4. They have been there for several months. 5. They have visited all of the most interesting cities of France, Germany, and Holland. 6. How long were they at the Hague? 7. They were there two or three weeks. 8. Haven't they been in Switzerland yet? 9. How long have they been

there? 10. For seven or eight weeks, I think. 11. Are they fond of the Alps? 12. Very; my father, especially. 13. Where will they spend the winter? 14. They will be in Rome four months; then they will go to Naples, where they will stay from the first of April until the fifth or sixth of May. 15. They will be in America before June first.

Oral Drill.

1. Quand êtes-vous allé à l'école pour la première fois? 2. Dans quelle classe êtes-vous à présent? 3. Depuis quand allez-vous à l'école ? 4. Combien y a-t-il que vous êtes dans cette classe de français ? 5. Étudiez-vous le français depuis longtemps? 6. Qui a étudié le latin? 7. Combien de temps l'avez-vous étudié ? 8. Combien de temps l'étudierezvous encore? 9. Vous avez des amis qui voyagent depuis longtemps, n'est-ce pas ? 10. Sont-ils déjà allés à Paris? 11. Combien de temps y sont-ils restés? 12. Combien de jours vont-ils rester à Londres ? 13. Resteront-ils en Europe

tout l'été ?

1. At what time did you come in? 2. What time is it now? 3. How long have you been here? 4. How long shall you stay here? 5. At what time did these pupils come to school this morning? 6. How long did they stay?

7. Who stayed the longer, you or I? 8. I was here an hour ago; where were you? 9. Where do you live? 10. Have you lived there long? 11. How long? 12. I have been looking for my pen for ten minutes; have you seen it? 13. Who took it? 14. Didn't you know it was mine?

Lesson 73: The Past Definite.

Pas de nouvelles, bonnes nouvelles. — No news is good news.

Using the above paradigms as models, learn to conjugate the past definite of any regular verb; also, of the irregular verbs already given aller, j'allai, tu allas, etc.; faire, je fis, etc.; dire, je dis, etc.; savoir, je sus, etc.; voir, je vis, etc. Observe that the only change of vowel occurs in the third person plural of the first conjugation.

Use of Past Tenses.

(1) We have seen (Lessons 10 and 67) that the conversational past tense, denoting what happened, is the past indefinite (perfect).

(2) We have also seen (Lesson 42) that the imperfect is used to express a customary or continued past action, or a description of the state of things when something took place or while

it was taking place; also with si in conditional clauses

(Lesson 60).

(3) The past definite is used only in a formal narrative or historical style to denote an action or state which was definitely completed in past time.

The past anterior (compound of the past definite) expresses an action immediately prior to that expressed by the past definite. It is used only after quand, aussitôt que, à peine, etc.

The names, descriptive past, given to the imperfect, and the narrative past, given to the past definite, in the Grandgent grammars, are highly suggestive of the proper use of these tenses.

Study carefully the following examples:

J'ai vu votre cousine il y a quelques jours, I saw your cousin a few days

ago.

Où était-elle ? Elle était chez elle.

Where was she? She was at home.

Etes-vous allé la voir? did you go to see her?

Quand j'étais à Paris, j'allais souvent à l'opéra.

When I was in Paris, I often went (used to go) to the opera.

Le prince Edouard dans cette bataille ne perdit pas soixante hommes.
Prince Edward in that battle did not lose sixty men.

Les anciens Egyptiens embaumaient les morts, les Grecs et les Romains les brûlaient.

The ancient Egyptians embalmed the dead, the Greeks and Romans burned them.

On embauma le corps d'Alexandre et on le transporta en Egypte.
They embalmed the body of Alexander and carried it to Egypt.
Après qu'il eut parlé, il s'assit, after he had spoken, he sat down.
À peine fut-il arrivé que midi sonna, he had scarcely arrived when it

struck twelve.

le libraire, the bookseller. l'ennemi (m.), the enemy.

la bataille, the battle. une épée, a sword.

Vocabulary.

le paysan, the peasant, countryman. louer, to praise.

couronner, to crown.

s'écrier, to exclaim, to cry out.

Exercise.

1. Le roi donna dix louis au paysan et lui pardonna sa faute. 2. Un officier blessé fut transporté chez lui, et ensuite deux médecins furent appelés. 3. On demanda à un petit garçon, pourquoi il désirait du sel; c'est, répondit-il, pour la viande qu'on me donnera. 4. Aussitôt qu'il eut fini son travail, il partit pour la campagne. 5. Il me demanda pardon

et m'assura qu'il me donnerait tout ce que je désirais. 6. La reine lui donna de beaux bijoux; ils étaient dans une boîte d'or. 7. Quand nous étions jeunes, je travaillais pendant que ma sœur jouait. 8. Elle chantait tous les jours. 9. Voici la petite histoire que l'on m'a racontée: Il y avait une fois un homme qui était très pauvre. Il avait une femme qui était malade depuis longtemps et cinq enfants qui avaient toujours faim. Un jour une fée (a fairy) arriva et lui dit, "Mon pauvre ami, je vous apporte quelque chose dont vous avez besoin."

1. The tree fell and killed the man who was cutting it. 2. Their daughter won the prize and afterwards received a beautiful book. 3. After the death of the queen, they crowned her son. 4. The old bookseller often told us stories, and one day he told us the story of his life. 5. The poor man cut the bread and afterwards he gave the knife to a child that was standing near him. 6. My father says that he used to forget everything when he was at school. 7. Who won the battle, the English or the French? 8. Napoleon 9. Was he not a great general

lost the battle of Waterloo.

in spite of that? 10. At last the general perceived the enemy. 11. He perceived that the soldiers were not far from the city which he was defending. 12. What did he do? 13. He seized his sword and cried, "Let us receive them well!" 14. What happened then? 15. His men obeyed him immediately and defended the city. 16. The king praised the general and gave him a magnificent sword.

Lesson 74: Peculiarities of the First Conjugation.

A qui se lève matin, Dieu prête la main.

worm.1

The early bird catches the

All the verbs of the first conjugation but two (aller, to go, and envoyer, to send) are regular, and are conjugated like donner. A few present some peculiarities caused by changes made for the sake of pronunciation. These verbs are :—

1st. Those having e mute before their last syllable, such as mener, lever, appeler, jeter.

2d. Those having an é before their last syllable, as célébrer, préférer, espérer.

3d. Those ending in -yer.

4th. Those ending in -cer, or -ger.

E mute before a Final Syllable.

Verbs of the first conjugation having an e mute in the syllable next before the ending of the infinitive change that e mute to è, when, in the course of the conjugation, the syllable following contains e mute.

1 Literally, To him who gets up early God lends a hand.