often happens that a word in French has one meaning when le is before it, and another when la is before it : thus le manche is in English, the broomstick, and la manche is the English Channel. Now if an Englishman were to say, speaking of having been to France, " I went across le manche" instead of saying la manche, a Frenchman would naturally suppose him to mean that he went to France on a broomstick : this would be an awkward mistake for an elderly lady to make. X. En la mangeant . . . In eating it. The learner, from what we have said in the last and previous sections, will now know how to proceed when he has the word the to render into French ; we have said that the is to be translated in the following man- ner : — Before a noun in the masculine gender, by le. Before a noun in the feminine gender, by la. Before a noun in the plural number, by les. But it must not be supposed from this, that the words, le, la, and les, always signify in French the ; it is true that the is rendered in French by le, la, les, but it is not true that le, la, and les, are always to be rendered in English by the, as we see from the sentence quoted above, in the text where the word la has the signification of the English word it. When the words le, la, and les, occur before a noun, they are equivalent to the English article the ; but when they occur before a verb, they are no longer articles but pronouns, and will have to be translated into Eng- lish in the following manner : CONSTRUCTION. 25 le before a verb by him or it. la before a verb by her or it. les before a verb by them. In the sentence before us the word mangeant is a verb, and conse- quently the la before it must be rendered into English by the word it, since it refers to the word meat. This diversity of the meaning in the words le, la, and les, arising from their position in a sentence, requires to be particularly noted ; as other- wise they are likely to cause a great deal of trouble to the beginner, and are apt even to mislead persons who have attained some proficiency in the language. Properly speaking, the words le and la mean simply him and her, be- cause everything in French being either masculine or feminine, the word it has no existence in the language. In the phrase given above, in speaking of the meat, the French say, in eating, her, and not eating it. Just as the English say in speaking of a steamboat, " She sails well ;" so the French him or her all objects whatever. The fact that ajkobjects in nature are considered masculine or feminine may very likely give rise to this question in the mind of the learner : " Why is it that there are only two genders in French ?" In answering this question we may observe that most persons who have written French grammars, assert that it is impossible to teach theoretically the pronunciation of the language ; this may be perfectly true, so far as they are individually concerned, but instead of ascribing the impossibility to their own incompetency, they usually ascribe it to some impenetrable difficulty in the subject itself. In the same way when such a point is to be resolved as the question before us, we have nothing but mystery and perplexity. A very slight knowledge of the history of the language is sufficient to account for the use in French of two genders only : when the Franks overran Gaul, the inhabitants spoke Latin, and in order to understand the people they had conquered, they were obliged to learn their language ; but, as may be readily supposed, the conquerers did not trouble them- selves much about the niceties of the Latin terminations, and the distinc- tions of gender depending upon them, they were content with being able to make themselves understood, and beyond what was necessary to effect this, disregarded the subtilties of the Latin syntax ; they were obliged, however, to make a distinction between male and female, and gradually embraced under these two heads, all the words that had hitherto been considered as of the neuter gender ; thus it is simply from the circum- 26 PRONUNCIATION. stance of the Franks being a more warlike, than a learned people, that two genders only exist in the language. In rendering the English word it into French, the learner must observe whether it relates to a masculine or a feminine noun ; for instance, if in the phrase, " They found it," the word it refers to the treasure, the phrase will have to be rendered in French — Us le trouverent. But if the word it refers to the meat, the phrase must be — lis la trouverent. It will be remembered that these pronouns are placed before, and not as in English, after the verb. PRONUNCIATION. THE CHARACTERISTIC. There exists in nearly all the modern languages, some particular sound that is rarely, if at all, made use of in English ; these sounds may- be considered by the English as characteristic of the languages to which they belong. Viewing in this way the French sounds as they stand in relation to those of the English language, the sound of the vowel u may be called the French characteristic. The nearest approximation to the French sound of the vowel u, made use of in English, with which we are acquainted, occurs in the word doing, when that word is quickly pronounced, as it usually is, especially when used with other words in a sentence ; in such a case the sound of the o in the word, blending with the i of the termination ing, produces exactly the sound given by the French to the vowel u. If then the learner pronounces rapidly the word doing two or three times over, and stops short at doi, he will pronounce the French word du almost as ac- curately as a native of Paris. He must bear in mind, however, that the sound of the o in do is not the French sound of u. It is only when the o of that word is blended with the i that follows it in the word doing that it resembles the French u. In English the vowel u has three sounds ; that in tube, another in tub, and a third in such words as rude. In French the vowel u has only one sound, which must always be given to it, except when it is associated with another vowel ; there are three words in the lesson in which this COMPOSITION. 27 letter stands alone, these are the words du,lui, and executa. The learner has been shown how to pronounce du, and he must now endeavor to transfer the sound of the u in this word to those in the other two. By observing carefully the sound between the d and the ng of the word doing, when quickly pronounced, the learner may form such a concep- tion of the sound as will enable him to pronounce the French u in all cases correctly. We may repeat that he must carefully avoid the sound of the o in the word do, that being the sound given to the French u by persons who, having studied the language under a master, have been led to rely more upon their ear, than upon their comprehension. We are satisfied that, with a little attention to the direction we have given, the pronunciation of the u may be accurately acquired. At all events, such a pronunciation of the letter may be obtained as will ap- proach much nearer its exact sound than that given to it by the natives of some of the provinces of France itself. We have heard a well- educated native of Somersetshire, pronounce the English word much, as if it were written " mooch." In Lancashire, the word is pronounced as if written " meech."* In Killarney, the word would be, we think, pro- nounced as if written " mitch." In the same way, natives of France vary in their inflection of the letter u, and an Englishman pronouncing the u, according to the conception of the sound he may form from the illustration we have given of it, will approach infinitely nearer the sound a Parisian gives the letter than a native of Burgundy, Gascony, or in- deed of any other province in France remote from the capital. COMPOSITION. Translating from English into French is a valuable auxiliary in the study of the language, especially when the subjects given for translation are within the grasp of the learner, and are useful in themselves ; qualities which we think the phrases we have selected will be found to possess. An exercise of this kind will bring the peculiarities of struc- ture more distinctly to view, and aid in impressing them upon the mind. Our text has enabled us to illustrate some of the leading features of the language, with which the student will be greatly benefited by being- familiar. No better means of effecting this can be devised, than by translating their English equivalents into French. The learner ought not therefore to neglect this exercise. We shall give in the next lesson a translation in French of the following phrases, so that the learner may see whether he has himself rendered them correctly or not. * Conversations in the Lancashire Dialect, by Tim Bobbin. 28 COMPOSITION. I must poison the meat. I must poison my companions. I must enjoy the treasure. My companions must die. My two companions must die. He must enjoy the treasure alone. The travellers must die. They must die. He must poison the meat. He must poison the travellers. He must poison one of his com- panions. Must the traveller poison the meat 1 Must one of the three travellers poison his companions ? Must the travellers die ? Must my two companions die ? Must one of the travellers poison the meat ? Must his two companions die ? We must eat. The meat must be eaten. We must eat the treasure. The travellers must be eaten. The poison must be taken. Poison must be bought. Meat must be bought. We must buy something to eat. Must we eat ? Must we eat the meat 1 Must the treasure be eaten ? Must we eat the travellers % Must we eat the poison ? Must I eat my companions ? Must poison be bought ? Must meat be bought ? Must we buy something to eat 1 I must poison the meat, in order that my two companions may die when they eat it. I must poison it. I must poison them. He put it in the meat. . (The poi- son.) He put it in the poison. (The meat.) He said it. It must be taken. (The poison.) It must be eaten. (The meat.) We must eat them. Must I poison it ? Must I poison them ? Did he put it in the meat ? Did he say it ? Must it be eaten 1 (The meat.) Must it be taken? (The poison.) Must we eat them ? Must it be bought 1 He executed his design. W T ho executed a design ? Where did he execute his design ? When did he execute it ? Going along, one of the three travel- lers said, " I must poison my two companions ?" Going along, a traveller put poison in the meat, and said, " My two companions must die on eating it." Two travellers, on their journey found some meat on the road and said, " Gentlemen (Messieurs), we must eat it." He must eat his companions. Why must he eat his companions ? When must he eat his companions ? A Gentleman (un Monsieur) put meat in the poison. What did he put in the poison ? Why did he put meat in the poison 1 When did he put it in ? I must poison the lady. (Madame.) When must I poison the lady ? Why must I poison her ? Whom must I poison ? We must eat some meat. Must we eat the meat ? Why must we eat it ? When must we eat it ? Must my two companions die ? The three travellers must die. Why must they die ? When must they die ? They must die on eating the meat that one of them brought to make a repast. COMPOSITION. 29 When the learner has rendered these phrases, he will have become familiar with some of the chief difficulties he has to encounter. In the next lesson we shall have to speak of some other leading features in the construction of the language. LESSON THIRD. READING. REPETITION. Il faut que j'empoisonne la viande. II faut que j'em- poisonne mes camarades. II faut queje jouisse du tresor. II faut que mes camarades meurent. II faut que mes deux camarades meurent. II faut qu'il jouisse seul du tresor. II faut que les voyageurs meurent. II faut qu'ils meurent. II faut qu'il empoisonne la viande. II faut qu'il empoisonne les voyageurs. II faut qu'il empoisonne un de ses cama- rades. Faut-il que le voyageur empoisonne la viande ? Faut-il qu'un des trois voyageurs empoisonne ses cama- rades ? Faut-il que les voyageurs meurent 1 Faut-il que mes deux camarades meurent? Faut-il qu'un des voya- geurs empoisonne la viande ? Faut-il que ses deux cama- rades meurent? II faut manger. II faut manger la viande. II faut manger le tresor. II faut manger les voyageurs. II faut manger le poison. II faut acheter du poison. 11 faut acheter de la viande. II faut acheter de quoi manger. Faut-il manger? Faut-il manger la viande? Faut-il manger le tresor ? Faut-il manger les voyageurs ? Faut- il manger le poison ? Faut-il manger mes camarades ? Faut-il acheter du poison 1 Faut-il acheter de la viande ? Faut-il acheter de quoi faire un repas ? II faut que j'empoisonne la viande afin que mes deux| camarades meurent en la mangeant. II faut que je F em- poisonne. II faut queje les empoisonne. II le mit dans! la viande II la mit dans le poison. II le dit. II faut 1< READING. 31 manger II faut la manger. 