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bin in der Stadt; I am in the town. Ich gehe in die Stadt; go into the town. Sie ist in dem Garten; she is in the garden. Sie lauft in den Garten; she runs into the garden. Er schlief in dem Hause; he slept in the house. Er brach in das Haus ein; he broke into the house.

9. von unsern Melodeien.-The preposition von, of, or from, governs the dative. Ich komme von der Stadt, von dem Garten, von dem Hause: in the masculine and neuter it may be contracted vom Garten, vom Hause: the m instead of n shows the dative. Von is prefixed to the names of noblemen: it is the French de. Herr von Humboldt (Monsieur de Humboldt.) Unsern, dative plural of the pron. poss. unser, our. Melodeien, dat. pl. of die Melodey. All nouns in ey or ei are fem. except der Brey, papmeat-and das Ey, the egg: the latter makes Eyer in the plural. Haben sie frische Eyer? Have you new-laid eggs?

10. Die ganze Stadt, the whole town.-Any adjective construed with an article definite, takes an e in the nominative singular of the three genders. Ganz, whole, makes der ganze Kuchen, the whole cake; die ganze Gesellschaft, the whole company; das ganze Land, the whole country.

11. Lobt, and in solemn speaking or writing, lobet, is the third person singular of the indicative present of the regular active verb loben, to praise. The German language has only one regular conjugation, which, like the English, has only two simple tenses.

12. ihre Lieder, her songs, her lays.-All pronouns possessive in German follow the same rule as in French: they agree with the possessor, and in their inflexions with the object possessed. Ihre Lieder, her songs, because they are the songs of die Nachtigall, which is feminine, and then plural, to agree with Lieder, which is the plural of dus Lied, the song-neuter. Therefore, in the singular, you would say, Ich habe sein Lied gehört, I have heard his song; Ich habe ihr Lied gehört, I have heard her song ;Ich habe seinen Bruter gesehn, I have seen his brother; Ich habe ihren Bruder gesehn, I have seen her brother.

13. und von der Lerche.-und is the conjunction copulative, "and;" der Lerche, dat. fem. of die Lerche, "the lark," being an exception to the rule that birds are masculine, on account of its ending in e, like die Schwalbe, the swallow; die Taube, the dove, &c.

14. rief er, " cried he," is the imperfect of the irregular verb rufen, to call, to call out, to cry.

15. wieder, again-adverb; which must be carefully distinguished from the preposition wider, "against," which governs the accusative. Er ist wieder wider mich; he is again against me. The pronunciation is exactly the same. 16. Die halbe Stadt, "the half town, half of the town." The adjective halb, like ganz, and all other adjectives, takes the e in the nominative singular of the three genders, with the article definite; but all adjectives must mark the gender in the nominative, with the article indefinite. Ein halber Thaler, half a dollar; eine halbe Stunde, half an hour; ein halbes Jahr, half a year.

17. lobt ihrer Stimme Schall," her voice's sound, the sound of her voice." Again the pronoun possessive ihr, because it refers to die Lerche, and ihrer, because it is the genitive feminine, agreeing with die Stimme, the voice. All substantives ending in e are fem. except der Affe, the monkey; das Auge, the eye; der Friede, peace; der Glaule, faith, belief; der Name, the name; der Wille, the will; and several collective nouns, as das Gebirge, the chain of mountains. Der Schall, the sound. Hence the regular verb schallen, to resound.

18. fuhr er fort, "went he on, he continued;" imperfect of the indicative of the sep. comp. fortfahren, to continue, to move on, to go on, derived from the irregular fahren, to drive, to move, to ride in a coach. Er fährt mit seinem Werke fort; he goes on with his work. Sie fuhr in ihrer Unterredung fort; she went on with her con versation. Fahren sie nur noch eine Stunde fort; go on but one hour longer. Auch diese lobt man. Auch is "also," "too." The pronoun demonstrative fem. diese, refers to die Amsel, and being placed first, it throws the nominative man behind the verb. If you begin with man, you may say, Man lobt auch diese; this too is praised. Whenever the accusative or government is first, the nominative of the verb comes after the verb. A few simple and familiar sentences will soon remind you of the rule. Ich liebe meine Mutter, or meine Mutter liebe ich; I love my mother. Sie tadeln seine Schwester, or seine Schwester tadeln sie; you blame his sister.

19. Ich musz, "I must," exactly as in English, with

the verb that follows in the infinitive, without the preposition, zu, "to." Ich musz fragen, I must ask.

20. dich doch noch etwas fragen; "I must however still ask thee something." Dich is the accusative singular of the pronoun du, thou, because fragen governs the accusative, and this accusative, as government of the verb, is placed with its concomitant circumstances between the auxiliary musz and the principal verb fragen, as is the rule in all compound tenses. Ich werde ihn heute fragen; I shall ask him to-day. Sie hat mich gestern gefragt; she has asked me yesterday. Doch noch etwas; however, still something. Ich habe Ihnen noch etwas zu sagen; I have still something to tell you. To learn this line correctly, you must divide it as it were, and make a slight pause after doch; thus, Ich musz dich doch. . . noch etwas fragen. This pause will render the pronouncing of the three guttural sounds more easy.

