§ 150. Plural of Proper Names. (1) In French a proper name AS SUCH is incapable of plural: Les deux Corneille. (2) In imitation of the Latin, the plural form is given to a few names of families; as, Les Horaces (Horatii), les Gracques (Gracchi), les Bourbons, les Stuarts, etc. (3) A proper name may be accidentally employed as a common substantive, and can then take a plural: Il y a plusieurs Raphaëls au Louvre. There are several Raphaels in the Louvre (i.e., paintings). § 151. Plural of Foreign Words. When a foreign word (or whatever part of speech it may originally have been) has become thoroughly naturalized as a noun, it takes the marks of the plural according to the rules which are usual in the language into which it is adopted. Hence the difficulty reduces itself to deciding whether the word is naturalized or not (§ 141). In the following list will be found most of those words about which there may be doubt in French. *Duplicata, agenda, errata, lazzi, macaroni, are plural words which have been naturalized in French as nouns of the singular number. Concetti and dilettanti are similarly employed, but are not so established. and other similar compound words. § 152. Plural of Compound Substantives and Adjectives. Compound substantives and adjectives are for the most part nothing but shortened phrases.* In the greater number of such words some of the connecting words are omitted, and their place is supplied by a hyphen: ex., un casse-tête, tomahawk. In some the hyphen is present when there is no such omission aide-de-camp. In a very small number the various parts are joined together without a hyphen, and yet the word is treated as compound: monsieur. There are two kinds of compound words (§ 41). Only one kind is spoken of here. EASY EXAMPLES.* A. In such compound words as the following, the phrase is complete. In some a hyphen is put; more generally it is omitted. "An adjective agrees in gender and number with the substantive with which it is in attribution." (v. Syntax.) 1. Hence such plurals as the following: un beau-frère brother-in-law des beaux-frères une basse-cour 2. In the followi adjectively: un chou-fleur un oiseau-mouche un lieutenant-colonel des chauves-souris des états-majors poultry-yard des basses-cours Fords one of the substantives is used humming-bird des oiseaux-mouches des lieutenants-colonels 3. The following words, although written like simple words, are treated as compound, and come under the same .C. "Verbs, prepositions, conjunctions, etc., used substantively, remain unchanged under all circumstances." (§ 149.) Hence § 153. Gender is a grammatical word which means class or kind: it is only applied to words. Nouns have two genders in French,-The Masculine and the Feminine. Nouns have no Neuter. PART I. SUBSTANTIVES SIGNIFYING THINGS WITH SEX. § 154. Names of males are usually masculine; but not always. Names of females are usually feminine; but not always. § 155. Many substantives, signifying things with sex, have a masculine word for the male, and a feminine word for the female.* ($229). They show these forms in two ways: (a.) By the use of a different word. It is evident that the more common the animal, or the greater the difference in appearance between the male and the female, the more certainly will there be a double form. |