11 faut les manger. Faut-il que je I'empoisonne ? Faut-il que je les empoisonne? Le mit-il dans la viande ? Le dit-il ? Faut-il la manger ? Faut-il le manger ? Faut-il les manger ? Faut-il l'ache- ter ? II executa son dessein. Qui executa un dessein ? Ou l'executa-t-il? Quand l'executa-t-il? Chemin faisant un des trois voyageurs dit, " II faut que j'empoisonne mes deux camarades." Chemin faisant un voyageur mit du poison dans la viande et dit, " II faut que mes deux cama- rades meurent en la mangeant." Chemin faisant deux voyageurs trouverent de la viande dans leur chemin et dirent, " Messieurs, il faut la manger." II faut manger ses camarades. Pourquoi faut-il manger ses camarades ? Quand faut-il manger ses camarades ? Un Monsieur mit de la viande dans le poison, due mit-il dans le poison ? Pourquoi mit-il de la viande dans le poison ? Quand la mit-il ? II faut que j'empoisonne Madame. Quand faut- il que j'empoisonne Madame? Pourquoi faut-il que je l'empoisonne ? Qui faut-il que j'empoisonne 1 II faut manger de la viande. Faut-il manger la viande? Pour- quoi faut-il la manger ? Quand faut-il la manger ? Faut- il que mes deux camarades meurent ? II faut que les trois voyageurs meurent? Pourquoi faut-il qu'ils meurent? Quand faut-il qu'ils meurent ? II faut qu'ils meurent en mangeant la viande qu'un d'eux a apportee pour faire un rep as. Mais les deux autres qui avaient concu un semblable dessein contre lui pendant son absence, l'assassinerent a son retour, et demeurerent les maitres du tresor. Apres 1' avoir tue ils mangerent de la viande empoisonnee et moururent aussi tous deux. 32 TRANSLATION. In order that the learner may be able to read and pronounce the above, we shall have, as in the case of the two preceding sections of the text, to give first the pronunciation of the words, and then their meaning. Mais les deux autres qui avaient concu un semblable Mai le* dal-z ^ , o-ter kee av-ai kon-su. Mn sem-bla-bel w dessein contre lui pendant son absence, l'assassinerent a d-sin con-ter lu-ee pen-dan so-n ^, ab-sens, la-sa-see-ner-t ^_, a son retour, et demeurerent les maitres du tresor. Apres son re-toor, ai ^ d-mair-rer le mai-ter du trai-zor. A-pre l'avoir tue ils mangerent de la viande lav-war tue eel man-shair ^, d la vee-and moururent aussi tous deux, moor-ur-t , o-see too dai. empoisonnee en-pwa-zon-ne In reading the above the learner must bear in mind what we have said of the nasal sound in the first lesson, and what we have said of the vowel u in the second. We continue to represent the nasal sound by italics, and to place a short accent over the u when that letter has its pure sound. The nasal and the sound of the u are two very important fea- tures in French pronunciation, and habitual attention to what we have said of them will do more to perfect the learner in pronunciation than a twelvemonth with a master. TRANSLATION. Mais les deux autres qui avaient concu un semblable But the two others who had conceived a similar dessein contre lui pendant son absence, l'assassinerent a design against him during his absence, him assassinated at son retour, et demeurerent les maitres du tresor. Apres his return, and remained the masters of the treasure. ■■-- After t l'avoir tue ils mangerent de la viande empoisonnee, et him to have killed they ate of the meat poisoned, and moururent aussi tous deux. died also a)l two (both). * For the sound of the e we have accented thus e and thus e, see the article Pro- nunciation, page 39. PHRASES. 33 VOCABULARY. The text of the present lesson consists of forty words, twenty of which have already appeared in the preceding sections, we shall there- fore limit the vocabulary to the twenty new words, as the learner may be supposed to have got the others pretty well fixed on his memory already. Autre s avaient others had demeurerent ( remained ( lived concu conceived maitres masters semblable . similar apres after contre against avoir to have lui . him tue killed pendant during mangerent . ate absence absence empoisonnee poisoned assassinerent assassinated moururent . died retour return aussi also tous . all Of these twenty words, the greater part are mere modifications of those already seen : avaient, had, is the plural form of avait in the text of the preceding lesson ; mangerent, ate, is formed from the same root as manger, to eat ; moururent, died, is from the same root as meurent, die. The principle operating these changes in the form of a verb will soon have to engage the learner's attention. PHRASES. Mais les deux autres . Qui avaient congu un semblable dessein contre lui Pendant son absence . L'assassinerent .... A son retour .... Et demeurerent les maitres du tresor. Apres l'avoir tue lis mangerent de viande empoison- nee. Et moururent aussi tous deux. But the two others Who had conceived a similar de- sign against him During his absence Assassinated him On his return And remained masters of the treas- ure After having killed him They ate some of the poisoned meat And they also both died In comparing these sentences, the learner will observe that the Eng- lish say, poisoned meat, and that the French reverse the English order of these two words, and say meat poisoned. It will also be observed, that the equivalents of the English words all and two are used in French 3 34 CONVERSATION. to signify both ; the reason of this is, that there is no single word equi- valent to both in the French language. CONVERSATION. All the words introduced into the following exercise have already ap- peared, either in the text of the present, or in the conversation of the preceding lessons. Their meaning and pronunciation have consequently been already given. Qu'avaient concu les deux autres voyageurs ? Qui avait concu un semblable des- sein? Quand 1 Ou? Contre qui les deux autres voya- geurs avaient-ils concu un des- 6ein? Qui avait le tresor ? . . Quand avaient-ils le tresor ? . Qu'avaient les deux autres voya- geurs pendant l'absence de leur camarade \ Qui les deux voyageurs assassin- erent-ils ? Ou l'assassinerent-ils 1 Quand l'assassinerent-ils ? . Pourquoi l'assassinerent-ils ? Apres l'avoir tue, demeurerent-ils maitres du tresor 1 Qui demeura maitre du tresor ? Les deux autres voyageurs mange- rent-ils leur camarade ? Apfes l'avoir tue, de quoi demeure- rent-ils les maitres ? Qu'avait apporte un des voyageurs ? Avait-il empoisonne la viande 1 Pourquoi avait-il empoisonne la viande ? Qu'avaient a manger les maitres du tresor ? Qui avait de la viande a manger ? Les maitres du tresor. Un semblable dessein. Les deux autres voyageurs. Pendant l'absence de leur cama- rade. Dans le chemin. Contre leur camarade. Les deux autres voyageurs. Pendant l'absence de leur cama- rade. lis avaient le tresor. lis assassinerent leur camarade. Dans le chemin. A son retour. Arm d'avoir le tresor pour eux seul. Oui, Messieurs. Les deux autres voyageurs. Non, mais a son retour ils l'assas- sinerent. Ils demeurerent les maitres du tresor et de la viande que leur camarade avait apportee a manger. II avait apporte de la viande. Oui, Messieurs, il l'avait empoison- nee. Arm que ses camarades mourussent en la mangeant. Ils avaient de la viande CONSTRUCTION. 35 Les maitres du tresor mangerent- Oui, ils la mangerent. ils la viande ? Pourquoi la mangerent-ils ? . .lis avaient faim. Qui avait faim ? . . . . Les trois voyageurs. Qui avait empoisonne la viande ? Un des trois voyageurs. Qui la mangea ? ... Les deux autres. Quand la mangerent-ils ? . . Apres avoir tue leur camarade. Que mangerent les deux autres Ils mangerent de la viande empoi- apres avoir tue leur camarade ? sonnee. Moururent-ils apres avoir mange la Oui, Messieurs, ils moururent. viande empoisonnee ? Les voyageurs moururent-ils tous Oui, ils moururent tous. les trois. Quand moururent les trois voya- L'un apres son retour, les deux geurs ? autres apres avoir mange de la viande empoisonnee. Ou moururent-ils ? Dans le chemin. CONSTRUCTION. XL Apres Tavoir tue , „ After having killed him. Ils Tassassinerent . . They assassinated him. Perhaps there is no difficulty more embarrassing to the learner, than that arising from the diversity of meaning peculiar to the little words le and la. We have already had occasion to remark, that le and la are sometimes to be rendered in English by the, and at other times by him, her, or it. Persons who have gone partially over a French gram- mar, are aware that le and la are articles, and so equivalent to the Eng- lish word the ; but not having pursued their studies far enough, are not acquainted with the pronomial signification of the words. They have in consequence associated le and la with the English word the, and the result of this association is, that they are confounded with the first page of any French author they attempt to translate. If any one, for instance, were to suppose that the V in the phrases we have quoted above from our text, signified the, he could not possibly make sense of them. In translating, the meaning of such long words as assassinerent may gener- ally be guessed at, but the little words like le and la completely upset the partially initiated. We have stated (§ X.), for the guidance of the learner in this matter, that when le or la occur before a verb, they must be rendered in English by him, her, or it; and when they occur before a noun, are to be rendered in English by the ; but it is only in this last 36 CONSTRUCTION. case that le and la signify the. In the phrase, apres Vavoir tue, the word avoir is a verb ; and according to what we have said, the V must be rendered by one or other of the English pronouns him, her, or it, which of the three being judged from the context. We have quoted the two phrases, however, at the head of this article, not so much to illustrate the meanings of le and la, as to recall the attention of the learner to the manner he is to deal with the English words him, her, and it, when he has got to translate them into French. We have said elsewhere that there is no use for the word it in French. Everything is said to be him or her; thus the word viande being feminine, the English phrase they ate it, the pronoun it referring to the noun meat, would have to be rendered into French, they ate her; and in the same way in speaking of the treasure, the English phrase they ate it, would have to be rendered, they ate him, the word tresor being a masculine noun. It will be seen by the phrase, Us Vassassinerent, that the pronoun him is represented by the word le abridged into /', on account of the following vowel, according to the rule we gave §11. In the same way, they assassinated her would be in French, Us Vassassinerent, exactly the same as the other, the a of the la being likewise subject to elision. When, however, the verb begins with a consonant, the distinction between him and her would be as apparent in French as it is in English ; thus, they ate him would be Us le manger ent, but they ate her, Us la mangerent, the le and la in these cases not being subject to elision. The learner will also observe, that the English order of the words in such phrases is in- verted in their French equivalents ; for instead of saying, they assas- sinated him, we must say, they him assassinated, Us Vassassinerent. We shall introduce into the exercise under the head Composition, some English phrases, containing him, her, and it, to be turned into French, in order to familiarize the learner with the pronomial use of le and la. XII. Mais les deux autres qui avaient But the two others who had con concu un semblable dessein ceived a similar design against contre lui, Vassassinerent a son him, assassinated him on his retour. return. It will be observed from the above sentence, that besides the pronoun le, there is another French word equivalent to the English pronoun him t and that this word is lui. When in English the word him is the direct ob- ject of a transitive verb, such as killed, assassinated, ate, Am is then ren- CONSTRUCTION. 37 dered by le : but when him or her is preceded by a preposition, then they must be rendered in French by lui. In our text, the word contre, against, is a preposition, and the word him following it, must in consequence be lui not le ; in the same way, of him, to him, by him, for him, must be rendered in Franch, de lui, a lui, and pour lui, and so in all cases where a preposition precedes, the word him has to be rendered by lui. This double transla- tion of the word him, is one of the difficulties to be encountered in writing French, but a little attention to the nature of the words will enable the learner to judge whether he should employ le or lui in translating him. XIII. II avait concu un semblable des- He had conceived a similar design, sein. The letter c is pronounced in French exactly as it is in English, that is, like s before e and t, and like k before a, o, and u. It happens, however, that in some French verbs c must have its hissing sound before the last- named vowels ; when such is the case, a little mark called a cedilla is placed under the c, as in the word con9U in the text ; without the cedilla, this word would have to be pronounced Aow-ku. In writing this word, the learner must take care therefore not to omit the cedilla. XIV. Apres l'avoir tue . . After having killed him. In this phrase, the word avoir is in the infinitive mood, and literally signifies to have. The English, after all their prepositions, except to, are in the practice of employing the present participle ending in ing ; but in French, all the prepositions except en govern the infinitive mood of the verb ; thus we must say in French, after to have, of to have, from to have, for to have, &c, and not as in English, after having, of having, from having, for having. This is a very marked peculiarity, and ex- hibits one of the most striking differences in the construction of the two languages ; it would be very bad English to say for to have, and it would be absolute nonsense to say in French, for having. In rendering, there- fore, such English phrases as — after having put poison in the meat, after having killed their companions, after having eaten the travellers, after having brought the poison — the learner must bear in mind that the French construction is, apres avoir mis du poison dans la viande, after to have put the' poison in the meat ; apres avoir tue leur camarade, after to have 38 CONSTRUCTION. killed their companion ; apres avoir mange les voyageurs, after to have eaten the travellers ; apres avoir apporte le poison, after to have brought the poison ; and so in all similar cases. XV. Trois voyageurs trouverent un tre- Three travellers found a treasure sor dans leur chemin, et dirent, on their way, and said, " We "Nous avons faim" are hungry" In the above sentence, the words nous avons faim are translated lit-, erally we have hunger, and this is the manner the English expression we are hungry must be rendered into French. In the same way, we were hungry would have to be rendered we had hunger. The English say, I have a headache, and I have a cold, and it would only be according to the analogy of their own language to say, I have hunger also ; however, since it happens that this is not the case, the learner must bear in mind the difference in this respect between the construction of his own and the French language. The English phrases, he was hungry, and they were hungry, will have to be rendered, II avait faim . . He had hunger, lis avaient faim . . They had hunger. XVI. lis moururent tous deux . . They both died. We have already said, chemin fais ant, that the English word both has no single equivalent in French, so that the notion of both has to be ren- dered in the latter language by a paraphrase. The word is most usually rendered by the phrase, tous les deux, all the two, but occasionally the article les is dropped, and the phrase assumes the form, tous deux, all two, as we have it in our text. It is very likely that they died all two, may sound somewhat odd in the ears of an Englishman, but it is only because he has not been used to it. The phrase, they died all two, is just as logical as they died all three, although the first appears very bad English, and the second very good. We mention this because the learner generally, when he meets with a construction that he is not familiar with, is very apt to suppose that there is some huge mystery at the bottom of it, when in reality it exists in his own language, and is as simple in itself as the construction of any other assemblage of words ; a little judgment exercised in the study of a language will dissipate a vast number of ap- parent difficulties of this nature. The learner has to bear in mind PRONUNCIATION. 