§ 191. COMPARISON OF ADJECTIVES.

1. Adjectives are compared by the help of adverbs.

(a) In an ascending scale. (b) In a descending scale. 2. The comparative is formed by adding plus (more) ar moins (less) to the positive. The superlative is formed by adding the definite article or some other determinative adjective to the comparative.

grand (great), plus grand, le plus grand.
moins grand, le moins grand.

grand

3. Petit (little), mauvais (bad),
Latin, one of French origin.

Petit { plus petit
moindre (minor)

Petit, moins petit

have two forms, one of
(Compare Adverbs.)
le plus petit

le moindre
le moins petit

Mauvais { plus mauvais le plus mauvais

pire (pejor).

Mauvais, moins mauvais,

le pire

le moins mauvais.

4. Bon has only a comparative of Latin origin:

bon, meilleur (meliorem) le meilleur

When not followed by another numeral, vingt and cent take s as a mark of the plural, like ordinary adjectives and substantives—

200 deux cents, 201 deux cent un.

80 quatre-vingts, 81 quatre-vingt-un.

Million is a substantive, and can always take an 8: Deux millions.

Mille (1000) does not take s at any time.

For dates after Christ, mil is used instead of mille: 1875, mil huit cent soixante-quinze.

Ordinal.

§ 193. The ordinal are in form the cardinal with -ième added: trois, trois-ième. But

(a) quatre, seize, quarante, etc., lose e final: quatr-ième, seiz-ième, etc.

(b) cinq adds u: cinquième.

(c) neuf softens f into v: neuv-ième.

(d) premier means first.

second. But in compound

Second and deuxième both mean

numbers the forms unième and deuxième alone are used: vingt-et-unième, vingt-deuxième.

Collective.

§ 194. une douzaine, dozen; une cinquantaine, about 50

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER I.

§ 196. Le, la, les.

1. The French definite article is derived from the Latin ille, illum, illa, illos, illas, etc.*

2. Till the fourteenth century, articles, like substantives, etc. (see § 209), had two cases, the Subjective and the Objective. The more common forms were—

Ensi fu li assous devises. (VILLEHARDOUIN, 13th cent.)
Quant li estez et la douce saisons. (Couci, 12th cent.)
Ensi (ils) sejornerent le jor et l'endemain en cel palais.

Par la Deu grace qui en la crois fu mis.

(VILLEHARDOUIN.)

(Roncivals, 12th cent.)

Espousa rois Pepins Berte la belle et gente.

Des douze pairs, li diz en sont ocis.

(Berte, 13th cent.)

(Chanson de Roland, 11th cent.) (Id.)

Les diz mulez fait Charles establer. As usual, the subjective was gradually sacrificed, and we have in Modern French the objective forms, le, la, les, as the cases of both the subjective and objective.

3. The use of the objective as a 'genitive' (without a preposition) remains in de par le roi (de (la) part du roi), de par le monde. Compare Hôtel-Dieu, Dieu merci, bain-marie (§ 209 note).

§ 197. Du, de la, de l', des, and au, à la, à l', aux.

In Old French, prepositions were used, unless (as in the possessive genitive) the relation was sufficiently clear to prevent ambiguity. Many of these prepositions and articles were contracted.

Some of these contractions are still used in Modern French. Thus, of the old forms:

del, deu, remain de l',† du

ès (en les) occurs only in bachelier ès lettres, maître ès arts, etc.

* "Il est singulier que ille ait laissé tomber la syllabe accentuée pour ne garder que celle qui ne l'était pas; peut-être cela s'explique-t-il parce que passant au rôle d'article il est toujours proclitique et non accentué dans la phrase."-LITTRÉ. See however Brachet, le.

tl into u. (See p. 128.)

This is

1. In German grammars, der, die, das, may, according to its force, be called an article or a demonstrative pronoun. true of 'the' in Old English* and le in Old French:

Li rois les oi volentiers,

Et fist trois seremenz entiers,

L'ame (de) Urpandragon son pere,

Et la (that) (de) son fil, et la (=that) (de) sa mere,
Qu'il iroit.

