A good pronunciation is of primary importance in the study of a living language. The idiom itself may be forgotten; but a correct pronunciation, once secured, is never lost. A table of the French sounds and reading lessons have therefore been placed at the beginning of the volume.

The beautiful simplicity of the English language, in which every thing that is inanimate is neuter, and in which the adjective is invariable, makes it very difficult for Americans to become familiar with the gender of our nouns, and the agreement of our adjectives. It is hoped that the few pages that have been devoted to this subject will be found useful.

The verb, being, as it were, the soul of language, cannot be too early attended to. The auxiliary and regular verbs, especially, should be thoroughly known before the pupils proceed to the irregular ones. The former are inserted in this work affirmatively, negatively, and interrogatively. The list of the latter is complete, and will enable the scholar to ascertain the conjugation of any verb in the language.

The tales, the first two of which are taken, with some alterations, from Manesca's Historiettes Morales, are written in a plain style which becomes gradually more difficult, and are intended to be translated as soon as the pupil has learnt the regular verbs.

The compiler wishes to call the attention of teachers particularly to the Colloquial Exercises inserted in this work. It requires but little expe

rience to make a teacher feel the necessity of colloquial exercises of some kind: there is therefore no lack of phrase books of every description. But they all are collections of ready made sentences, entirely unconnected with each other, and which, consequently, cannot be immediately used and practised upon, but must be kept FOR FUTURE USE, if the opportunity ever offers itself. Whatever the pupil learns thus must remain untouched, and, of course, be forgotten almost as fast as it is acquired; for 66 memory is, in every individual, the result of the associations of his past and present ideas." The more those ideas are diversely associated, the greater is the chance that they will be renewed in the mind; and the less they are associated, the less is the chance that they will be reproduced. And as no association or combination of one word or one phrase with another is thought of in teaching with these phrase books, the inevitable consequence is, that the student is, like the Danaides, constantly filling a bottomless vessel.

A modern language should be taught, learnt, and known in such a manner, that any of its parts, whether words or combinations of words, should be instantaneously at the disposal of the mind, with a readiness equal to thought.

The twenty lessons given here, under the head of Colloquial Exercises, are taken from a work which the compiler is now preparing for the press. A careful perusal of them will enable the teacher to perceive at once the advantages which they possess

ETRE, conjugated interrogatively and negatively,

Conjugation of the regular Verbs,

PARLER, to speak, conjugated with the Pronoun EN,

PENSER, to think, conjugated with the Pronoun Y,
PORTER, to carry, conjugated with both y and EN,

The same, conjugated negatively,

Reflective Verbs,

Irregular Verbs,

Unipersonal Verbs,

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Alphabetical Table of all the French irregular Verbs, 147

Colloquial Exercises

Moral Tales written expressly for Beginners,

Les Béquilles et le Bât,

These letters are divided into vowels and consonants. There are six simple vowels; viz. a, e, i, o, u, y, and

five compound, viz. ou, an, in, on, un.

There are nineteen consonants; viz. b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, x, z.

THE ACCENTS.

There are three accents, viz. the acute ('), the grave (), and the circumflex (^). The acute is never put but over e, thus é, to give that vowel an acute and slender sound.

*The sound of the letters omitted cannot be given with precision, they must be learned from a teacher.

The grave is put chiefly on the e, thus è, to give that vowel an open and grave sound.

The circumflex serves to give a broad and long sound to the vowel over which it is placed, thus, â, ê, î, ô, û.

Different Sounds of the simple and compound Vowels.

1. a, short, sounds like a in fat.

2. â, long,

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a in arm.

at the end of monosyllables, sounds like u in tub.

is mute in the middle or at the end of words; thus, brasserie is pronounced brass'ri.

4. é, sounds like a in able.

9. u, no similar sound in English. (The w as com

monly pronounced in the word twenty is very nearly the sound of the French u.)

10. ou, sounds like oo in cool.