39 that the word both is to be rendered by all two, tous deux in French, or when a greater degree of exactitude is wanted, by all the two, tous les deux. In English, the word both may be put either before or after the verb ; it would be as correct to say, they both died, as to say, they died both. In French, however, the adverb can not be moved about in this way ; there is only one way of arranging the words in a phrase like this, that is by placing the adverb tous deux after the verb, as in the text. PRONUNCIATION. ACCENTED LETTERS. The vowel e has altogether in French four sounds : in order to show when it should be pronounced in one and when in another manner, little marks called accents are employed. The following table exhibits the various sounds of the e, together with the manner in which they are dis- tinguished one from another. e with an acute accent thus e, is pronounced like a in the English word mate. e with a grave accent thus e, is pronounced like e in the English word best. e with a circumflex accent thus e, is pronounced like e, but a little longer. e without an accent is called the e mute, and is generally silent ; when pronounced it has the sound of ea in the English word earth. From this table the learner will observe that when he meets with an e having an acute accent upon it thus e, he must pronounce it like the a in the English words make, cake, bake ; and when he meets with an e having the grave accent e, or the circumflex accent thus e, he must pronounce it like e in the English words press, dress, mess. So far as the accented e's are concerned there is no difficulty, the e and the e may be consid- ered as two distinct letters of the French alphabet, each having its own sound and characteristic properties, while the e may be called a long e, and considered as such. We should now advise the learner to go over the sections of the text, and pronounce the accented e's according to the foregoing directions, without paying attention to the equivalents we have given of them in our verbal pronunciation ; in this manner the habit will be acquired of pronouncing the accented e correctly. We would also 40 PRONUNCIATION. here strongly impress upon the observation of the learner the necessity of attention ; he has been accustomed from his infancy to associate the letter e with a set of sounds, many of which are totally different from the French sounds of the letter, he must therefore be watchful lest his inherent notions mislead him in the pronunciation of the French e. The accented e's in French have only the sounds we have described ; these must always be given them, otherwise the word in which they occur will be rendered unintelligible, and the sense or meaning of the speaker, consequently, totally obscured. The e mute, as its name implies, so far as pronunciation is concerned, is a nonentity, it is a mere orthographic sign, not an absolute letter. There are some cases, however, in which it may be pronounced. The phrase it se detacha, occurring in our text, may be pronounced eels detacha, suppressing entirely the unaccented e, or the little word se may be pro- nounced distinctly, giving the e the shut sound of ea of the English word earth, as already stated. The pronunciation of the e mute is therefore quite arbitrary, depending entirely upon the taste or the style of the speaker. This unaccented e has given rise to much learned disquisition among writers of French grammars ; they have contrived to discover in this simple matter the most insuperable difficulties, and the greatest pos- sible amount of doubt and dubity. These perplexities are not said to consist in explaining the sound itself, that we have given is sufficiently precise, but in knowing when to pronounce the letter, and when to leave it entirely silent : one Frenchman,* who has written two very respecta- ble duodecimo volumes to enlighten the English on this knotty point, after quoting a dozen pages of illustrations, says, " All these examples show rather than solve the difficulty ; but it is impossible to give certain and invariable rules by which foreigners may be able to make so many nice distinctions, which depend greatly on the judgment of the speaker or reader, and are not always (qi/. never) attended to by the natives them- selves." Had this writer limited his treatise to this one passage, we conceive he would have acted wisely, for in this single sentence he has said all that need be said on the subject. The pronunciation of the e mute is admissable in an elevated style, but its pronunciation in collo- quial intercourse would only be tolerated when the meaning of a word or the sense of a sentence would be obscured by its omission, or when great clearness of expression is required. In every instance where the unac- cented e occurs in our text, it may be left entirely silent, and on the other hand, it might be in most, cases slightly enunciated. The unaccented e is rarely pronounced in ordinary conversation, and very rarely silent in a * Duver^ers 5 Treatise on the French Pronunciation, Part I. COMPOSITION. 41 solemn discourse ; it might be pronounced at the Palais du Luxembourg, but would be silent within the precincts of the Tuileries. The accents, besides being employed to point out the sounds of the c, are occasionally used to distinguish some words from certain other words resembling them in orthography, but differing materially in meaning ; thus the letter a in French without an accent is a verb, and is equivalent to the English word has, but a with a grave accent thus a, is a preposi- tion, and signifies in English to or at; and again, the adverb ou, where, has a grave accent to distinguish it from the conjunction on, or. The accents in these cases do not affect in any way the pronunciation of the letter over which they are placed, they are orthographic signs only.* The circumflex accent is used to mark the omission of an s. The word maitre in the text is derived from the Latin word maiister, or according to the modern Latin spelling, magister, the Romans writing an s, though very probably they did not pronounce it. The older French writers wrote the word maistre, whence the English have obtained their word master, where the s is retained and the i dropped. The circumflex ac- cent requires the voice to rest slightly on the letter whereon it is placed, in order to compensate for the omission of the s, as in the case of the h already described. We have now explained the use and application of the accents in French, they only affect the pronunciation, in so far as the e is concerned ; we shall henceforth, in giving the pronunciation of the French words, leave the accented e's to speak for themselves, as the learner may now be fairly supposed to know how to pronounce them. COMPOSITION, He had. He had a treasure. Had he a treasure ? Who had a treasure 1 They had. What had they ? Thev had a companion. Hadthey the meat ? They had the meat, two treasures, and three intentions. Had they three designs ? No, but they had three companions. Who had three companions ? The traveller who had the two in- tentions. Who had the treasure ? The two other travellers. When they had the treasure, had they also their companion 1 No, they had poisoned him. After the two others had poisoned their companion, what had they ? * And it may be useful to observe that the grave accent only is used in these cases, the acute accent is never employed merely to distinguish words. 42 COMPOSITION. They had the treasure and also the meat, but their companion had poisoned it. When had their companion poisoned the meat ? He had poisoned the meat during the absence of his companions. Who had conceived a design ? One of the travellers. Against whom had he conceived a design ? Against the masters of the treasure. After having conceived his design, did he execute it ? Yes, he executed his design. The masters of the treasure, had they also conceived a design ? Yes, they had conceived a design against the treasure, and two others against their companions. Who was hungry ? One of the travellers. Had he anything to eat ? Were his two companions hungry ? Yes, but they had something to eat. What had the two travellers to eat? They had the treasure, the poisoned meat, and a companion to eat ? Where did the travellers live ? They lived at Paris. When did the masters of the treas- ure live at Paris ? They lived at Paris after they had killed their companion. Whom did the three travellers as- sassinate ? They assassinated two travellers and their companion. W r hy did they assassinate their com- panion ? In order to have his treasure. After having killed their companion, whom did they assassinate ? They assassinated the two other travellers. Did they assassinate their com- panion after having killed the travellers ? No, they assassinated the travellers after having killed their com- panion. Where did they assassinate their companion. They assassinated him on the road. Whom did they assassinate on the road? They assassinated the masters of the treasure, the three travellers, and also their two companions. They ate. What did they eat ? They ate the treasure. After having eaten the treasure, what did they eat ? They ate the meat. After having eaten that, what did they eat ? They ate their companion. After having eaten the treasure, the meat and their companion, what did they eat ? They ate two other companions. W T hy did they eat their companions ? They were hungry. After having eaten all their com- panions, what did they eat ? They ate each other (se). They died. Did all the three travellers die ? Yes, all the travellers died. Did the masters of the treasure die also? Yes, they both died. When did the two travellers die ? After having killed and eaten their companion. Where did the travellers die ? Two died at Paris, the other three died on the road. During the absence of their com- rade, the travellers ate each other. After having killed some and poi- soned others, the two travellers remained masters of the meat, but after having eaten it, they both died. COMPOSITION. 43 The masters of the treasure assas- sinated and ate their companion, but they both died also. During the absence of their com- panion, the two others had eaten the treasure. While the two travellers remained masters of the treasure, they had wherewithal to eat ; but after having killed their companion, they both died of hunger. One of the travellers, during the absence of the other two, had conceived the design of eating the treasure, but the two others, on their return assassinated him. After having killed their companion, the two others ate some poisoned meat as a refreshment. The poison killed one of the trav- ellers, the treasure killed all three. After having eaten the treasure, the meat, and their companion, the three travellers died of hun- ger. LESSON FOURTH. READING. REPETITION. Il avait. II avail un tresor. Avait-il un tresor ? Qui avait un tresor ? Ils avaient. Qu'avaient ils ? lis avaient un camarade. Avaient-ils la viande ? Ils avaient la viande, deux tresors, et trois intentions. Avaient-ils trois desseins ? Non, mais ils avaient trois camarades. Qui avait trois camarades? Le vojageur qui avait les deux intentions. Qui avait le tresor? Les deux autres voya- geurs. Quand ils avaient le tresor avaient-ils aussi leur camarade ? Non, ils Favaient empoisonne. Apres que les deux autres eurent empoisonne leur camarade, qu'a- vaient-ils ? Ils avaient le tresor et la viande, mais leur camarade l'avait empoisonnee. Quand, leur camarade avait-il empoisonne la viande? II arait empoisonne la viande pendant l'absence de ses camarades. Qui avait concu un dessein ? Un des vovageurs. Contre qui avait-il concu un dessein ? Contres les maitres du tre- sor. Apres avoir concu son dessein Fexecuta-t-il ? Oui, il executa son dessein. Les maitres du tresor avaient-ils aussi concu un dessein? Oui, ils avaient concu un dessein contre le tresor et deux autres contre leurs camarades. Qui avait faim ? Un des voyageurs. Avait-il de quoi READING. 45 manger? Ses deux camarades avaient-ils faim? Oui, mais ils avaient de quoi manger. Qu'avaient les deux vojageurs a manger ? Ils avaient a manger le tresor, de la viande empoisonnee, et un camarade. Ou demeurerent les trois vojageurs? Ils demeurerent a Paris. Quand les maitres du tresor demeurerent-ils a Paris ? Ils demeurerent a Paris apres avoir tue leur camarade. Qui, les trois vovageurs assassinerent-ils ? Ils assassinerent deux vojageurs et leur camarade. Pourquoi assassinerent-ils leur camarade? Aim d'avoir son tresor. Apres avoir tue leur camarade qui assassinerent-ils ? Ils assassinerent deux autres vojageurs. Assassinerent-ils leur camarade apres avoir tue les voja- geurs ? Non, ils assassinerent les vojageurs apres avoir tue leur camarade. Ou assassinerent-ils leur camarade ? Ils l'assassinerent dans le chemin. Qui assassinerent-ils dans le chemin ? lis assassinerent les maitres du tresor, les trois vojageurs, et aussi leurs deux camarades. Ils mangerent. Que mangerent-ils ? Ils mangerent le tresor. Apres avoir mange le tresor, que mangerent-ils ? Ils mangerent la viande. Apres avoir mange cela, que mangerent-ils ? Ils mangerent leur camarade. Apres avoir mange le tresor, la viande, et leur camarade, que mangerent-ils? Ils mangerent deux autres camarades. Pourquoi mangerent-ils leurs camarades ? Ils avaient faim. Apres avoir mange tous leurs camarades, que man- gerent-ils ? Ils se mangerent. Ils moururent. Les voja- geurs moururent-ils tous les trois 1 Oui, tous les vojageurs moururent. Les maitres du tresor moururent-ils aussi? Oui, ils moururent tous les deux. Quand les deux voja- geurs moururent-ils ? Apres avoir tue et mange leur cama- rade. Ou moururent les vojageurs ? Deux moururent a Paris, les trois autres dans le chemin. Pendant l'absence de leur camarade, les vojageurs se mangerent les uns les autres. Apres avoir tue les uns et empoisonne les autres, 46 READING. les voyageurs demeurerent mattres de la viande, mais apres 1'avoir mange ils moururent tous. Les maitres du tresor assassinerent et mangerent leur camarade, mais tous les deux moururent aussi. Pendant Fabsence de leur cama- rade les deux autres avaient mange le tresor. Pendant que les deux voyageurs demeurerent maitres du tresor ils avaient de quoi manger, mais apres avoir tue leur cama- rade ils moururent de faim tous les deux. Un des voyageurs pendant l'absence des deux autres avait concu le dessein de manger le tresor, mais les deux autres a leur re tour l'as- sassinerent. Apres avoir tue leur camarade, les deux au- tres mangerent pour repas de la viande empoisonnee. Le poison avait tue un des voyageurs, le tresor avait tue les trois. Apres avoir mange le tresor, la viande, et leur camarade, les trois voyageurs moururent de faim. Un philosophe passant par cet endroit-la, dit, voila, quel est le monde ! Voyez de quelle maniere il a traite ces trois personnes. Malheur a celui qui lui demande des richesses. In order that the learner may read the above, we shall, as in the case of the former portions of the text, proceed to give the pronunciation of the present section. Un philosophe passant par cet endroit-la, dit, voila, Un fee-lo-sof pas-cwi par set erc-drwa la, dee wa-la, quel est le monde ! Voyez de quelle maniere il a traite kel ai ^ 1 rnond ! Voyai ^ d kel man-yer eel a trai-te ces trois personnes. Malheur a, celui qui lui demande des se trwa per-son. Mal-eur* a^s-luee kee hiee, d-mand de richesses. ree-shes. That the above may be read correctly, the learner must continue to bear in mind what has been said in the first lesson, of the nasal sound, * For the pronunciation of the eu, see article Pronunciation, page 53. VOCABULARY. 