A French grammar |
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Common terms and phrases
adverb adverb of quantity agree alluded autres avait avant avez avoir beau bien c'est Champagne province chanter cher Chevau-léger chose Chouans conjunction davantage dernier dessous determinative words deux devant devoir direct object Elle English envers êtes êtes-vous faire fait faut feminine followed French French language gender and number gens govern grammars heure homme imply infinitive instances interrogative invariably ition J'ai j'en l'ai L'un et l'autre language Latin livre maison masculine Midi mieux Molière Munchausen n'en n'est negative noun past participle pauvre pendant PERSONAL PRONOUNS persons or things peur peut pike weapon plaisant plural possessive adjective precede preposition present participle principal sentence qu'elle qu'il qu'on quelques quoi reference relative pronouns rendered rien rule s'en aille s'est s'il seul singular speaking subjunctive tenses translated travail vaisseau verb verb être verbs expressed vient voici voilà voulez-vous whilst write
Popular passages
Page 129 - And yet, (said I) people go through the world very well, and carry on the business of life to good advantage, without learning." JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, that may be true in cases where learning cannot possibly be of any use ; for instance, this boy rows us as well without learning as if he could sing the song of Orpheus to the Argonauts, who were the first sailors." He then called to the boy, "What would you give, my lad, to know about the Argonauts?" "Sir, (said the boy) I would give what I have.
Page 131 - He was," replied the merchants. " Had he not lost a front tooth ?" said the dervise. " He had," rejoined the merchants. " And was he not loaded with honey on one "side, and wheat on the other ?"
Page 134 - Consider how, even in the meanest sorts of Labour, the whole soul of a man is composed into a kind of real harmony, the instant he sets himself to work ! Doubt, Desire, Sorrow, Remorse, Indignation, Despair itself, all these like helldogs lie beleaguering the soul of the poor dayworker, as of every man : but he bends himself with free valour against his task, and all these are stilled, all these shrink murmuring far off into their caves. The man is now a man.
Page 134 - ... man is composed into a kind of real harmony, the instant he sets himself to work ! Doubt, Desire, Sorrow, Remorse, Indignation, Despair itself, all these like helldogs lie beleaguering the soul of the poor dayworker, as of every man : but he bends himself with free valour against his task, and all these are stilled, all these shrink murmuring far off into their caves. The man is now a man. The blessed glow of Labour in him, is it not as purifying fire, wherein all poison is burnt up, and of sour...
Page 130 - Expel Greek and Latin from your schools, and you confine the views of the existing generation to themselves and their immediate predecessors : you will cut off so many centuries of the world's experience, and place us in the same state as if the human race had first come into existence in the year 1500.
Page 129 - The grand doctrine, that every human being should have the means of self-culture, of progress in knowledge and virtue, of health, comfort and happiness, of exercising the powers and* affections of a man ; this is slowly taking its place, as the highest social truth.
Page 131 - Aristotle, and Plato, and Thucydides, and Cicero, and Tacitus, are most untruly called ancient writers ; they are virtually our own countrymen and contemporaries, but have the advantage which is enjoyed by intelligent travellers, that their observation has been exercised in a field out of the reach of common men...
Page 131 - They were then about to proceed against him as a sorcerer, when the dervise, with great calmness, thus addressed the court: " I have been much amused with your surprise, and own that there has been some ground for your suspicions ; but I have lived long, and alone ; and I can find ample scope for observation, even in a desert.
Page 131 - ... called ancient writers; they are virtually our own countrymen and contemporaries, but have the advantage which is enjoyed by intelligent travellers, that their observation has been exercised in a field out of the reach of common men; and that having thus seen in a manner with our eyes what we cannot see for ourselves, their conclusions are such as bear upon our own circumstances, while their information has all the charm of novelty, and all the value of a mass of new and pertinent facts, illustrative...
Page 131 - You have lost a camel," said he to the merchants. "Indeed we have," they replied. "Was he not blind in his right eye, and lame in his left leg?" said the Dervise. "He was,