CHAPTER V.

CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT IN VERBS.

35. In all verbs a) regular,

b) irregular of the two classes,

c) the two auxiliary avoir and être,

a circumflex accent is always placed over the vowel of the penultimate syllable,

b) in the 3d person singular of the Past Imperfect Subjunctive, over the vowel of the last syllable:

Except from this last rule, the verb haïr (to hate) and ouïr (to hear), which keep a diæresis over the ï in the 3d person singular Past Imperfect Subjunctive: ·

36. A circumflex accent is also placed over the u of Past Participle masculine only of the following Verbs, but never in the feminine nor in the plural:

in the 3d person singular of the Present Indicative of verbs Déclore

in all persons of the Future and the Conditional of verb Éclore.

S'enclore
Éclore

N.B. After every regular conjugation a list of verbs will be found in which a circumflex accent is placed over one of the vowels of the stem.

40. A circumflex accent is put over i in

Git Past Participle

Il git 3d person singular of the Present Indicative of Gésir (to lie).

CHAPTER VI.

CONJUGATIONS.

41. All verbs are classified under the four following conjugations. Each of them may be designated either by

42. It is on this classification, adopted by nearly all grammarians, that this new system of conjugating verbs is based.

43. This classification is, however, artificial, for in French there are really but two kinds of conjugations:

1) The dead or ancient conjugations, comprising

The verbs in ir with a simple stem.

ir with a lengthened stem, and called inchoative.

44. The verbs in ir of the living or modern conjugation are called inchoative or inceptive because they mark the beginning of an action, as Grandir (to grow). They have the stem lengthened in: the Present Participle.

the tenses derived from Present Participle.

the Past Imperfect of the Subjunctive.

Que je grandisse

Qu'il grandît

45. This conjugation is, properly speaking, a new creation of the language.

46. It takes the syllable is in the present indicative, which the other verbs in ir with a simple stem in the Present Participle do not, and which are all irregular.

47. The living or modern conjugations in er and in ir have always served and still serve to form new verbs.

48. New French verbs, formed from words or verbs of foreign languages, belong to the 1st regular conjugation.

49. The dead or ancient conjugations have remained sterile, and cannot be used to form new verbs.

52. Regular verbs are those of which the stem is invariable in the primitive tenses, and which form their derivative tenses by means of terminations which leave the stem intact.

Donn er
Donn ant

Donn é

Je donn e

Je donn ai

The stem donn remains intact all through the conjugation of the verb.

53. Irregular verbs are those the stem of which is not invariable, owing to internal changes caused by permutation or suppression of.a vowel or consonant in the stem, but the inflexions of which are made by means of the same terminations as in the regular verbs.

Craind re
Craign ant
Craint

Je crains

Je craign is

54. Notice the change of stem: Craind, Craign.

Verbs of the modern conjugation are all regular, because the stem is always invariable and intact.

55. We follow the division of the four conjugations, because several verbs of the ancient conjugation, and particularly the verbs of the fourth conjugation in re, partici -pate in the regularity of the modern conjugation in keeping the stem intact.

Rend re
Rend ant

Rend u
Je rend s
Je rend is

56. There are also some verbs which, though irregular because of internal changes, keep, however, the stem of their primitive tenses intact.

DIVISION OF IRREGULAR VERBS INTO FIRST AND SECOND CLASS.

57. We divide the irregular verbs into two classes.

1st Class. Irregular verbs, the stem of which is not invariable in the primitive tenses, and which form their derivative tenses by means of terminations which leave intact the stem of the primitive tense from which they are derived.

58. In this first class of irregular verbs we have only to observe the change of stem which occurs in the primitive tenses, and to add to the derivative tenses, the terminations as if the verb was regular, and to keep the same stem as that of the primitive tense from which they are derived.

2d Class. Irregular verbs, the stem of which is not invariable in the primitive tenses as in the verbs of the 1st class, and which have, in certain derivative tenses, a different stem from that of the primitive tense from which they are derived.