47 which we continue to give in italics, as also what was said of the vowel u in the second lesson, and finally, the pronunciation of the accented e's given in the third lesson. We would again urge the necessity of the learner sustaining his attention on these particular points ; this is essen- tial to an exact comprehension of the pronunciation of the words of the text, and consequently, on this depends the chief advantage the learner can hope to obtain from our lessons. The words of our text are not nu- merous, but they will serve as a key to the entire system of French pro- nunciation. The principles we shall lay down for the guidance of the learner in their pronunciation, if well fixed upon his memory, will enable him to pronounce, with a very few exceptions, every word in the lan- guage correctly. TRANSLATION. Un philosophe passant par cet endroit-la, dit, voila, quel A philosopher passing hy that place there, said, See there, what est le monde ! Voyez de quelle maniere il a traite ces is the world ! See of what manner it has treated these trois personnes. Malheur a celui qui lui demande des three persons. Wo to him who at it asks of the richesses. riches. VOCABULARY. The present portion of text consists of thirty-one words, ten of which have already been seen ; and the five words, philosophe, maniere, pas- sant, personnes, and richesses, are nearly the same in form with their English equivalents. This vocabulary will therefore only consist of seventeen words. has treated < these ( those { wo I misfortune Che ( him ( ask J asks j want (^ wants of the Par . by cet < this I that endroit . place la there voila, (see there \ behold quelle > quel > what est is le monde the world voyez . < see traite ces malheur celui demande des 48 CONVERSATION. CONVERSATION. The following new words will be introduced into this exercise : Mesdames, Ce, . Pourquoi, Parce que, Combien, Ladies, pronounced mcdam. it or that, why, because, how much, ) s. poor-kwa. pars-ky. kom-be~EN. how many, Quelquefois, . . sometimes, „ kelk-fwa. Au, . . . to the, or at the ,, o. Etait, . . . was, „ etai. In the reading exercise we have given e as the pronunciation of the word est, is. Above, we see that the little word ce, it, when denuded of its e mute has the sound of s ; the learner will observe from this, that est-ce, is it, should be pronounced es, and for the same reasons that qu'est-ce ? what is it? should be pronounced kes. It may not be out of place to notice here a peculiar manner of putting in French the question, What is that ? The learner is already aware that " what is that" should be rendered by qu'est cela ? but though " qu'est cela" is very commonly used, the form most employed is qu'est-ce que c'est que cela ? This phrase translated literally gives in English, What is it that that is that that 1 Such a multitude of thats looks like a very prosy way of saying, What is that ? If, however, the learner has borne in mind the pronunciation we have given of the individual words composing qu'est-ce que c'est que cela ? he will find the whole amount to kesk-sek-sla ; the French interrogation in reality not requiring more time in its enunciation than the English what is that. Qu'est-ce que dit un philosophe ? Le philosophe dit, " Voila, quel est le monde! Voyez de quelle maniere il a traite ces trois personnes." Dans le chemin. En passant a l'endroit ou moururent les trois voyageurs. Est-ce que le philosophe dit, " Voila, Non, mesdames. les trois voyageurs ?" Est-ce qu'il dit, " Voila, ces trois Non, mesdames, mais il dit," Voila, Ou dit-il cela 1 Quand le dit-il ? personnes ?" de quelle maniere le monde a traite ces trois personnes." Qui le monde a-t-il traite ? . . Trois personnes. Qui est-ce qui a traite trois per- Le monde. sonnes ? CONVERSATION. 49 Comment le monde a-t-il traite trois D'une maniere. personnes f Combien de personnes le monde a-t-il traite ? Quelles trois personnes le monde a-t-il traite d'une maniere 1 Quels trois voyageurs ? Pourquoi le monde a-t-il traite ces trois voyageurs d'une maniere 1 Qu'est-ce que e'est qu'un malheur d'apres le philosophe ? Qui est-ce qui dit, malheur a celui qui demande des richesses au monde ? Pourquoi dit-il cela ? . Le philosophe dit-il malheur a celui qui a des richesses ? Le philosophe dit-il que e'est im malheur d'avoir des richesses ? Pourquoi est-ce un malheur que de demander des richesses ? Est-ce que le philosophe demande des richesses au monde ? Comment est-ce un malheur ? Est-ce que les voyageurs deman- derent des richesses au monde ? Etait-ce a fin d'avoir ses richesses qu'ils assassinerent leur cama- rade ? Est-ce que toutes les personnes qui demandent des richesses au monde meurent ? De quelle maniere le monde a-t-il traite les trois voyageurs ? Qui est-ce qui dit cela ? A qui dit-il cela ? Etait-il a Paris quand il dit cela ? II a traite trois personnes. Les trois voyageurs. Les voyageurs qui trouverent un tresor dans leur chemin. Parce qu'ils lui avaient demande des richesses. C'est un malheur de demander des richesses au monde. Un philosophe. Parce qu'il etait philosophe. Non, mesdames. Non, mais il dit que c'est un malheur de les demander au monde. Parceque le philosophe le dit. Non, mesdames, il dit que c'est un malheur de les demander. Voyez les trois voyageurs ils mou- rurent apres avoir demande des richesses. Non, mais afin de les avoir ils as- sassinerent leur camarade. Oui, mesdames, et leur camarade arm d'avoir le tresor a lui seul mit du poison dans la viande qu'il avait apportee pour manger. Non, mesdames, mais quand ils as- sassinent leur camarades afin d'avoir leurs richesses, ils meu- rent quelquefois, voyez de quelle maniere le monde a traite les trois voyageurs. II les a traite de maniere qu'ils mou- rurent tous les trois. Un philosophe. A tout le monde. Non, il etait a l'endroit ou moura- rent les voyageurs. 50 CONSTRUCTION. CONSTRUCTION. XVII. Malheur a celui qui lui demande de Wo to him who asks it for riches, richesses. We have stated elsewhere, that the English pronouns him, her, and it, when the direct objects of a transitive verb, are rendered in French by le or la placed before the verb by which they are governed ; as They ate him ... lis le mangerent. They ate her ... lis la mangerent. We have also stated that when the pronouns him, her, and it, are in English preceded by to, at, or any other preposition, they are to be ren- dered in French by lui, as The travellers had conceived a de- Les voyageurs avaient concu un sign against him. dessein contre lui. He said into himself ... II dit en lui-meme. In the sentence we have quoted at the head of this article, there is an apparent exception to the latter rule, since we have the word him ren- dered by lui, even although no preposition precedes the him in the Eng- lish sentence. This arises from the mutability of the English language : it would be quite as good English to say, in speaking of the world, " Miserable is he who asks at it for riches," as to say, " Miserable is he who asks it for riches," only the English usually dispense with the prep- osition at in such cases, and hence the apparent departure from the rule we have given. Although the English can in this way say, " Who asks it," or, " Who asks at it," indiscriminately, the French language is not susceptible of any mutable property of this kind ; the preposition a, to or at, must, under such circumstances, invariably follow the verb de- mander, to ask ; we can not say in French, " Who asks it," the genius of the language requires us to say, " Who asks at it." But we may be told that there is no a after the verb demande in the sentence we have quoted from the text: true, there is none in appearance; it will be observed, how r ever, that lui precedes the verb demande : in such a position, lui has the signification of a lui in any other, — lui before a verb is precisely equivalent to a lui placed after one. And we have the sentence who asks it, or who asks at it, rendered by qui lui demande, instead of qui demande a lui, because it is more consonant with the struc- CONSTRUCTION. 51 ture of the language to express at it by placing lui before the verb, than by placing a lui after it. It is in matters of this kind that the judgment and observation of the learner might be advantageously exercised ; the difficulties of the lan- guage are often hid in minute verbal modifications. The property that little words like lui possess of assuming a variety of meanings from a change of position, is also a source of great embarrassment to beginners. A little exertion of the perceptive faculties will do more for the learner in overcoming difficulties of this nature than the explanations of all the masters in the United Kingdom, who, nine cases in ten, are totally ig- norant of the animus of siich detail, and consequently are incapable of supplying the place of intellect to the student. The words of the English language are not in general susceptible of a change of meaning from the change of position ; but in French a word has often a very different signification in one set of words from that it has in another set. For instance, in the sentence — " Un d'eux se detacha et alia dans " One of them departed and went l'intention de leur apporter de away in the intention of bring- quoi faire un repas," ing to them wherewithal to make a meal," the word leur occurs before a verb, and in that position is to be rendered in English by to them ; but in the following sentence — " Trois voyageurs trouverent un " Three travellers found a treasure tresor dans leur chemin," on their way," the word leur occurs before the noun chemin, and in that position has no longer the meaning of to them, but must be rendered in English by their. In beginning to read French, attention to points like these is of great importance : the exact value of the little words being known, the sense of a passage will always be clear ; but until this is the case, the meaning of an author will ever appear obscure. - The sentence we have cited from our text illustrates two points to be noticed in writing French : first, that the verb demand.tr, to ash, requires the preposition a, to or at, after it ; and secondly, that to or at, him, her, or it, are rendered in French by placing the single word lui before a Terb. In the same sentence we observe the word lui, him, rendered by celui after a preposition as well as lui ; the little particle ce prefixed to the lui, is equivalent to the English word that ; celui, therefore, when reduced to its primeval elements, is equivalent to that him, the ce being obviously, in 52 CONSTRUCTION. this instance, appended to the lui merely for the sake of emphasis or euphony ; but be this as it may, celui must always be used under similar circumstances. XVIII. Un philosophe passant par cet en- A philosopher passing by that place. droit-la. We have already spoken fully of the various significations of the little words le and la : we have said, that when le or la occur before a noun, they are to be rendered in English by the ; as, Nous avons le tresor . ., . We have the treasure. Nous avons la viande . . . We have the meat. But when they occur before a verb, le and la are pronouns, and have to be rendered in English by him, her, or it. lis la mangerent .... They ate her or it. lis le mangerent .... They ate him or it. It will be observed from* the phrase we have quoted above from the text, that the word la has also to be rendered in English by the adverb there. When, however, this is the case, the a of the la is always marked with a grave accent, thus — la, as we see it in the text ; there can not, therefore, be any difficulty when la has the meaning there, since so visible a sign is used to point it out. It may be asked, what business has the word there in the sentence under consideration 1 This is another matter, and merits a little ex- planation. The English have the two little demonstrative words, this and that ; — this expressing an object spoken of to be near, and that ex- pressing the object spoken of to be distant. The French have only the little particle ce to express both these relative positions of an object, and are consequently obliged to use some other word along with it to indicate more exactly the position of the object. The words used for this pur- pose are ci, here, and la, there. In order to express the English words this and that, the French are obliged to proceed in the following manner : This world . . . ce monde-ci . . . This here world. That treasure . . ce tresor-la . . . That there treasure. This philosopher . ce philosophe-ci . . This here philosopher. That place . . . * cet endroit-la . . . That there place. The English occasionally employ a similar construction ; for instance, PRONUNCIATION. 