(12th cent.; in BURGUY.)

2. Such demonstrative power lingers in a few Modern French phrases: pour le coup (this time), de la sorte (in this way)

§ 199. Du, de la, des = some or any.

1. The so-called 'partitive article' + is nothing more than the genitive case of the definite, employed in a less precise sense. Thus, in Donnez-moi du pain que vous avez là, the word du would be called a 'definite' article; whereas in Donnez-moi du pain, it would be called a 'partitive' article.

In both instances there is an ellipsis of 'partie' or some equivalent. In the case of the definite, this ellipsis is not usual : Donnez-moi un peu du pain que vous avez là, being more common than Donnez-moi du pain que vous avez là.

2. This partitive article may be preceded by any preposition; as, avec du pain, pour du pain, etc., the preposition governing the word understood in the objective.

§ 200. Un, une a, an.

1. The indefinite article is a numeral adjective employed unemphatically.

NUMERAL ADJECTIVE: J'ai un livre, mais vous en avez deux. I have one book, but you have two.

INDEFINITE ARTICLE: J'ai un livre. I have a book.

2. In Old French it had two cases, like other adjectives, but of these two cases no traces are left.

* See Morris' Historical Outlines of English Accidence, p. 125. The term 'partitive article' is confined to English text-books. French grammarians do not acknowledge it, but speak of the definite article as employed in a partitive sense.

§ 201. Observations on Rules for formation of Feminine of Adjectives.

Unfortunately it would have been inconvenient to have inverted the rules, but it would perhaps have been more correct; for the feminine in most cases is nearer the Latin original than is the masculine; thus,

(a) It is not the Latin f which has been changed into v, but the Latin v which in French has been hardened into ƒ, as it usually is at the end of monosyllables: brevem, bref; novem, neuf; activus, actif; bovem, bœuf, etc. (§ 39.)

but

(b) It is not the Latin x which has been changed into 8, 's which has been changed into x: duos, deux; amorosus, amoureux; tussis, toux, etc. (§ 39.)

(c) Or to take isolated words, compare-gros, grosse, and grossus, grossa; mol, molle, and mollis; nouvel, nouvelle, and novellus, novella; doux, douce, and dulcis; roux, rousse, and russus, russa; coi, coite, and quietus, quieta; bénin, benigne, and benignus, benigna, etc.

§ 202. Adjectives in -eur.

For practical purposes, the ordinary rule that adjectives in -eur, with an exactly corresponding present participle, have -euse in the feminine is sufficient: flatteur (flattant) flatteuse; blanchisseur (blanchissant) blanchisseuse. But a few words interfere with the "rule." They are all substantival forms in common use as adjectives:

(a) The words débiteur, exécuteur, inventeur, inspecteur, persécuteur, have corresponding present participles, but it is not from these present participles they have been formed, but from the Latin substantives, debitorem, executorem, inventorem, inspectorem. Hence they have débitrice, etc., in feminine. (See § 229, b.)

(b) Again, enchanteur, pécheur* (sinner), vengeur, chasseur, have for feminine enchanteresse, pécheresse, vengeresse, chasseresse. They were once only employed as substantives; and -esse, like -trice, is an essentially substantival suffix. (Compare § 229, a.)

§ 203. Vieux, vieil.

"Vieux before a consonant; vieil before a vowel or a silent h.” 1. In Old French vieux (or vieils) was the form of the subjective singular, or of the objective plural, vieil the form of the objective singular and subjective plural. (See § 212.)

Et li viaux hom li dist.

(Merlin, 13th cent.) Je veiz le bon homme vieil presenter le gage. (COMMINES, 15th cent.) In the seventeenth century, vieil could be employed instead of vieux; thus, Malherbe says-L'or de cet âge vieil où régnait l'innocence, not because of the following vowel, but because it was the common form.

* Pêcheur, fisherman, has pêcheuse in feminine.