A SHORT AND EASY ACCESS TO FRENCH GRAMMAR & CONVERSATION, ON A NEW AND METHODICAL PLAN, WHEREBY A GREAT SAVING OF TIME IS OBTAINED; PRECEDED DY A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON THE FRENCH PRONUNCIATION, UPON A MOST EASY AND INFALLIBLE SYSTEM; For the use of Schools, CHIEFLY THOSE WHERE HAMEL'S OR LEVIZAC'S EXERCISES ARE USED. Longum iter per præcepta, breve et efficax per exempla.-SENECA. BY F. L. MURGEAUD, PROFESSOR OF LANGUAGES, AND FRENCH MASTER TO THE LONDON: (LATE SCATCHERD AND LETTERMAN.) 1842. PREFACE. THE great number of French Grammars already in existence, seems to render quite unnecessary the publication of a new one: every thing, indeed, of what is difficult has been explained in them; rules, observations, and examples, have been profusely given but, on this very account, how much superfluous matter is incessantly met with, even in those reputed the best, interrupting the course of a lesson, or puzzling the young student in the choice of what he is to learn, or what to leave out; for certain it is that something must be omitted, as the time usually allowed in schools for studying French, will not permit him to commit the whole to memory. It is in the hope of obviating this inconvenience, long felt whilst teaching his native language, that the Author of the present work has drawn up a new plan of instruction for the most rapid way of improvement that he could devise; always endeavouring to fix the attention of students, and exercise their judgment, by speaking both to their eyes and mind, in the tabular view of his rules and examples; to afford a constant opportunity to the learner for remarks, and to the instructor for explanations, by forcing a continual comparison between the two languages; and to impress with more effect on the memory the rules of grammar, by reducing them to practice, in a copious selection of illustrative examples; while, at the same time, the power of conversing is progressively acquired; an object which, as experience shows, has never yet been attained through the mute and almost mechanical labour of writing exercises: however, the present work is not intended to suppress them entirely, but rather to accompany the learners, as a powerful auxiliary, in their progress through their exercise-book, and it may be put into their hands instead of a common dialogue-book, or others of the same kind which are of no assistance in grounding the pupil in the important rules of grammar. As to the pronunciation of the French language, the principal difficulty arises from the words being sometimes written differently to what they are uttered; otherwise there are but two or three articulations in French which do not exist in English. Now, to remove those difficulties, the different sounds of the vowels and of the consonants have been methodically arranged, and a few general rules, and explanatory observations, given in a short and comprehensive treatise at the head of this grammar: and the Author is fully convinced that any pupil will acquire a correct French accent with much more facility and speed by repeating carefully, after a good instructor, those numerous practical exercises he has introduced, than by the help of all the tedious, perplexing, and insufficient rules of pronunciation. How far he may be considered as having accomplished the improvement he contemplated, the Author does not presume to say, but leaves to others to judge; satisfied, however, that, in performing his task, he has spared no trouble to render it worthy the notice and approval of a discriminating public. F. L. M. STEPNEY GRAMMAR SCHOOL, February, 1842. |