53 ia the phrases " Down that 'ere street," " Up that 'ere stair ;" but we presume such phrases are exotics, as the word 'ere or there is superfluous in such cases, the words this or that expressing precisely enough the relative position of the objects indicated. In French, however, it is necessary to say, " That there place," or rather, " That place there," and to employ the adverb there in all cases where the object spoken of is not present to the speaker ; as otherwise, the ce would not, if em- ployed tfione, indicate with a sufficient degree of clearness the object spoken of. It will be observed by the learner, that the adverb la, when employed in this way, is joined by a hyphen to the noun that precedes it, and also that ce is used before a word beginning with a consonant, and cet before words beginning with a vowel. XIX. lis avaient They had, II avai£ . . .... He had. The syllable ent at the end of verbs is never pronounced ; it follows, that the word avaient, given above, should be pronounced as if written av-ai. We may also observe here, that final consonants are generally silent in French ; so that the word avail, given above, should also be pronounced as if written av-ai. The two words avait and avaient, con- sequently, though differing in spelling, are pronounced exactly alike. The learner must, however, be careful always to write in the plural avaient and in the singular avait, as — lis avaient un tresor . . They had a treasure. II avait un tresor . . . He had a treasure. PRONUNCIATION. DIPHTHONGS. In the English language two vowels are occasionally used to repre- sent a particular sound. The vowels on, for instance, in the word house, represent a sound that neither the o nor the u resemble when pronounced individually. The same is the case in French : two vowels are used to represent some one particular sound of the language ; and when two vowels are so employed, they are usually, though improperly called diphthongs. There are in French altogether five diphthongs, repre- 54 PRONUNCIATION. senting five distinct sounds of the language, of which the following is a table exhibiting the sounds they represent. oi is pronounced like wa in the English word wall. ai " ai " " laid. au " o " " go. ou " oo " " good. cm " ue " " guest* The only one of these diphthongs that requires a special notice is the eu. This diphthong is very much used in French, and most French- men pronounce it precisely as the English do the ue in the word guest. The natives of Paris, however, give the eu a deeper inflection, some- what approaching to a in the English word bath. Natives of London, in their pronunciation of such words as birth, mirth, give the ir a sound that, is an exact counterpart to the Parisian inflection of the French eu ; so that they have only to transfer this sound to the French eu in order to pronounce that diphthong in absolute perfection. Those among our students unacquainted with this local inflection of ir, must use the sound of ue in the word guest, which, though not the most elegant, is neverthe- less the most common pronunciation of the diphthong. The learner should now go over the words of the text, and pronounce the diphthongs in the maimer pointed out in the table ; by doing tbi* carefully and attentively, he will make himself familiar with the signs and value of the combined vowels. When he has accomplished this, he will have gained an important point in his progress toward acquiring the French pronunciation ; we say an important point, because the sounds of the five diphthongs may almost be said to constitute the language. We would here guard the student against allowing the peculiarities of his own language to mislead and retard him in the study of French. In English, diphthongs are employed to represent single sounds as well as in French ; but the sounds represented by a diphthong in the one lan- guage, is in most cases totally different from the sound it represents in the other. Unless therefore the learner be exceedingly careful at the outset, he will naturally give the English sound to the French diphthong, and the result will be a bad pronunciation of the latter. The English student of French must also guard himself against the unfixed notions as to the value of letters he has imbibed with his mother tongue. An English diphthong, like the chameleon, has the property of change, varying its sound to suit the convenience of the word in which it is used ; take for an example of this, ou in the words * In all other combinations of vowels beside these, each vowel has its own indi- vidual sound. COMPOSITION. 55 Cousin, court, could, count. In each of these four words the ou has a perfectly distinct, sound. Such a melange can not but superinduce a vague impression of the value of letters exceedingly pernicious in the study of spoken language-. But having a variety of sounds is not the only noxious circumstance attendant on the English diphthongs — some of the sounds of one diphthong are oc- casionally given to another : the sound of ou in could is also possessed by the diphthong oo in good ; the ou in court is claimed by the oa in coarse ; and the ou. in count is enjoyed by the ow in cowherd. It is a favorite theme with the writers of English grammars to say, that an Englishman should be well grounded in his own, before he studies an- other language ; we must observe, that if another language be grounded upon the discordant materials we have been now speaking of, it could not stand, it would soon be swallowed up in the perplexities of its founda- tion, and very probably " leave not a wreck behind." The mingling of the sounds peculiar4x>th to the vowels and diphthongs of the English language, destroys the relation that should subsist between its ortho- graphy and pronunciation, and must at the same time destroy the impres- sion that such should exist. Throughout the whole series of modern languages, except the English, and perhaps the Chinese, there is an in- timate connexion between the orthography and the pronunciation. We do not know much either of the language or of the literature of the Es- quimaux ; but we know enough of both to be aware that greater con- sistency reigns between their written and spoken language than there is in English. The learner therefore must endeavor to divest his mind of the views of language he has obtained from his mother tongue, and re- place them by some more stable notions as to the relation between sound and letter. He must not suppose that because a vowel, or a combination of vowels, has three or four different sounds in his own language, that such is the case in any other. The sounds we have given of the five French diphthongs in the preceding table, they always have, under all circumstances, and in every position : in this particular the French pro- nunciation is not only fixed and immutable, but exceedingly clear and simple : nothing can be more easy than to pronounce the diphthongs correctly, and few points in the language are of more importance. COMPOSITION. He has. What has he ? Has he wherewithal to eat? Is he wealthy ? Yes, he is rich. He has said. What has he said ? Who said that 1 When did he say that 1 To whom did he say that ? 56 COMPOSITION. He said that to the philosopher. He is. Who is he ? Is he a philosopher ? No, he is a traveller. Where is he ? Is he here 1 No, he is there. Where is the philosopher ? The philosopher is at Paris. What is that person ? He is a traveller. What is that other person ? It is the philosopher. He wants. What does he want ? He wants wealth. Who is it that wants wealth ? It is the philosopher. From whom does he want wealth 1 Why does he ask for riches ? What does that traveller want 1 He wants a place. What place does he want ? He wants the place where the three travellers died. He wants also a companion. The person he wants is at Paris. That is a pity. Look at that person going along there, that is a philosopher. There is a traveller from Paris. Look at that place. There is a misfortune. Here is another. Here is a traveller. There is another. This person is like that. This philosopher is similar to that. What a pity ! What misfortunes ! What wealth ! What a philosopher ! What a lot of travellers ! What a crowd of people ! What excessive politeness ! What a place ! There are riches ! One of the travellers said to the oth- er, we are hungry and must have something to eat, let one of us go and buy some meat. Is it a misfortune to be rich ? said two travellers who died of hunger. A philosopher passing the place where the two travellers were eating (mangeaient) their com- panion, said : there is a manner of making a meal ! The three travellers said that their two companions died after having poisoned a philosopher. We are unfortunate, said two trav- ellers who found a philosopher on their road. It is necessary to have something to eat, said a philosopher, after having killed his comrade. We have something to eat, said the two travellers when they found the poisoned meat. Now we are poisoned, said the two travellers, after having eaten the meat. How rich we are ! said the three travellers when they found the treasure. We are hungry, said two persons when they ate their companion. We have a treasure, said two per- sons when they found a philoso- pher. What is wealth ! said a passenger. There are three travellers who found a treasure, and afterward died of hunger. The world treated the three travel- lers in such a manner that they all died. There is a way of going to work, said a philosopher, when the traveller put poison in the meat he had brought to eat. We must eat, said the two travellers when they ate their companion . Here we are masters of the treasure ' said the two travellers after hav- ing killed their companion LESSON FIFTH. READING. REPETITION. Il a. Qu'a-t-il 1 A-t-il de quoi manger 1 A-t-il des richesses 1 Oai, il a des richesses. II a dit. Qu'a- t-il dit? Qui a dit cela? Quand a-t-il dit cela 1 A qui a-t-il dit cela ? II a dit cela au philosophe ? II est. Qui est-il 1 Est-il philosophe? Non, il est voyageur. Ou est-il? Est-il dans cet endroit-ci ? Non, il est. dans cet endroit-la. Ou est Monsieur le phi- losophe ? Monsieur le philosophe est a. Paris. Quelle est cette persoune-la ? C'est un voyageur. Quelle est cette autre personne ? C'est le philosophe. II de- mande. Que demande-t-il? II demande des richesses. Qui est-ce qui demande des richesses? C'est le phi- losophe. A qui demande-t-il des richesses? Pour- quoi demande-t-il des richesses? Que demande ce voyageur-la? II demande un endroit. Quel endroit demande-t-il ? II demande l'endroit oii moururent les trois voyageurs. II demande aussi son camarade. La personne qu'il demande est a Paris. Voila un malheur. Voyez cette personne passant par la, c'est un philo- sophe. Voila un voyageur de Paris. Voyez cet endroit-la. Voila un malheur. Voici un autre malheur. Voici un voyageur. Voila un autre voyageur. Cette personne-la est semhlable a cette personne-ci. Ce philosophe-ci est semblable a celui-la. Quel malheur ! 58 READING. Que de malheurs ! Quelles richesses ! Quel philo- sophe ! Que de voyageurs ! Que de monde ! Que de manieres ! Quel endroit ! Voila des richesses ! Un des voyageurs dit a l'autre, " Nous avons faim, et il faut avoir de quoi manger qu'un de nous aille acheter de la viande." " Est-ce un malheur d'avoir des richesses?" dirent deux voyageurs qui moururent de faim. Un philosophe pas- sant a Fendroit ou les deux voyageurs mangeaient leur camarade, dit, " Voila une maniere de faire un repas. Les trois voyageurs dirent que leurs deux camarades moururent apres avoir empoisonne un philosophe. " Nous avons du malheur," dirent deux voyageurs qui trouverent un philosophe dans leur chemin. "II faut avoir de quoi manger," dit un philosophe, apres avoir rue son camarade. " Nous avons de quoi manger," dirent les deux voyageurs, quand ils trouverent la viande empoisonnee. "Nous voila empoisonnes!" dirent les deux voyageurs apres avoir mange la viande. " Que de richesses nous avons !" dirent les trois voyageurs quand ils trouverent le tresor. " Nous avons faim," dirent deux personnes quand ils mangerent leur camarades. " Nous avons un tresor," dirent deux personnes quand ils trouverent un philosophe. " Qu'est-ce que les richesses?" dit un passant, " voila trois voyageurs qui trouverent un tresor et moururent de faim apres. Le monde a traite les trois voyageurs de maniere qu'ils moururent tons les trois." " Voila une maniere de faire," dit un philosophe quand le voyageur mit du poison dans la viande qu'il avait apportee a manger. "TI faut manger," dirent les deux voyageurs quand ils man- gerent leur camarade. " Nous voila maitres du tresor I" dirent les deux voyageurs apres avoir tue leur camarade. READING. 