Son cerca de las seis; es tiempo de salir.
It is near six o'clock; it is time to set out.
Es dificil de agradar á todos.

It is difficult to please every body.

N. B. When a Spaniard asks another, What o'clock is it ?—¿Que hora es? if the hour has struck, the answer is, Acaban de dar las seis, or las doce, &c.; it just now struck six, or twelve, o'clock. If there was almost a quarter, the answer would be, Han dado las seis, &c.

Dar, in that sense, answers to it is, or it is past, &c. It is not, it was not, is generally rendered by no es, no era, &c., when it is followed by a substantive which has no reference to time, by a pronoun or a verb in the infinitive; as:

No es el oro ni la plata lo que nos hace dichosos; es la virtud.
It is not gold or silver which renders us happy; it is virtue.
Es vm. quien lo ha visto. It is you who have seen it.
Es dar authoridad al vicio, no castigar a los malos.
Not to punish the wicked, is authorising vice.

CHAPTER XIX.

OF ADVERBS.

Rule 147. Where the adverbs are to be placed.

ADVERBS are generally placed after the verb in a simple sentence, and between the auxiliary and the participle in a compound one. Example:

No hablo nunca mal de ningúno.

I never speak ill of any body.

Rule 148. Adverbs after the participle.

The adverbs which govern a noun are always placed

in Spanish after the participle in a compound sentence. Example:

Su hermano de vm. ha obrádo segun sus principios.
Your brother has acted agreeably to his principles.

Adverbs of time, and those composed of two or three words, are usually placed after the participle in a com pound tense. Example:

Ha hecho buen tiempo hoy.

It has been fair weather to-day.

Note 1. Many adverbs may begin a sentence in Spanish, or a member of it. Such are además, moreover ; todavía, nevertheless; por esto, or por esta razón, for this reason; como? how? quanto? how much? quando? when? donde, and adonde? where? Example:

Quando ira vm á Francia?
When will you go to France?

Note 2 The adverb casi, almost, always goes before siempre, always, and a menudo, often; and these two go before all others, when several meet together. Example: El rey está casi siempre malo.

The king is scarcely ever well.

Su hermano de vm. y el mio están siempre juntos.
Your brother and mine are always together.

CHAPTER XX.

SYNTAX OF PREPOSITIONS.

Rule 149. Prepositions are placed before the word which they govern.

PREPOSITIONS are placed in Spanish before the word they govern; in English they are sometimes placed after; as:

¿Con quien habla vm ? Whom do you speak to?

¿De que se queja vm? What do you complain of? Para escribir bien, es menester tonér buen papel, buena tinta, y buenas plumas.

To write well, one must have good paper, good ink, and good pens.

When the prepositions de, á, para, por, despues, sin, govern an infinitive mood, they may be separated from it by the negative; and the pronouns governed by the verb, if there is any. Example:

Siento mucho de no haberse lo dicho á vm, antes.
I am very sorry I did not tell it you before.

Ha vendido su casa, sin advertirnos de su intencion.
He has sold his house, without giving us notice of it.

Rule 150. De, á, and en, expressed by to and from.

The prepositions de, á, or en, used to express the distance or going from one town to another specified, are rendered, de, by from; á, by to; and en, by in; as: Voy en un día de Bristol á Wells.

I go in one day from Bristol to Wells.

They are also rendered, from by de, and to by en, in all other circumstances, when they are used to express a distance, or going from one place to another. Example:

He caminado de calle en calle, de ciudad en ciudad, de província en província, sin poder hallár la Fortuna.

I have travelled from street to street, from town to town, from province to province, without being able to meet Fortune.

When the preposition to signifies so far as, it is generally expressed by hasta. Example:

He bebido la copa hasta la hex.

I have drunk the cup to the dregs.
Lo proseguiré hasta al cabo.
I will prosecute it to the end.

Rule 151. Prepositions expressed by several ways.

The English preposition about has three different ways of being expressed in Spanish, as may be seen by the following examples:

1. He venido para hablár á vm. acerca de nuestro negócio. I am come to speak to you about our business.

2. Iré a ver á vm. bácia el fin de la semána que viene. I will go and see you about the end of next week. Está para venir de Irlanda.

3.

He is about to come from Ireland.

Rule 152. When the prepositions are to be repeated.

The prepositions de and d are usually repeated before every noun, pronoun, or verb; or others, such as con, contra, sin, &c. are repeated before nouns or verbs of different significations, whether they are or are not repeated in English. Example:

El Hijo de Dios víno á este mundo para redimír a los hombres, y para destruir el imperio del diablo.

The Son of God came into this world to redeem men, and to destroy the power of the devil.

They are not usually repeated before words which have nearly the same signification. Example:

El Hijo de Dios víno á la tierra para redimír a los hombres y librarles del pecado.

The Son of God came on earth to redeem men, and to free them from sin.

Nuestra ley no juzga á ninguno sin haberle oido, y ex

áminado.

Our law judges nobody without having heard and examined him.

OF CONJUNCTIONS AND INTERJECTIONS. HAVING spoken at large of the conjunctions, page 141

and following, their use and construction have been fully explained in the Syntax in the rules 85, 136, and 139; what we could add here on this subject would be a tedicus repetition of what is before explained under different heads as occasion required it.

The different species of interjections have been treated of, page 143; their construction is the same in Spanish as in English, therefore they require no explanation.

CHAPTER XXI.

OF SPANISH IDIOMS.

IDIOMS are a mode or way of speaking peculiar to a language, and cannot be literally translated into another.

This chapter of idioms is divided into two sections : the first explains the idiomatical expressions of the auxiliary verbs to have and to be; the second shows the idiomatical signification in which the verbs ir or andar, tener, venir, dar, hacer, and morir, may be taken.

SECTION 1.

Idiomatical expressions of the verbs to have and to be. Rule 153. Cases in which the verb to be is expressed by the verb tener.

The verb to be is expressed in Spanish by the same tense of the verb tener in several cases.

1. When it is followed by a word of number, such as one, two, three, &c. Example:

Nuestra casa tiene veinte piés de ancho.

Our house is twenty feet broad.

Tengo treinta y cinco años. I am thirty-five years old. 2. When it is used to ask the age of a person or an animal. Example :

¿Que edad tiene usted? How old are you?