PREFACE. "Grammar, as the master-key of the human mind, is the first object in the cultivation of the understanding.”— (The Linguist.) Presque partout, deux hommes d'esprit, de nation diverse, qui se rencontrent, s'accordent à parler français."— (Préf. du Dict. de l'Acad. franç.) WE read, in a recent London publication, that there are about one hundred French Grammars for the use of English students. But, How many of these exhibit the orthography and rules of the language as they are fixed at the present day? It is the impossibility of satisfactorily answering this question, that first suggested to me the idea of producing a work which, without being a mere compilation, should embody the substance of the latest decisions of the French Academy, with the most lucid and concise rules of the best modern French Grammarians. The single fact of the French Academy having lately published a new edition of their Dictionary, entirely revised and greatly enlarged, shows in an obvious point of view the call that is made for a new and improved French Grammar. My plan, in this publication, has been to give everything useful, and nothing superfluous.* I have studied to make the definitions at once clear and precise, that they may be readily * Some Grammarians devote fifty pages to the declensions of nouns and pronouns, while the French language has no declension. † Many encroach on the province of the Teacher, and encumber their pages by giving a repetition of all the conjugations interrogatively and negatively, when one, as a model, is quite sufficient. Others give elaborate treatises on pronunciation, which can never be properly learned from books, and are quite unnecessary, since a good French Teacher can now be found in every town and village of the United Kingdom, from whom more knowledge of pronunciation will be obtained in one lesson than in one year from all the books ever published on this subject. "La Langue française n'a point, et ne peut avoir, de déclinaisons; on doit purger nos Grammaires de tout ce fatras, de toutes ces superfluités qui sont. plus propres à nuire qu'à servir à l'intelligence de la Langue." (DEMANDRE, Dict. de l'Elocution française.) For the Use of Colleges, Schools, and Private Students. NEW GRAMMAR OF FRENCH GRAMMARS: COMPRISING THE SUBSTANCE OF ALL THE MOST APPROVED FRENCH GRAMMARS EXTANT, BUT MORE ESPECIALLY OF THE STANDARD WORK "GRAMMAIRE DES GRAMMAIRES," SANCTIONED BY THE FRENCH ACADEMY AND THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS, WITH NUMEROUS EXERCISES AND EXAMPLES ILLUSTRATIVE OF EVERY RULE. BY DR. V. DE FIVAS, M.A., F.E.I.S., MEMBER OF THE GRAMMATICAL SOCIETY OF PARIS, ETC. LONDON: CROSBY LOCKWOOD AND SON, FIFTY-SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED-1892. PREFACE. "Grammar, as the master-key of the human mind, is the Presque partout, deux hommes d'esprit, de nation diverse, WE read, in a recent London publication, that there are about one hundred French Grammars for the use of English students. But, How many of these exhibit the orthography and rules of the language as they are fixed at the present day? It is the impossibility of satisfactorily answering this question, that first suggested to me the idea of producing a work which, without being a mere compilation, should embody the substance of the latest decisions of the French Academy, with the most lucid and concise rules of the best modern French Grammarians. The single fact of the French Academy having lately published a new edition of their Dictionary, entirely revised and greatly enlarged, shows in an obvious point of view the call that is made for a new and improved French Grammar. My plan, in this publication, has been to give everything useful, and nothing superfluous.* I have studied to make the definitions at once clear and precise, that they may be readily * Some Grammarians devote fifty pages to the declensions of nouns and pronouns, while the French language has no declension. Many encroach on the province of the Teacher, and encumber their pages by giving a repetition of all the conjugations interrogatively and negatively, when one, as a model, is quite sufficient. Others give elaborate treatises on pronunciation, which can never be properly learned from books, and are quite unnecessary, since a good French Teacher can now be found in every town and village of the United Kingdom, from whom more knowledge of pronunciation will be obtained in one lesson than in one year from all the books ever published on this subject. "La Langue française n'a point, et ne peut avoir, de déclinaisons; on doit purger nos Grammaires de tout ce fatras, de toutes ces superfluités qui sont. plus propres à nuire qu'à servir à l'intelligence de la Langue." (DEMANDRE, Dict. de l'Elocution française.) |