IN CONFORMITY WITH THE LAWS OF SYNTAX
PROMULGATED BY THE FRENCH GOVERN-
MENT, BY DECREE OF MARCH 11, 1901

BY

ANTOINE MUZZARELLI

OFFICIER D'ACADÉMIE

PROFESSOR OF MODERN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE; AUTHOR OF
"THE ACADEMIC FRENCH COURSE," 66 LES ANTONYMES DE
LA LANGUE FRANÇAISE, ENGLISH ANTONYMES,"
"FRENCH CLASSICS," ETC.

NEW YORK .:. CINCINNATI: CHICAGO
AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY
1901

INTRODUCTION

THE aim of this book is to be simple and practical. It can be mastered easily in a year and by an industrious student in less time. We have exercised our best judgment in selecting for treatment only those rules of syntax that are essential. We do not think that there is any good ground for teaching students subtle points of grammatical finesse, often in contradiction with the usage of the most classic writers, the application of which can be studied usefully only through the reading of good and well-selected literature. The present work is no mere abbreviation of our Academic French Course, which has had such gratifying success, though the same methods have been followed with such changes as we have judged desirable, both from our own experience and from that of hundreds of our colleagues, in teaching the aforesaid work to pupils of every age and condition, in large classes and in small. Every rule will be found to be in conformity with the reformed syntax, approved by the Academy and recently promulgated by the French government; a reform which will be hailed with the greatest delight by every one, inasmuch as it abolishes or simplifies many rules which have been the despair of students and teachers alike. The extensive vocabulary has been selected with the view of making students acquainted from the very beginning with the forms of everyday expressions.

The portion dealing with phonetics is as complete as possible, although the peculiar intonation of French can be learned only from a competent teacher.

In the application of rules of syntax, nothing short of pure idiomatic French, characteristic of the genius of that language, will be found, sentences being as attractive as possible, on the

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