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une peinture, fem. a painting. There are above 300 words in ure of the fem. and only 5 of the masc.: two of which, le murmure, murmur, and le parjure, perjury, are of frequent recurrence, and must be carefully remembered as exceptions. Peinture, like the English, painting, signifies both the art of the painter and his performance. Un tableau, is the general word for a picture; hence we say, la gallerie des tableaux du roi, the king's picture gallery.

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où, adv. of place, where, wherein." Ou, conjunction or," has the same pronunciation: but the former always takes the grave accent. Voulez-vous du Thé ou du Caffé? Will you have tea or coffee? Où faut il mettre votre habit? Where must I put your coat? Mettez le dans mon Coffre ou où voulez, put it in my trunk, or where you like.

l'artisan, masc. the artisan, the mechanic: but here it is used for l'artiste, the artist. This denomination is now extended to individuals who have hardly any claim to it. The hair-dressers at Paris style themselves Artistes coiffeurs, and every figurant in a ballet calls himself un Artiste de l'opéra. All the words in an are masc. except of course maman, mamma, Some are the same in English, as, un clan, le divan, l'océan, des ortolans, du parmesan, un partisan, un pélican, un plan, Satan, le Sultan, un Talisman, du tan, un turban, un vétéran. avoit tracé had delineated, from tracer, reg. verb of the first conjugation, to draw. tracer le chemin à quelqu'un (to draw the road for one) is a figurative expression "to set the example."

un lion d'immense stature, a lion of immense size, or stature. We have already observed that the words in ure are almost all of the fem. and several are the same in English, as, agriculture, architecture, capture, caricature, conjecture, créature, figure, imposture, littérature, manufacture, miniature, nature, nomenclature, posture, primogéniture, quadrature, rupture, sèpulture, signature, structure, tablature, température, torture, verdure.

par un seul homme terrassé, by a single man knocked to the ground. This inversion is allowed only in poëtry; in prose it must be terrassé par un seul homme. terrassé is the

part. past of the act. reg. verb, 1. terrasser, to throw on the ground, to knock down. se terrasser, as a military term, signifiesto terrace," to entrench one's self behind earthen walls. Fig. terrasser is to discourage, to oppose unanswerable arguments. Un seul homme, one man alone, a single

man, but not in the sense of an unmarried man; this is un célibataire, a bachelor.

les regardants, the lookers-on: it is used only in the plural, and signifies accidental spectators.

En

en tiroient gloire, drew glory from it, gloried in it. En is here a pronoun, and means of, or from it; sometimes it signifies some, or any. It gives uncommon rapidity to French conversation. It may refer equally to a plural and to a singular, as it is indeclinable. Voilà des poires, here are pears. En voulez-vous? will you have any? Avez-vous de l'argent? have you any money? Je n'en ai point, I have none. is also the prepos. in. En France, in France. It is often placed before the participle active, which it converts into a gerund. En marchant, in walking, ("eundo.") Tiroient, third pers. plur. of the imperf. of the indic. of the reg. verb act. 1. Tirer, to draw, to pull. But it has different meanings, according to the substantive with which it is construed; as tirer des armes, to fence; tirer le canon, to fire great guns. Gloire, s. f. glory. There are nearly as many words in oire of the masc. as of the fem. gender. Some of them, as gloire, make "ory ory" in English. Such are histoire, f. mémoire, f.; but when it means a bill, an account, it is masc.: victoire, f.; auditoire, m.; conservatoire, m. conservatory, in the sense of an Italian singing-school. Consistoire, m.; directoire, m.; interrogatoire, m.; ivoire, m.; laboratoire, m.; observatoire, m.; oratoire, m.; promontoire, m.; purgatoire, m.; répertoire, m.; territoire, m.

un lion en passant, a lion in passing by; from the reg. n. verb, 1. passer, to pass, which is also used actively for to pass over, to overlook, to go beyond. It varies its meaning according to the substantive with which it is construed, and we shall note its different significations as they occur. passer de, is to do without: quand j'ai du vin, j'en bois ;

Se

quand je n'en ai pas, je meʼn passe.-When I have wine, I drink it; when I have none, I do without it.

