106. Do not confuse the preposition 'for,' pour, with the conjunction for,' because,' car ;-où, 'where,' has a grave accent; ou, 'or,' has none;-the conjunction plutôt, sooner,' is spelt in one word; the comparative of tôt, 'soon,' plus tôt, sooner,' is spelt in two words.

107. Si, meaning '1f,' is never immediately followed by the conditional: si tu me donnes du papier, je te prêterai une plume, if you give me some paper, I will lend you a pen; si tu me donnais du papier, je te prêterais une plume, if you gave me some paper, I would lend you a pen.

N.B.-Si, meaning whether, is followed by the future or the conditional: je ne sais s'il viendra, I do not know if (whether) he will come; je ne savais s'il viendrait, I did not know if (whether) he would come.

108. Interrogation: To ask a question in French put the pronoun after the verb in simple tenses, after the auxiliary in compound tenses.

109. With a verb in the third person singular ending in a vowel, insert a t between the verb and the pronoun.

110. With a verb in the first person singular ending in e mute, put an acute accent on the e to avoid two mute syllables coming together.

111. If the subject of the verb is a noun, put that noun first, and follow the rules given above notwithstanding.

112. Questions can always be asked by using est-ce que? is it that? in which case nothing is changed in the sentence.

113. Verbs: The English do, does, did are not translated into French; do you speak? does he speak? did I speak? would be in French: parlez-vous? parle-t-il? parlais-je ?

114. In sentences like 'will you have some meat ?' do not express have :' veux-tu de la viande ?

115. The stem is that part of the word which does not change; the termination is that part of the word which changes. EXAMPLES: donn-er, to give; je donn-ais, I gave. Donn is the stem; -er, -ais are the terminations.

116. An auxiliary verb is one which helps to form some of the tenses of the other verbs; être and avoir are the two verbs used for that purpose in French.

117. There are four conjugations in French; they are known by the termination of the infinitive :

the 1st ends in er,
the 2nd ends in ir,
the 3rd ends in oir,
the 4th ends in re,

donn-er, to give. fin-ir, to finish. recev-oir, to receive. romp-re, to break.

118. The past participle used as an adjective agrees with the noun: la leçon négligée, the neglected lesson; remark that it comes after the noun.

119. Remark that the second person singular of the imperative has no s in the first conjugation, donn-e;— that the e of the termination takes an acute accent in the first person singular indicative, used interrogatively, donn-é-je ?-and that the third person singular takes a euphonic t: donne-t-il?

120. There are only seven verbs in oir conjugated like recevoir, viz.: dev-oir, to owe; redev-oir, to owe still; recev-oir, to receive; percev-oir, to collect (taxes); apercev-oir, to perceive; concev-oir, to conceive; décev-oir, to deceive.

121. In the 4th conjugation, verbs which have a d before the termination of the infinitive do not take a t in the third person singular of the present indicative: défendre, il defend, he defends.

122. Remark that there is no 1st person singular in the imperative of any verb.

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123. A list of the simple tenses, or simple parts of a verb, i.e., those which are not formed with the help of an auxiliary present infinitive; present and past participles; present, imperfect, past definite, and future indicative; present conditional; present and imperfect subjunctive; imperative.

N.B. We use the term 'parts of a verb' on account of the objection some grammarians have to calling the parti ciples, present and past, 'tenses.'

124. A list of the compound tenses, or parts of a verb, i.e., those which are formed with the help of an auxiliary perfect infinitive; compound participle; perfect, pluperfect, past anterior, future anterior indicative; conditional anterior; perfect and pluperfect subjunctive.

125. The 5 primary or primitive parts of a verb, i.e., those which form all the other parts or tenses, are as follows the present infinitive, the present participle, the past participle, the present indicative, and the past definite indicative.

126. The present infinitive forms the future indicative by the addition of ai, as, a, ons, ez, ont, and the present conditional by that of ais, ais, ait, ions, iez, aient.

N.B.-In the 3rd conjugation: drop of recev (oi)r, recevrai, recevrais ; in the 4th drop e, rompr(e), romprai, romprais.

127. The present participle forms the plural of the present indicative by changing ant into ons, ez, ent.

Remark, however, that in the 3rd conjugation we have -oivent, ils reçoivent, for the 3rd person plural.

The present participle forms also the whole of the imperfect indicative by changing ant into ais, ais, ait, ions, iez, aient, and the whole of the present subjunctive by changing ant into e, es, e, ions, iez, ent.

Do not forget that in the 3rd conjugation the 1st and 2nd persons plural only follow the above rule for the present subjunctive: recev-ant, que je reç-oive, que tu reç-oives, qu'il reçoive, que nous recev-ions, que vous recev-iez, qu'ils reçoivent.

128. The past participle forms all the compound tenses with the help of some part of one of the auxiliary verbs; a glance at the table of verbs given on page 134 will show what part of the auxiliary verb is used to form the compound tense required.

129. The present indicative forms the 2nd person singular, the 1st and 2nd persons plural of the imperative by dropping the pronoun subject: finis, finissons, finissez. The 3rd person singular and the 3rd person plural are borrowed from the present subjunctive: let him give, qu'il donne; let them give, qu'ils donnent.

N.B. In the 1st conjugation the s of the 2nd person singular is always dropped in the imperative; donne, give, from tu donnes; va, go, from tu vas (allox ju

130. The past definite indicative forms the imperfect subjunctive by adding to the 2nd person (1) se, (2) ses, (3) see below, (1) sions, (2) siez, (3) sent.

Remark: the 3rd person singular has no s at all; it is distinguished by a circumflex accent and a t: donnât, finít, reçût, rompít.

131. Formation of the passive. To conjugate a verb in the passive, add its past participle to all the tenses of the verb être, to be.

N.B.-The past participle of a passive verb agrees in number and gender with the subject of the verb.

132. Reflexive verbs have two pronouns of the same person-one is the subject, the other the object.

133. All reflexive verbs form their compound tenses with the help of the auxiliary verb être, to be.

134. The past participle of reflexive verbs agrees in number and gender with the object in the accusative case, if it comes before the past participle.

In the following examples the object is in the accusative case, and feminine: je me suis reposée, tu t'es reposée, elle s'est reposée ;-plural, nous nous sommes reposées, vous vous êtes reposées, elles se sont reposées.

FIRST PART.

LESSON L.

THE ALPHABET.

a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, P, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z.

Names of the letters in French.

a, bé, cé, dé, é, effe, gé, ache, i, ji, ka, elle, emme, enne, o, pé, qu, erre, esse, té, u, vẻ, double vé, ikse, i grec, zède.

There are in French three accents:

The acute, used only one : été, summer. The grave, used on e and a: mère, mother; à, to or at.

The circumflex, used on any vowel (except y), a, e, etc. tête, head.

The cedilla is a little sign placed under ę to give it the sound of s before a, o, u: garçon, boy.

The apostrophe is a sign (') which shows that a Vowel has been suppressed: l'ami, for le and ami, the friend.

The diaresis is a sign consisting of two dots ("), and denoting that the vowel above which it stands must be pronounced quite distinct from the preceding vowel: naïf, pronounce na-ï-fe, artless.

B