59 READING. TEXT. Instead of giving a fresh portion, of text, we shall make what we have already given the subject of the present lesson. A few words well known, and a few leading principles thoroughly understood and firmly established on the memory, will be of more use to the learner than a vagrant notion of twenty times the number. The following is the text constituting the preceding lessons, united under one head, and with which the learner ought now to be quite as familiar as with his paternoster. LES VOYAGEURS AVIDES. Trois voyageurs trouverent un tresor dans leur chemin. et dirent, "Nous avons faim, qu'un de nous aille acheter de quoi manger;" un d'eux se detacha et alia dans 1'intention de leur apporter de quoi faire un repas. Mais chemin faisant, il dit en lui-meme, il faut que j'em- poisonne la viande afin que mes deux camarades meurent en la mangeant, et que je jouisse du tresor moi seul. II executa son dessein et mit du poison dans ce qu'il avait apporte a manger. Mais les cleux autres qui avaient coneu un semblable dessein centre lui pendant son absence, Fassassinerent a son retour, et demeurerent les maitres du tresor. Apres l'avoir tue ils mangerent de la viande empoisonnee et moururent aussi tous deux. Un philosophe passant par cet endroit-la, dit, voila, quel est le inonde ! Voyez de quelle maniere il a traite ces trois person nes. Malheur a celui qui lui demande des richesses. GO CONVERSATION. CONVERSATION. In addition to the words already introduced under this head, we shall, in the present colloquial exercise make use of the following new ones. Mesdemoiselles, young ladies, pronounced med-ma-zel. \ there, " ee c of it, or, of them, ) En < about it, or about > en \ them, ) On one, " on From the translation we have already given in the text, of the word dit, the learner will be aware that on dit is word for word one says, but in translating a sentence he should not rest satisfied with a mere literal translation of the words, he should see whether some other English expression will not bring out the sense of the context with greater clearness. The sentence on dit is very much used in French, and the literal translation one says is scarcely English ; some other kind of phraseology must therefore be employed in English in cases where on dit is employed in French, and it is the business of the learner to find these out. The other words of the phrase will gen- erally suggest how on dit should be translated. The expressions they say, people say, it is said, will be frequently found the actual English equivalents for on dit. In the same way the learner will be aware that the phrase on avait apporte de la viande, is word for word, one had brought of the meat, but a moderate exertion of intelligence will sug- gest " Some meat had been brought," as the English translation of this phrase. When the words of a sentence are known, the learner should exercise his ingenuity in supplying the English for the French construc- tion ; by this means facility and accuracy in translation will eventually be acquired. We shall introduce abundantly die pronoun on in the fol- lowing colloquy, in order to familiarize the learner with the use of the word, and habituate him to rely upon his own judgment in making Eng- lish of an expression wherein it occurs. The foregoing remarks are also applicable to the pronoun y, there ; and to en, of them, or, of it ; both of which are of very common occur- rence in French. The word en has already appeared in the text, but in that case it is equivalent to the English word in. En has two perfectly CONVERSATION. G 1 distinct significations , in one case it is a form of the Latin preposition in, and in the other is a contraction of the Latin word inde ; in the first case it is equivalent to the English preposition in, and in the second it is a pronoun, and will have to be rendered by one or other of the expres- sions we have pointed out. The intelligent learner will always be able to judge by the words of the context whether en is a preposition or a pronoun, and it will be necessary for him to pay attention to this distinc- tion in translating the word. We have said that y is equivalent to the English word there. The y is used exactly as the word there, in all cases where there indicates a place, with this difference, that y is always placed before a verb, whereas there is usually placed after one. Beside the common use of the y, in such phrases as il y etait, he was there, an idiomatic use is made of the word, that requires to be noticed here. The French, to signify what is meant in English by the expression there was, say, it there had, il y avait ; and in asking such a question as, " Was there so and so V say there had it so and so 1 y avait-il so and so ? This idiomatic construction will have to be borne in mind in going over the following exercise. The words y, en, and on, being much employed in French, it is necessary that their use and value be well understood. We have introduced them abundantly in our present collo- quial exercise, because the subject of conversation being known, and all the other words, the learner will very easily find out the meaning of these three, and thus he will be able to detect for himself the principle that determines their use. A careful observation of the application we shall make of the en's, y's, and on's, will greatly facilitate the learner in reading a French author, and will pave the way to a clear perception of the genius of the language. Dit-on les trois voyageurs mourur- Non, Mesdemoiselles,* on dit qu'ils ent a Paris ? moururent dans le chemin. Dit-on qu'ils assassinerent un phi- Non, Mesdemoiselles, mais on dit losophe ? qu'ils assassinerent leur cama- rade. Dit-on qu'ils avaient empoisonne Non, Mesdemoiselles. leur camarade ? Les voyageurs mangerent-ils de la Oui, ils en mangerent. viande empoisonnee ? Enf inoururent-ils ? Oui, ils en moururent. * In addressing young ladies, the compliment Mesdemoiselles is always employed in French. f It will be observed that en will be here better translated by in consequmce of that 3 than by its simple equivalent of it. 62 CONVERSATION. Qu'en it-on qu'il avait apporte de la vi- ande ? Avait-il du poison ? Mit-il du poison dans la viande ? Pourquoi ? .... Combien de camarades avait-il? II dit, voiia. comment le monde a traite ces personnes. lis y trouverent un tresor. II dit, il faut que j'en jouisse seul. Trois. II y avait aussi un philosophe. Oui ; il y en avait un. Noh, mais on en avait apporte'. Oui, il y en avait. II y en avait dans la viande qu'un de voyageurs avait apportee pour manger. lis mangerent de la viande. Oui, il y en avait. On dit qu'ils demeurerent dans le chemin. Xon. Mesdemoiselles. Non, Mesdemoiselles. Us y trouverent un tresor. lis dirent nous avons faim, qu'un de nous aille acheter de quoi manger. lis y assassinerent un de leurs ca- marades. lis y mangerent de la viande. Oui, on dit cela. Non, il y en eut un de tue et les deux autres moururent en mangeant de la viande empoi- sonnee. lis avaient faim. lis dirent, quun de nous aille ache- ter de quoi manger. Oui. un d'eux se detacha. Oui, il alia en acheter. Oui, on dit qu'il en avait apportee. Oui, il en avait. Oui, il en mit. Afin que ses camarades mourussem en la mangeant. II en avait deux. CONVERSATION. 63 Avait-on cmpoisonno les trois voy- Non, Mesdemoiselles. ageurs ? Avait-on un tresor ? Alla-t-on achetcr dc quoi manger ? Alla-t-on acheter de la viande ? Alla-t-on manger un philosoplic ? Alla-t-on a Paris ? Dit-on que les trois voyageurs de- meurerent a Paris ? Dit-on que les trois voyageurs mangerent un philosophe ? Que dit-on qu'ils mange rent ? Oui, Mesdemoiselles, les trois voy- ageurs en trouverent un dans le chemin. Oui, on y* alia. Oui, on y alia. Mais non, Mesdemoiselles. Non, Mesdemoiselles. Non, Mesdemoiselles. Mais non, Mesdemoiselles. On dit que les voyageurs manger- ent de la viande. Dit-on que le philosophe avait mis Non, mais on dit qu'un de leurs camarades Tavait empoisonnee . Oui, les trois voyageurs avaient faim. Oui, le voyageur qui se detacha en avait apporte. Oui, les deux voyageurs avaient as- sassine un de leurs camarades. Non, Mesdemoiselles. du poison dans la viande ? Avait-on faim ? Avait-on apporte de quoi manger Avait-on assassine un voyageur 1 Av r ait-on tue un philosophe ? Comment le monde a-t-il traite les De maniere qu'ils moururent tous les trois. II en dit, " Voila, quel est le monde ! voyez de quelle ma- niere il a traite ces trois per- sonnes. Malheur a celui qui lui demande des richesses." Dans l'endroit ou. moururent les trois voyageurs. Oui, le voyageur avait execute son dessein. Le dessein d'assassiner ses cama- rades. II acheta de la viande et y mit du poison. Non, il apporta le tout a ses cama- rades. lis demeurerent en chemin. trois voyageurs ? Qu'en dit un philosophe ? En quel endroit dit-il cela ? t Executa-t-on un dessein ? Quel dessein executa-t-il ? Comment l'executa-t-il ? En mangea-t-il lui-meme ? Pendant son absence ou demeure rent les deux autres ? Quand il apporta ta viande empoi- Ses deux camarades. sonnee qui en mangea ? En moururent-ils ? . . . Oui, ils moururent apres l'avoir mange e. * It will be observed that y here has rather the signification of for that purpose, than its primitive signification there. 64 CONSTRUCTION. Les trois voyageurs moururent-ils Oui, ils moururent tous. tous ? Ou moururent les trois voyageurs ? Dans l'endroit ou. ils trouverent le tresor. CONSTRUCTION. XX. Trois voyageurs trouverent un Three travellers found a treas- tresor ure. Ils dirent Ils mement . Ils Passassinere/j£ Ils demeureren* Ils mangere/zi Ils moururent They said. They may die. They assassinated him. They remained. They ate. They died. It will be observed that these vecbs are all of the third person plural, that they all end in ent ; and if the learner has been attending to the pronunciation, he will be aware that this ent is not pronounced in any of them. If we inquire whence comes this ent, and wherefore it is not pro- nounced, we must go back a century or two in the history of the lan- guage in order to find the cause. In the Latin language, of which French is nothing more than a barbarous dialect, the third person plural of all tenses of verbs end in ent, or nt preceded by some other vowel : this ent in Latin is equivalent to the English pronoun they, and to the French ils. The Franks, when they got possession of Gaul, preferred expressing themselves when speaking in the third person, by a pronoun, and as they do not appear to have paid the smallest respect to Latin grammar, dropped the ent altogether, having found that they could make themselves perfectly understood without it. The Latin termination, however,, continued to exist in the written language even although its equivalent ils had been introduced, and thus a solecism was created, and exists in the language. It may be some consolation for an Englishman to know, that while his own language is yet in a state demi-savage, there are also barbarisms in languages that boast a higher degree of civilization. The French can not, any more than the English, declare itself an independent language ; it is still a " motley clown," one half belonging to the transalpine con- querors of Gaul, and the other half to the Goths and Vandals from be- yond the Rhine. From the one it has got its personal endings, and from CONSTRUCTION. 65 the other the habit of using subsidiary words ; in continuing to use both in defiance of logic and grammatical analog)-, the French only perpetu- ate a monument of their double subserviency. The learner must bear in mind that though ent is written at the end of all the third persons plural of verbs, it is never pronounced. XXI. FORMATION OF A NEGATION The English negative particle not is rendered in French by the two words ne and pas, the ne being placed before the word negatived, and the pas after it ; in this way the affirmative, ils trouverent un tresor, they found a treasure, forms the negative, ils ne trouverent pas de tresor, they did not find a treasure ; and so in the case of all other negatives. When ne comes before a word beginning with a vowel, the e is elided, as from the affirmative c'est, it is, is formed the negative Ce n'est pas . . . It is not. In asking a question with a negative, the ne is then placed before the simple interrogation itself, and the pas at the end of it ; as from the in- terrogation est-ce ? is it ? is formed the negative interrogation N'est-ce pas 1 . . . Is it not 1 We may here observe that this particular interrogation, this n'est-ce pas (pronounced nes-pa), is very often used in asking questions. It is of universal application, and, on being put to the end of any affirmative, forms an interrogative. The following examples will show the use and application of n'est-ce pas : Vous avez le tresor n'est-ce pas ? You have the treasure, have you not? Nous avons faim, n'est-ce pas ? We are hungry, are we not ? Ils mangerent leur camarade, n'est- They ate their companion, did they ce pas ? not ? II alia a Paris, n'est-ce pas ? He went to Paris, did he not ? We shall introduce a series of negatives under the head Composition, for the practice of the learner in their construction. XXII. Ils demeurerent les maitres du They remained masters of the trea- tresor. sure. 66 PRONUNCIATION. In English the use of the definite article the is subject to greater ex- actitude than in French ; the is only used in English when some special object or objects are alluded to ; but in French, as may be observed by the phrase before us, the definite article is used even although no defini- tion is signified. " When the two travellers killed their companion, they remained masters of the treasure ;" there is certainly no necessity for saying here, " they remained the masters of the treasure." In French, however, an article of some kind or other is used before almost every noun ; this appears to be done in order more to point out its gender than to serve any other purpose. We have already said (§ XI.) that nouns sometimes have a different meaning when they have the feminine article la before them, than when they are distinguished by the masculine arti- cle ; hence the article is used in French in many instances where it is totally unnecessary as an instrument of definition, and consequently would not be employed in English. In most of the French grammars we have seen, a large portion is taken up in explaining the use of the article in French, in which the authors generally contrive to embarrass themselves, and create a complication of difficulties where there is absolutely nothing but the utmost simplicity, the article being used in French on all occa- sions that it possibly can be used. We have seen a large octavo volume written on this one subject, and we think the author merits the pillory for his pains ; not only because he has thereby confounded and misled all his brother grammarians, but because he has led people who have no means of knowing better, to suppose that there is a difficulty where none exists, and so to waste, in hunting after a shadow, the time that might be profitably employed. PRONUNCIATION. VOWELS. There are in French, as in English, the five vowels, a, e, i, o, u. Of these we have already given (page 26, lesson second), the pronunciation of the u; and page 39, lesson third, that of the e. The other three are pronounced in French as follows : — a is pronounced like a in the English word part. i " ee " seen. o " o " stone. Besides these, there is the letter y, usually considered in both Ian- PRONUNCIATION. 