SHORT AND EASY ACCESS

ΤΟ

FRENCH GRAMMAR & CONVERSATION,

ON A NEW AND METHODICAL PLAN,

COMBINING AT ONCE

ALL THE ADVANTAGES OF GRAMMARS, EXERCISES, & DIALOGUES;

PRECEDED BY

A PRACTICAL TREATISE

ON THE FRENCH PRONUNCIATION,
CONSIDERABLY SIMPLIFIED,

BOTH FOR SELF INSTRUCTION AND

For the use of Schools.

Longum iter per præcepta, breve et efficax per exempla.-SENECA.

LONGMAN AND CO. PATERNOSTER ROW;

AND J. LOVESY, CHELTENHAM.

CHELTENHAM :

J. J. HADLEY, PRINTER, JOURNAL OFFICE,

QUEEN'S BUILDINGS.

PREFACE.

TO THE FIRST EDITION.

FRENCH GRAMMARS are already so numerous, that the publication of a new one may seem to be quite uncalled for every difficulty, indeed, has been explained in them; rules, observations, and examples have been profusely given. But, on this very account, how much superfluous matter is incessantly met with, even in those reputed the best; interrupting the course of a lesson, or puzzling the young Student in the choice of what he is to learn, or what to leave out; for something certainly must be omitted, as the time usually allowed in schools for studying French, renders it impossible that any complicated and prolix grammar should be mastered in all its extent and details.

EXERCISES, as generally written in schools, are hardly anything else but a mute and mechanical labour; an exercise to the eye rather than to the mind, and none to the ear.

DIALOGUES, being considered as very useful in learning modern languages, are used in almost all schools; yet the sentences of which they are composed not being classified, and therefore illustrating no rules, these books and all those of the same kind, are of no assistance in grounding the Pupil in the important knowledge of Grammar, the only sure basis of excellence.

In the hope of obviating these inconveniences, long felt whilst teaching his native language, the Author of the present volume has drawn up a new plan of instruction, divested of every thing useless, and combining at once, in the hands of an active Teacher or industrious Learner, all the advantages of Grammars, Exercises, and Dialogues; a constant endeavour being made to fix the attention of students and exercise their judgment, by speaking both to their eyes and mind, in the tabular views of rules and examples;-to afford a frequent opportunity to the Learner for remarks, and to the Instructor for explanations, by forcing a continual comparison between the two languages;-and finally to impress with more effect

*See Direction for using this work, page 24.

on the memory the rules of grammar, by reducing them to viva-voce practice, in a copious selection of illustrative examples, mostly consisting of colloquial sentences. By these means, it is hoped, the student will acquire not only a speedy but a complete knowledge of the French Language; and learn at once to write it with correctness, and to speak it with facility.

As to the pronunciation of the French Language, the principal difficulty arises from the words being sometimes written differently from what they are uttered; otherwise there are but two or three articulations in French, which do not exist in English. Now, to remove those difficulties, the different sounds of the vowels and of the consonants have been methodically arranged, and a few general rules, and explanatory observations, given in a short and comprehensive treatise at the head of this grammar: and the Author is fully convinced that any pupil will acquire a correct French accent, with much more facility and speed, by repeating carefully, after a a good instructor, those numerous practical exercises he has introduced, than by the help of all the tedious, perplexing, and insufficient rules of pronunciation. How far he may be considered as having accomplished the improvement he contemplated, the Author does not presume to say, but leaves to others to judge; satisfied, however, that, in performing his task, he has spared no trouble to render it worthy the notice and approval of a discriminating public.

ADVERTISEMENT TO THE SECOND EDITION.

The rapidity with which a large edition of the present work has been exhausted, affords evidence highly gratifying to the Author that his humble endeavours have received a liberal share of public approbation.

CHELTENHAM COLLEGE,

January, 1847.

F. L. M.