beath's Modern Language Series FIRST YEAR FRENCH FOR YOUNG BEGINNERS BY J. E. MANSION, B.-es-L. SENIOR MODERN LANGUAGE MASTER, ROYAL BELFAST ACADEMICAL INSTITUTION BOSTON, U. S. A. D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS 1906 PREFACE. THE following lessons have been composed for children who, being past the kindergarten stage, may reasonably be taught the essentials of grammar, but who are still too young to study such a text-book as Messrs Fraser and Squair's French Grammar, in which the "pace" is made rather for pupils of twelve or thirteen than for children of nine or ten years of age. The grammar is therefore limited to the most usual tenses of the indicative mood, and to the essential components of the simple sentence. An attempt has been made, however, to facilitate the teaching of French spelling and pronunciation by introducing the difficulties gradually, and concentrating attention on them as they Occur. The nasal sounds, for instance, are introduced one at a time, and not before the eighth lesson; "mouillée" does not appear before Lesson XV. The writer has found this plan successful in his own teaching, and ventures to hope that it may commend itself, and prove useful, to others. For the convenience of teachers the twenty-seven lessons have been reproduced in the phonetic notation now generally adopted. The pronunciation indicated is that which is perhaps best suited to class teaching; mute e's are generally dropped, also final and in difficult consonantal groups, j and d are frequently unvoiced; but such contractions as kekfwa for kelkǝfwa, msjø for mɔsjø, i sɔ̃ for il sɔ̃, sif Sчi for si 3 sчi, have not been adopted. The pronunciation as given by Messrs Hatzfeld and Darmesteter has occasionally been adopted in preference to that of M. Paul Passy, V |