67 guages to be a vowel. Y is pronounced in French exactly like the i, that is, like ce in the English word seen ; but when y occurs between two vowels, it then becomes equivalent to two Cs ; for example, the word voyageurs is pronounced as if written voiiageurs ; the first of the z's in conjunction with the o forms the diphthong oi, pronounced as we have said wa, and the second t having its own sound makes up the pronuncia- tion (wa-ee-a-shair) we have given of the word in the text. Each of the English vowels has two or three sounds, some of which are enjoyed in common by all the five, but no such confusion exists in the French lan- guage. Each of the French vowels has the one particular sound we have assigned to it, which must always be given to it in order that the word in which it occurs may be intelligibly pronounced. Nothing there- fore can be more easily attained than a correct pronunciation of the French vowels, and yet we know that it is frequently a long time before the learner accomplishes this part of his task. We have said that the letter a has the sound of a in the English word part, but this is not the most common English sound of that vowel. An Englishman, when he meets with an a in a word whose pronunciation he is unacquainted with, will naturally give it the sound of a in made. The French a never has, under any circumstances, such a sound ; and if this sound be given to the a, the meaning of the word in which it is so pronounced will be totally ob- scured. These remarks are applicable to the other vowels. The natural predilections of the learner will lead him to pronounce them all inac- curately, he must therefore endeavor to associate the French vowels with their French sounds. To effect this, he should again go over the words of the text, and pronounce all the a's that do not form a part of one or other of the five diphthongs, like a in the English words part, start, dart ; all the els like ee in the English words seen, been, green ; all the o's like o in stone, gone, bone. This exercise will serve to impress on the memory a fixed notion of the sounds peculiar to the French vowels, that will be of the greatest use to him in his future intercourse with the language. CONSONANTS. Singles. With the following five exceptions, and the nasal sound given to the m and n already spoken of, the consonants are pronounced in French pre- cisely as they are in English. 1st. The letter g- in French before e, i, and y, is pronounced like the z in azure, as voyageur, pronounced voyazhair. The letter j is always so pronounced, as jour, day, pronounced zhoor. The learner is requested 68 PRONUNCIATION. to pay attention to these sounds of the j and g, as these letters are pro- nounced in English in a very different manner. 2d. When s or x occur between two vowels, they are pronounced in in French like z in the English word zone, as empoisonner, to poison, pro- nounced empoizonne. 3d. The letter t before i is generally pronounced like s, as in the word intention, pronounced in-ten-see-on. 4th. The letter r has always the vibrating sound er-r-r of the English word term. 5th. The letters gu are pronounced like g in the English word get, as in the word guerre, war, pronounced ger, giving the g the hard sound. And in the same way qu are pronounced like k, as in the word qui, who, pronounced hee ; quel, what, pronounced kel ; question, pronounced kes- tee-on, &c. These five observations should be read over two or three times, so that they may be well fixed on the memory, as they are essential to a correct pronunciation. The most marked feature in the pronunciation of French is, that a con- sonant at the end of a word is silent. No final consonants are pronounced except r, which is also silent at the end of manger, to eat, pronounced mange ; tuer, to kill, pronounced tue, and other infinitives of the first con- jugation. This peculiarity presents little difficulty, the learner has only to cut off the concluding consonant of each word before pronouncing it ; thus he will pronounce trois, trwa, voyageurs, wa-ee-a-geur, and so with all other words ending in a consonant.* When, however, there is a close connexion between two words, such as exists between a verb and its pronoun, one of which ends in a consonant and the other begins with a vowel, the final consonant is then pronounced with the vowel that fol- lows it ; as, Nous avons pronounced noo-zavon. Faut-il " fo-teel. Son absence " so-nab-sens. We have already remarked, under the head Construction - , § XX., that ent of the third persons plural of verbs is also silent ; the t when fol- lowed by a vowel is however enunciated, as mangerent-ils, pronounced manger-teel. This will be better understood by referring to Construc- tion, \ VI. * There are a few words of which the final consonant is pronounced ; these the student will become better acquainted with as he progresses in the language. COMPOSITION. 69 Doubles. Besides the sounds represented by the single consonants, there are two others used in French, represented by double consonants, these are the liquid ng and the Zmouillc. When ng occur between two vowels, these letters are pronounced like ny in English ; as, La campagne Boulogne pronounced la cam-pan-ye. Boo-lon-ye. enunciating the ye very slightly. When two IVs occur after i, followed by another vowel, they are pronounced like y, as in the word file, girl, pronounced fee-ye. In conclusion we may add, that if the learner has followed up attentively what we have said in this and the four preceding lessons, he is now capable, so far as the pronunciation is concerned, of reading French. There are here and there exceptions to the rules we have laid down, but these will become known to the learner as he pro- ceeds. Once familiar with the broad principles and leading feature of the pronunciation of a language, and the minute detail will be no obstacle ; the learner's own observation and judgment will tell him when a rule may be judiciously departed from. COMPOSITION. The traveller is not at Paris. Is he not in France ? No, he is not in France. Where is the treasure ? Is it not on the road ? No, it is not there. The philosopher is not rich. Has he not the treasure ? No, he has not the treasure. The masters of the treasure had nothing to eat. Had they no meat ? No, they had none. You have (vous avez). You have eaten your companion, have you not 1 You have killed a philosopher, have you not ? You have the treasure, have you not? You are hungry, are you not ? You have wherewithal to eat, have you not ? Have you nothing to eat ? Are you not hungry ? Have you not the treasure ? Have you not the meat ? The travellers did not find a treas- ure. They did not They did not traveller. They did not They did not They did not They did not They did not They did not They did not They did not They did not tion. eat their companion, not poison any other bring anything to eat. go to Paris, pass into France, live on the road, buy any meat, kill any philosopher, assassinate any one. seek riches, execute their inten- 70 COMPOSITION. They did not separate themselves. They did not die. They did not conceive a design. They did not say, " We are hun- gry-" They did not enjoy the treasure. They did not put any poison in the meat. They did not make any repast. They did not see any philosopher. The traveller did not find a treas- ure. He did not eat his companion. He did not poison any other trav- eller. He did not bring anything to eat. He did not go to Paris. He did not go into France. He did not remain on the road. He did not buy any meat. He did not kill a philosopher. He did not assassinate anybody. He did not seek for riches. He did not execute his intention. He did not separate himself from his companions. He did not die. He did not conceive a design. He did not say that a philosopher is an evil. He did not put any poison in the meat. He did not enjoy the treasure. He did not see any other traveller. He did not make a repast. No one found a treasure on the road. No one brought any meat there. No one ate any. No one bought any. No one lived on the road. No one killed a philosopher there. No one assassinated a traveller there. No one executed an intention there. Were the three travellers not eaten ? No, they were not eaten. They are dead (ils sont morts), are they not ? Yes, they are dead. That is a pity, is it not ? Yes, it is a pity. Are all the three travellers dead ? Yes, they are all dead* Good-by (adieu) to the three trav- ellers. LESSON SIXTH READING. REPETITION. Le voyageur n'est pas a Paris. Est-ce qu'il n'est pas en France 1 Non, il n'est pas en France. Ou est le tresor? N'est-ce pas dans le chemin? Non, ce n'est pas la. Le philosophe n'a pas de richesses. N'a-t-il pas le tresor? Non, il n'a pas le tresor. Les maitres du tresor n'avaient pas de quoi manger. N'avaient-ils pas de la viande ? Non, ils n'en avaient pas. Vous avez. Vous avez mange votre camarade, n'est-ce pas? Vous avez tue un philosophe, n'est-ce pas ? Vous avez le tresor, "n'est-ce pas? Vous avez faim, n'est-ce pas? Vous avez de quoi manger, n'est-ce pas ? N'avez-vous pas de quoi manger? N'avez-vous pas faim? N'avez-vous pas le tresor ? N'avez-vous pas de viande ? Les vojageurs ne trouverent pas un tresor. Ils ne mangerent pas leur cama- rade. Ils n'empoisonnerent pas d'autre voyageur. Ils n'apporterent pas de quoi manger. Ils n'allerent pas a Paris. Ils ne passerent pas en France. Ils ne demeur- erent pas dans le chemin. Ils n'acheterent pas de viande. Us ne tuerent pas le philosophe. Ils n'assassinerent personne. Ils ne demanderent pas de richesses. lis n'executerent pas leur intention. Ils ne se detacherent pas les uns des autres. Ils ne moururent pas. Ils ne concurent pas un dessein. Ils ne dirent pas nous avons faim. Ils ne jouirent pas du tresor. Ils ne mirent pas de poison dans la viande. lis ne nrent pas de repas. Ils ne virent pas de philosophe. Le voyageur ne trouva pas un tresor. II ne mangea pas son camarade. II n'empoisonna pas d'autre voyageur. II n'apporta pas de quoi manger. 72 READING. II n'alla pas a Paris. II ne passa pas en France. II ne deineura pas dans le chemin. II n'acheta pas de viande. II ne tua pas un philosophe. II n'assassina personne. II ne demanda pas de richesses. II n'executa pas son inten- tion. II ne se detacha pas de ses camarades. II ne mourut pas. II ne con^ut pas un dessein. II ne dit pas qu'un philosophe est un malheur. II ne mit pas de poison dans la viande. II ne jouit pas du tresor. II ne vit pas d'autre voyageur. II ne fit pas de repas. On n'a pas trouve un tresor dans le chemin. On n'y a pas ap- porte de viande. On n'en a pas mange. On n'en a pas achete. On n'est pas demeure dans le chemin. On n'y a pas tue de philosophe. On n'y a pas assassine de voy- ageur. On n'y a pas execute de dessein. Est-ce qu'on n'a pas mange les trois voyageurs ? Non, on ne les a pas mange. Us sont morts, n'est- ce pas ? Oui, ils sont morts. C'est un malheur, n'est-ce pas ? Oui, c'est un malheur. Est-ce que tous les voyageurs sont morts? Oui, ils sont morts tous. Adieu, aux trois voyageurs. IDIOMS. An acquaintance with a few of the common-place phrases of every-day use will be found of considerable utility to the student of a modern lan- guage. These phrases, in general, involve the most idiomatic construc- tions of the language, and may aid the learner in comprehending other expressions of a similar nature, but of less frequent occurrence. Besides., if the learner has any intercourse at all with persons who speak the ian guage, he will hear these phrases so often repeated that they cannot fail of becoming familiar to his ear, and so he will ultimately arrive at under- standing a part at least of what is said. To charge the mind, however, with a multitude of these phrases would not be advisable ; a single phrase, if properly handled, might be turned to as much account as a whole book of " Dialogues." Suppose, for example, the learner to put in French, to a native of France, the question " What do you call this in French ?" he might by this means elicit the whole vocabulary of the language, and carry on a colloquy of as much practical utility as a more extended con- INTRODUCTORY PHRASES. 73 versation. Again, supposing the learner on the other side of the Channel, the phrase " Which is the way to ?" would elicit an indefinite variety of reply that would be readily understood by the querist. The learner might in this manner get familiarized with the realities of the language, even while his knowledge of it were limited to the two phrases we have been speaking of. All the benefit that a beginner could possibly derive from a teacher is an early induction to the practice of a language, but how few teachers of French possess the art of making themselves under- stood to their junior pupils in French ! Their lessons for the most part consist in illogical explanations, and commonly in so very bad English as to excite laughter — how the ear of the student can be familiarized with the French language by such means we cannot possibly conceive. We shall give for the present, reading exercise a series of such familiar every- day expressions as we may consider most likely to be of practical utility. Of these we shall give the English equivalents, together with the value of each individual word. There is no necessity for us giving the pro- nunciation of these phrases, as the learner who has carefully attended to our remarks in the preceding lessons, can now pronounce French per- fectly well. We shall, however, point out any peculiarity in the pro- nunciation of the words that is not in accordance with the principles we have laid down. INTRODUCTORY PHRASES. Parlez*-vous Frangais ? ... Do you speak French ? Un peu A little. Je comprends le Francais, mais je I understand French, but do not ne le parle pas. speak it. Vous etesf Frangais, je pense, You are a Frenchman, I suppose, Monsieur ? Sir ? Oui Monsieur, je le suis . . . Yes Sir, I am. Combien de tempsj etes-vous reste How long have you been in Eng- en Angleterre ?