21. was, rief er, spricht man denn von mir ?-denn is the conj. then: "what then do they say of me?" mir the dat. sing. of the pron. pers. of the first person, which must be carefully distinguished from the accusative mich.-Verstehen sie mich? Do you understand me?—Geben sie mir ein Glas Wein. Give (to me) a glass of wine.

22. Das weisz ich nicht zu sagen, "that know I not to tell; that I cannot tell." Das, art. neuter, is also pron. dem. neuter "that." The conj. "that" is spelled dasz. Here you have again the nominative ich after the verb, because the government "that" comes first. Ich weisz das, or das weisz ich, I know that. Weisz, from the irr. verb wissen, to know. The Germans, like the French, haye two verbs for "to know." One is wissen (savoir) to know by the mind; the other kennen (connoître) to know by the Ich kenne ihren Bruder, ich weisz dasz er zu Hause ist. I know your brother, I know that he is at home. (Je connois votre frère, je sais qu'il est à la mai

senses.

son.) Nicht is the neg. "not." Nichts is nothing.

Wissen sie nicht? Do not you know?-Wissen sie nichts? Do not you know any thing?-Sagen, to say, is a reg. verb. Sagen sie mir doch; pray, tell me.

23. denn keine Seele redt von dir, "for not a soul speaks of thee." denn here is the conj. "for," (car.) The adjective kein, not a, none, is formed like the English

none." Ein is "one," put a k before it, like the n in English, and you have kein, none; only we make no difference in the word whether it be joined to a substantive_or not. Haben sie keine Zeit? Have you no time?—Ich habe keine; I have none. Here it agrees with die Seele, the soul. Redt, from the reg. reden, to speak, to discourse, to converse. Dir is the dat. to thee, dich the acc. thee, like mir and mich.

24. So will ich, "then will I." So is here a conj.; it is also an adv. answering to the English "so." "so." Sie ist so schön; she is so handsome. Ich will never is the mark of the future, but always the French "je veux;" from wollen, to be willing ("vouloir.") Wollen sie mit mir gehen? Will you go with me ?-Nein, ich will zu Hause bleiben; No, I will stay at home.

25. mich an den Undank rächen. An is a prep. which means "to," "at." The Germans say, sich an etwas rächen, to revenge one's self at something, instead of " of something." Der Undank, ingratitude, unthankfulness, from der Dank, thanks. But this word is never used in the plural: we say, Ich statte ihnen meinen Dank ab; I return you my thanks. All German words in ank are masc. except die Bank, the bench, the bank. Die Bank von England; the Bank of England. -Sind sie in der Bank gewesen? Have you been at the Bank?-Er ging in die Bank; he went into the Bank.

26. und ewig, and for ever. The adjective ewig, eternal, everlasting, is also, like most German adjectives, an adverb, eternally.

27. von mir selber sprechen, speak of myself.-Ich selber, I myself. But we also say, Ich selbst. Wir selbst; we ourselves.

28. These remarks will enable you thoroughly to understand your fable. When you know the value of every word, its grammatical form, and the reason of its being placed where it stands, you will easily commit this fable to memory. There are many repetitions, which are of service to beginners, and most of the verbs are such as are in constant use. If you have acquired the German handwriting, which is of the utmost importance to gentlemen in the commercial and military professions, copy the fable with care, and learn it from your hand-writing, to familiarize you with the written

characters. But copy it at all events; the act of copying imprints the words more correctly on the memory. Repeat it aloud when you are alone; and as soon as you have mastered it, begin to arrange the words which you remember in different little sentences. Learn to handle the instrument which you wish to use.

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29. We have now to notice the sound of the two vowels o and u. The former is nearly the same in French, English, and German. Die Oper, l'Opéra, the Opera. But the French u has a particular sound, coming nearer to the English u in bury, "Bury St. Edmund." You must shape your lips as if you were going to whistle. When this u is joined to an n, as in un, one," it becomes nasal, and cannot be described. It must be learnt from a Frenchman. 30. The German u, when not marked in the printed text, is always the English double o in "pool," but when the u has a small e, or two dots over it, in the printed text, it is pronounced like the French u. In the German handwriting, the former u (oo) is marked with a crescent, thus, u, and the latter u (French u) with two dots, thus, ü, because the same sign represents the letter n. Whenever a and o have these two dots, they represent the diphthongs a and œ. The former is pronounced like the English ai in "maid," the latter like the French u in "peuple, heureux." Sch, in German, is the same as the English sh.

31. We pass to an easy German Fable, again one of Gellert's. We select it merely because it presents few difficulties, and contains many expressions of common use.

DER SCHATZ.

Ein kranker Vater rief den Sohn;
Sohn, sprach er, um dich zu versorgen,

Hab' ich vor langer Zeit einst einen Schatz verborgen,
Er liegt hier starb der Vater schon.

Wer war bestürzter als der Sohn?

Ein Schatz! so waren seine Worte,

Ein Schatz! allein an welchem Orte?

Wo find ich ihn? Er schickt nach Leuten aus

Die Schätze sollen graben können.

Durchbricht der Scheuren harte Tennen
Durchgräbt den Garten und das Haus,
Und gräbt doch keinen Schatz heraus.

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