LE TELLIER'S FRENCH GRAMMAR; TRANSLATED, AND PRACTICALLY ADAPTED FOR ENGLISH TEACHING, BY F. J. WATTEZ, FRENCH MASTER IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND METROPOLITAN CENTRAL LONDON: JOHN W. PARKER, WEST STRAND. M.DCCC.XXXIX. 197. PREFACE. THE French Grammar of M. Le Tellier, (the forty-eighth edition of which is published,) has, from its first appearance, enjoyed so great a degree of popularity in France, both from its conciseness and superiority over all works of the same kind, that I have been induced to adapt it to the system of instruction pursued in this country, and to offer it to the English public as an authority on which they may place implicit reliance. To have given a literal translation of this work, retaining at the same time the classification adopted by the author, would not altogether have answered the object in view; for, so materially do the English and French languages differ in their general construction, that observations and explanations must, of necessity, be of frequent Occurrence. It would indeed be superfluous to enumerate many instances in which such additions are needed;-the two following may suffice; the former of which is a source of great difficulty to the English student. 1. A. personal pronoun, when the object of the verb, is invariably placed after it in English-the contrary generally happens in French; these instances I have presented in all their variations. 2. Again-Rules are given for conjugating verbs negatively, interrogatively, &c. No notice has been taken by M. Le Tellier of either of those points, because he naturally supposed that a French pupil, is from his infancy, so familiar with the idiom of his vernacular tongue, that he seldom, if ever, makes a blunder in this part of the study of his language. It may not be irrelevant here to state, that the deviations I have deemed necessary to make from the original, as well as the additions to it which I thought requisite, are the result of careful attention and long experience. They are distinguished by the sign. On every rule copious exercises have been framed, and numbered with reference to the rules, so as to lead the pupil to a proper |