2. The article is also omitted, but perhaps more for the sake of conciseness and rapidity in (a) Many proverbs: Contentement passe richesse. (b) Enumerations : Hommes, femmes, enfants, tout périt. (c) Vocatives: Courage, soldats! (d) Titles of books, etc.: Histoire de France Voyages en Afrique History of France. Travels in Africa. 3. Before words used in apposition, no article is put in French, but an, a, is usually employed in English : Son père, médecin à Londres, est mort. His father, a doctor in London, is dead. Son père était médecin à Londres. His father was a doctor in London. 4. The article is omitted in English, when Cardinals, and in French when Cardinals or Ordinals, are employed: 5. The article is omitted in French after quel, but usually an, a, is put in English : Quel affreux naufrage! What a frightful shipwreck! 6. The article is omitted in such comparisons as: Plus on a, plus on veut avoir. (§ 498. 13.) The more one has, the more one wishes to have. § 497. Substantive employed in a Determinate sense. 1. Before a substantive employed in a determinate sense, the article (or some stronger determinative) is employed in both English and French: Le Président de la République. The President of the Republic. 2. In many cases mentioned above (§ 496)— (a) The substantive may be employed in a determinate sense and the definite article is restored: Un verre du vin que vous avez acheté hier. A glass of the wine which you bought yesterday.* Demandez des bons chevaux de notre écurie. Ask for some of the good horses from our stables. Son père, le fameux médecin, est mort. His father, the famous doctor, is dead. Le Paris d'autrefois n'existe plus. The Paris of olden times exists no longer. etc., etc. (b) Or conciseness and rapidity may be sacrificed to energy: Les hommes, les femmes, les enfants, tous périrent. 3. Sometimes a stronger Determinative Adjective is employed in one language than in the other: (a) When the sense is distributive (= each), rather than determinative, le is used in French, an or a in English :+ Deux francs le kilogramme. Two francs a kilogramme. 4. Often le is thought sufficient in French where a Possessive Adjective Pronoun is used in English: * We say des petits-pains, des bonshommes, etc., for a different reason; they are compound words. Still we say, trois cents francs par mois, par jour, etc., three hundred francs a month. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. § 498. Article. 1. In imitation of the Italian, the Article is used before some family names: le Tasse, le Titien, le Corrége, le Poussin.* 2. The article in the plural is sometimes put emphatically before names of men: les Bossuet, les Racine (§ 216). 3. The article is often put before names of actresses, etc.: La Duparc, la Béjart, la Dumesnil, etc., etc. La boutique de la Duchapt, célèbre marchande de modes. (J. J. ROUSSEAU.) 4. The article is employed before some proper names of towns and men: Le Havre, La Rochelle, Le Mans, La Fontaine, La Bruyère, Le Maistre, etc. Contrast § 215. 5. The article is not employed before the name of a country, if this name has arisen from that of a town, where no article is put: Naples, Venise, etc. 6. The article is familiarly joined to vocatives: Hé! l'homme là bas, 7. Notice the anomalous use of le (not la) before feminine Latin names of plants, etc.: le nymphæa alba (white water-lily). 8. The article is employed before monsieur (mon+sieur), but not before madame, mademoiselle, monseigneur: Un monsieur m'a dit cela; Une dame m'a dit cela. 9. The article is repeated as a rule. But such sentences as le père et mère are sometimes found. 10. The article is repeated before two adjectives whose meanings are different : L'humble et timide innocence (LITTRÉ); Les bonnes et les mauvaises actions qu'il a faites. (ID.) 11. Donnez-moi de bonne viande is less definite than donnezmoi de la bonne viande (§ 496, e); but why should we not say with a similar distinction, donnez-moi de viande excellente, donnezmoi de la viande excellente ? + A 12. La boîte aux lettres equals roughly Our letter box. similar difference may be found in bouteille à l'encre and bouteille à encre, pot au lait and pot à lait, etc., etc. But why tourte aux pommes, tarte à la crème; confitures de framboises; verre à vin ; bouteille à vin; une tarte aux confitures de groseilles? No answer but 66 usage" seems possible. 66 13. The, before comparatives, is a remnant of the old instrumental case thi. Compare O. E. thî mare = Latin eo magis." *Not before Christian names: not le Dante, but Dante. "Perhaps because the article relates to a whole from which a part is taken. Boire du vin signifies to drink wine generally'; the adjective, by means of its individualising property, destroys this totality: boire de bon vin means to drink a good kind of wine.' The adjective, when it follows, does not interfere with the article, as it only individualises in a supplementary appositional manner: j'ai bu du vin rouge, du vin qui est rouge." (See § 516.)-(DIEZ.) CHAPTER V.-PRONOUNS.* § 499. Some Uses of the Conjunctive and Disjunctive Personal Pronouns. 1. A personal pronoun is said to be 'conjunctive' when closely connected with the verb; 'disjunctive' when for any cause this close connexion is broken. Hence the Disjunctive forms are employed (a) After a preposition : Avec nous; sans lui, etc. With us; without him. (b) When employed as complement: C'est moi. It is I. (c) In a composite subject: Lui et moi sortirons. He and I will go out. Son frère et lui sortiront. His brother and he will go out. (d) In a composite object: J'ai parlé à lui et à elle. I have spoken to him and to her. (e) When either an adjective or an adjectival sentence is put between the pronoun and verb: Lui seul s'échappa. He alone ran away. Lui, qui est soldat, resta. He, who is a soldier, remained. Lui, voyant le danger, s'échappa. He, seeing the danger, ran away. (f) In answers, and when emphatically employed Qui s'échappa! Lui. Who ran away? He. 2. The Disjunctive forms moi, toi (and these only), are employed conjunctively in Imperative affirmative phrases: § 299. Donnez-moi Lève-toi Give me. Get up. 3. The Disjunctive forms moi, toi, lui, eux, are all employed conjunctively for emphasis: Lui s'échappa, non pas moi! It was he who ran away, not I. * Most of the uses of Pronouns have been explained in the Accidence. § 500. Some Uses of celui, etc., and ce. The substantival forms celui, celle, ceux, celles, are more definite than the substantival form ce. (a) They equal in form a demonstrative adjective + a personal pronoun; ce does not. (b) They agree in gender and number; ce may or may not. (c) They are always followed by an additional defining word or phrase; ce is not necessarily so followed: 1. Celui, qui parle en ce moment, est le Président. He, who is now speaking, is the President. Ceux qui viendront, verront. Those who come will see. Celui, dont vous parlez, est le capitaine. He, of whom you are speaking, is the captain. This one is poor, that one rich. Prenez ceux-ci et ceux-là. Take these and those. 2. Ce qui fait le héros, dégrade souvent l'homme. (VOLTAIRE.) That which makes the hero, often degrades the man. J'ai déjà dit ce qu'il faut faire, quand un enfant pleure pour avoir ceci ou cela. (J. J. ROUSSEAU.) I have already said what is to be done, when a child cries to have this or that. Est-ce votre maison? Is that your house? Ce sont mes frères. Those are my brothers. In many phrases where ce is used in French, the neuter it would be thought sufficiently strong in English: Il pleut, n'est-ce pas ? It rains, does it not? L'Empire c'est la paix! The Empire is peace! C'est un trésor qu'un ami. A friend is a treasure. |