$ land ? Aimez-vous beaucoup Londres ? How do you like London ? * We have said that final consonants are not pronounced when the silent consonant is preceded by an unaccented e, that letter is pronounced as if written e, thus parltz is pronounced as if written parU ; aimcz, as if written aimc ; rcpeter, rcpete ; and so in all similar cases. f The word etes, arc, is exceptional, the unaccented e not being pronounced ; etes is pronounced as if written it. % When the letters p, d, or /, occur after a nasal, they are usually silent, as in the word comprends pronounced comprang, temps pronounced tang. This is because these consonants cannot be easily pronounced after the nasal. It is for the same reason that I is silent before k, in the English words walk, talk, etc. § An unaccented e before two consonants pronounced as if written e, thus Angleterre. is pronounced Anghtcr ; richesses, as if written riches ; and so on. 74 INTRODUCTORY PHRASES. Vous m'obligeriez si vous me parliez You will oblige me if you speak Francais. French. Je vous comprends parfaitement I understand you perfectly well. bien. Excusez-moi I beg your pardon. Je n'ai pas compris ce que vous I have not understood what you m'avez dit. have said. Seriez-vous assez bon pour repeter Will you be kind enough to repeat ce que vous avez dit ? what you have said ? Fumez-vous ? Do you smoke ? Youlez-vous un cigare ? ... Will you have a cigar] Avec plaisir With pleasure. Merci Thank you. RECOGNITORY. Bon jour, Monsieur . . . Comment vous portez— vous 1 Assez bien, et vous 1 . Je suis charme de vous voir . II fait une superbe matinee . II fait vraiment chaud* . Good morning, Sir. . How do you do ? . Pretty well thank you. . I am delighted to see you . It is a beautiful morning. . It is excessively warm. II fait beau depuis quelques jours . The weather has been very fine for some time. C'est vrai It is true. Y a-t-il quelque chose de nouveau % Is there any thing new ? Rien, que je sache Nothing, that I know. Quand viendrez-vous me voir ? . . When are you coming to see me ? Un de ces jours One of these days. Messieurs, je vous souhaite le bon Gentlemen, I wish you a very good soir. evening. Adieu, Messieurs ...... Good-by, Gentlemen. GENERAL. Quelle heure est-il ? What o'clock is it ? A peu pres huit heuresf .... About eight. Est-ce bien vrai ? Is it true ? Je le pense I think so. Je suis occupe I am busy. .Pai tort I am wrong. Vous avez raison You are right. Precisement Exactly. Monsieur, ayez la bonte de me dire — Have the goodness to tell me sir— — Comment appelez-vous cela en What do you call that in French ? Francais ? * Ch, in French, is, except in a few words derived from the Greek, pronounced like sit,, thus the words charme is pronounced as if written sharme ; chaud, sho. f An s, added to a word to indicate the plural number does not affect in any way its pronunciation, heure, hour, and heurcs, hours, are pronounced exactly in the same manner ; the learner must take care always to pronounce a plural word by its singula! form. TRANSLATION. 75 J'y suis I am coming. Quelle betise What nonsense. Quelle je suis bete What an ass I am. Cela est bon That is good. Je ne sais pas I do not know. Le croyez-vous ? Do you think so ? Oui, je le crois Yes, I do. ENGLISH GALLICISMS. A la Francaise After the French. Honi* soit qui mal y pense . . . Evil to him who evil thinks Dieu et mon droit God and my right. Cuisine bourgeoisef Family cookery. Table d'hote a cinq heures . . . An ordinary at five o'clock. Au bon gourmet Go to the good eater. Dejeuners a la fourchette . . . Beef-steak breakfasts. Fete-champetre A pic-nic. Ici on parle Francais French spoken here. Voulez-vous me donner la monnaie Can you change a five-franc piece ? de cinq francs 1 Que voulez-vous ? What do you want ? Comprenez-vous l'Anglais ? ... Do you understand English ? Je ne parle pas Francais .... I do not speak French. Je suis Anglais I am an Englishman. Vive la reine God save the Queen. TRANSLATION. The following is a literal translation of the phrases, giving the exact English equivalent for each French word contained in them. INTRODUCTORY PHRASES. Parlez-vous Francais ? Un peu. Je comprends le Francais, Speak you French ? A little. I understand the French, mais je ne le parle pas. Vous etes Francais, je pense, but I it speak not. You are French, I think, Monsieur? Oui, Monsieur, je le suis. Combien de temps Sir ? Yes, Sir, I it ara. How much of time * The French like the English, have a natural abhorrence to aspirates and gutterals ; for this reason, nearly all the k's in,the language are silent, consequently when an h is followed by a vowel, the word is considered to begin a vowel, and the rule we have given (§ II.), relative to elision of certain letters before words beginning with a vowel, is applicable to them also. There are however some words in the language, such as honi, of which the h is aspirated : these are usually written in italics in the Diction- aries, and should be committed to memory by the learner. f The e mute is inserted after the g in this word, to show that the g is soft, just as an e is sometimes inserted after the g in the English word acknowledgment, for the same purpose. 76 TRANSLATION. etes-vous reste en Angleterre ? Aimez-vous beaucoup Londres ? are you rested in England ? Love you much London ? Vous m'obligeriez, si vous me parliez Frangais. Je vous You me would oblige, if you to me speak French. I you comprends parfaitement bien. Excusez-moi. Je n'ai pas understand perfectly well. Excuse me. I have not compris ce que vous m'avez dit. Seriez-vous assez bon understood what you to me have said. Would be you enough good pour repeter ce que vous avez dit ? Fumez-vous ? Voulez- for to repeat what you have said ? Smoke you ? Will (have) vous un cigare ? Avec plaisir. Merci. you a cigar ? With pleasure. Thanks. RECOGNITORY. Bon jour, Monsieur. Comment vous portez-vous 1 Assez Good day, Sir. How yourself carry you? bien, et vous ? Je suis charme de vous voir. well, and you ? I am charmed of you to see. une superbe matinee. II fait vraiment chaud a superb morning. It makes (is) truly warm. beau depuis quelques jours. C'est vrai. Y a-t-il fine for some days. That is true. There has it (is there) any chose de nouveau? Rien, que je sache. Quand viendrez- thing of new? Nothing, that I know. When vous me voir? Un de ces jours. Messieurs, you me to see ? One of these days. Gentlemen, souhaite le bon soir. Adieu, Messieurs. Adieu, Gentlemen. Enough II fait It makes (is) II fait It makes quelque will come I vous you wish the good evening. Quelle heure est-il ? What hour is it ? bien vrai ? well (very) true ? Vous avez raison. You have right. GENERAL. A peu pres huit heures. Est-ce Almost eight hours. Is that Je le pense. Je suis occupe. J'ai tort. I it think. I am busy. I have (am) wrong. Precisement. Monsieur, ayez la bonte Exactly. Sir, have the goodness de me dire. Comment appelez-vous cela en Francais ? J' of tome to tell How call you that in French ? I y suis. Quelle betise. Que je suis bete. Cela est there am. What nonsense. What I am beast. That is bon. Je ne sais pas. Le croyez-vous ? Oui, je le good. I know not. It believe you ? Yes, I it crois. believe. TRANSLATION. 77 ENGLISH GALLICISMS. A la Francaise. Honi soit qui mal y pense.* Dieu To (after) the French. Ashamed be (he) who evil there thinks. God ct mon droit. Cuisine bourgeoise. Table d'hote a cinq and my right. Cookery bourgeoise.f Table of guest at five heures. Au bon gourmet. Dejeuners a la fourchettc hours. To the (go) good eater. Breakfasts to (with) the fork. Fete-champetre. Ici on parle Francais. Holiday-field. Here one speaks French. LOCAL. Madame, j'ai l'honneur de vous presenter mes salutations. Madame, I have the honor of to you to present my salutations. onsieur, veuillez re ce voir les miennes. Est-ce la le chemin Sir, will to receive the mine. Is that there the road de Paris ? Voulez-vous m'indiquer la rue St. Honore ? Combien of Paris ? Will you to me indicate the street St. Honore ? How much la douzaine ? Un franc. J lis sont chers. Voulez-vous me the dozen ? A franc. They are dear. Will you to me donner la monnaie de cinq francs ? to give the change of five francs ? vous P Anglais ? you the English ? Vive la reine. Live the queen. Apportez-moi une Bring me a pas not Je ne parle I speak Garcon du Waiter of the (some) coffee. bouteille de Macon, bottle of Macon. Que voulez-vous? Comprenez- What will you? Understand Francais. Je suis Anglais. French, cafe. Quels What Un A Cognac. Servez-moi des cotelettes brandy. Bring me of the ribs omelette. § Monsieur, voulez-vous me omelette. Sir, will you tome plait. pleases. mouton. sheep. le the passer pass suis am English. vins avez-vous ? wines have you ? petit verre de little glass of Donnez-moi une Give me an pain, s'il vous bread, if it to you * Vide Order of the Garter. f This is one of the words that it is difficult to find an exact equivalent for in English. Its meaning in the phrase before us, however, is evident enough : it clearly indicates that the cookery in question has all the exuberance, without the refinement, of res in urbe. t A franc is a current silver coin equivalent to 20 sous. § Macon is a wine similar in flavor to Burgundy, and is a vin ordinaire very com- monly used in the restaurants and cafes of Paris. In price it varies from l\d. to 15i. a bottle. t II Une omelette will generally be found the most satisfactory dish that can be had at a road-side auberge in France. 78 PRONUNCIATION. PRONUNCIATION. SUMMARY. Under this head, in the five preceding lessons, we have comprised all the leading principles of the pronunciation of the Fiench language. In summing up our observations on this subject, we have to remark, that there is an order to be followed in the pronunciation of the letters making up a word, that requires attention. In pronouncing a word, it is usual to begin at the first letter, and to go on spelling the others in succession to the end ; this process must, however, be slightly departed from in pro- nouncing the French words. We have said that there are certain com- binations of letters used to represent single sounds, it follows, therefore, that the single letters composing these combinations must not be enun- ciated individually. Again, of these combinations the nasal sound takes the precedence in pronunciation of all others ; for example, we have said that ai is pronounced like ai in the word paid, according to that rule the ai of the word faim should be so pronounced ; but this is not the case, the im is of necessity nasal, and when the nasal syllable is deducted from the word faim, the diphthong ai no longer exists, the syllable fa only remains, and the fa blending with the nasal im makes the pronunciation fin we have given of the word faim in the text. The nasal syllable must always in the same way go for its full value in a word, and it is only after the nasal syllable has been allowed its rights, that the other letters can claim theirs. We may here remind the learner, that m and n are pro- nounced exactly as in English, when followed by another m or n, or a vowel, as in the words honneur, honor, fumer, to smoke ; but under all other circumstances these letters combine with the vowel that precedes, and form the nasal syllable. When more than one vowel occur in a syllable, the learner must see that they do not involve one or other of the five diphthongs, before pronouncing them singly : in the word beaux, fine, for example, we have the diphthong au, which is pronounced o, then the consonant x being final, and the e unaccented, the pronunciation of this word is in consequence simply bo. In conclusion, we have to say that, if the learner has followed up our instructions attentively, he is capable of pronouncing French correctly ; he will be more or less accurate, according to the degree of stability the different points illustrated have obtained upon his memory. The first of the series of phrases given as a reading exercise in the piesent lesson, is " Parlez-vous Francais ?" if our observations are fresh upon PRONUNCIATION. 79 his memory, the learner will know that p is one of the consonants pro- nounced in French as in English, that a has always the sound of a in the English word part, that r has always its vibrating sound, that / is another of the consonants pronounced as in English, that z being final is silent, and that in consequence the e mute preceding it is pronounced e ; that v is pronounced as in English, that on is one of the five diphthongs, that s being final and not followed by another word beginning with a vowel, is silent, that/r are pronounced as in English, that an is one of the five nasals, that c with a cedilla is pronounced like s, that ai is one of the five diphthongs, and finally, that s, being final, is silent. Our observations providing for all the exigencies of pronunciation, with a very few unim- portant exceptions, the learner may in this way analyze all the words of the language, and by this process he will acquire more speedily, a much more accurate and an infinitely more permanent notion of the French pro- nunciation, than he could possibly obtain from a teacher. Any one wishing to have the French alphabet, may construct one by taking an English A. B. C, striking out the w, and naming the letters ah, bay, say, instead of ai, bee, see. This however can serve no useful purpose ; some advantage might be derived from constructing a table of the sounds, arranged in the order we have pointed out. This table should begin with the five nasals, as being the first sounds in order of importance in pronunciation, and should conclude with the observations we have given in the notes to the text of the present lesson. HOW THE LEARNER SHOULD PROCEED. We have given some general views of the construction of the French language. We have shown how words being known, they may be made of use in practice. We have shown how questions are put, and answer- ed. We have explained the manner of expressing a negative, and we have exhibited the chief idiomatic difficulties of the language. We have also given such a view of the pronunciation, as will serve the learner for every practical purpose. He must now follow up our instructions by a dil- igent and careful course of reading ; we would suggest for this purpose Gil Bias, which is by far the best author for the beginner's perusal, both as regards the style and the diction. Before however he can read this, he will require to make himself acquainted with the desinences of the French verb. We are sorry that the limits we have prescribed for our present course of lessons will not admit of our giving a satisfactory analysis of the verb. The learner must therefore in this matter have recourse to one 80 PRONUNCIATION. or other of the common Grammars. He must make himself familia* with what are called the four regular conjugations, to one or other of which series of changes most of the verbs in the language are subject. He must then write twice over, in full, all the verbs that are not in accord- ance with either of these conjugations. This done, with the aid of a good Dictionary, the learner will find little difficulty in translating Gil Bias. He will very soon be able to dispense with the dictionary, and on arriving at this point his task will be well nigh accomplished ; once able to read a French author, a month or two in France will do the rest. We have spoken of nearly all the difficulties the self-instructer has to en- counter, none of them are of so formidable a character that a little intel- ligence will not suffice to overcome. We are satisfied that a little per- severance, exerted in the manner pointed out, will put the learner who has attentively gone over our lessons in possession of a more accurate knowledge of the language than is ever attained by persons who have acquired it by means of oral instruction. FINIS, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 003 117 642 6 #