rabattit, 3d pers. sing. preterperf. ind. of the irr. rabattre, to pull down, to abate, to humble, from battre, to heat, and has the same irregularities. Its most general use is in the sense of bating, abating from the price first asked. Je n'aime pas ce marchand, il ne veut rien rabattre de ce qu'il demande pour sa merchandise; I do not like that shopkeeper, he will not abate any thing from what he asks for his goods.

leur caquet, their chattering, prattling. All the words in et are masc. except la forêt, the forest: rabattit leur caquet, means, lowered their tone, brought them down a peg lower, silenced them. It is a familiar expression; leur is the pron. poss. "their," in the sing.

je vois bien, I see well; bien, here, however, means indeed: je vois, I see, from the irr. voir, to see, the conj. of which ought to be carefully learnt in the Grammar.

dit-il, said he; qu'en effet, that in fact; que, conj. with en, in; en effet, in fact, actually.

on vous donne, they give you. the pron. pers. conj. vous, to you. your utmost attention; they are verb. Je vous le dis, I tell it you.

Again the pron. on, with These pron. conj. require always placed before the

ici la victoire, here the victory, viz. the victory is ascribed to you here in this painting; ici, adv. of place, here, and hither. Venez ici, come hither. Nous sommes ici depuis hier, we have been here since yesterday; we arrived here yesterday.

mais l'ouvrier, but the workman, which here stands for the painter. Ouvrier, s. m. All the words in ier are masc. without exception.

Again the pron. pers. part. past déçus is in the

vous a déçus, has deceived you. conj. vous before the verb; and the pl. because the lion speaks to the lookers-on. The rule is that when the part. past, construed in a compound tense with the verb avoir, refers to a noun or pronoun mentioned before, it is always declinable; but when the government of the verb stands last, it is indeclinable. A few plain examples will familiarize you with the rule. "I have written a letter,

and I have shown you the letter which I have written," is in French, j'ai écrit une lettre, et je vous ai montré la lettre que j'ai écrite. Here the two first participles, écrit, written, and montré, shown, are indeclinable, as in English, because they precede their government, but the last written is, in the feminine, écrite, because it refers to the letter, (la lettre,) which is fem. "I have given the book which I have read, to your sister;" J'ai donné le livre que j'ai lu à votre Sœur. Here the part. remains in both places in the masc. sing. because "the book," (le livre) to which "read" refers, is masc. sing.; but put the same sentence in the plural, and you must write j'ai donné à votre Sœur les livres que j'ai lus; and if the word in the pl. is f. the part. must be in the pl. f. as les lettres j'ai écrites, the letters which I have written; les pommes que j'ai mangées, the apples which I have eaten.

que

déçu is the part. past of the reg. verb, 3, décevoir, to deceive.

Il avoit liberté, he had liberty, he was at liberty; liberté, like most of the words which end in "ty" in English, is of the fem. gender. Such are faculté, difficulté, majesté.

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de feindre, to imagine, to invent. Observe that when the subst. construed with the verb avoir has the definite article, it is mostly followed by the particle de, to express the English to, or of, with the participle active. "I have had the pleasure of seeing you;" J'ai eu le plaisir de vous voir. 'I have had the honour to write to the Prince;" J'ai eu l'honneur d'écrire au Prince. But when the subst. is construed with the article partitive, we mostly use à: il y a du plaisir à voir ces enfans; il y a de l'honneur à acquérir. Feindre is a reg. verb of the 4th conj. like joindre. It generally means to feign, to pretend, to dissemble. Familiarly it is also employed for limping. Il feint un peu du pied gauche; he limps a little with his left foot.

avec plus de raison, with more of reason, with more reason, more justly; plus, more, as an adv. of quantity, is always construed with de. Vous avez plus de bonheur que moi; you have more luck than I have. J'ai plus de livres que vous ; I have more books than you have. Remember that avoir

raison, means, to be in the right; avoir tort, to be in the wrong. Vous avez raison, j'ai tort; you are right, I am wrong: : but tort also means a fault. Hence the witty French saying, C'est un grand tort d'avoir toujours raison. Raison has many significations; for instance, the mercantile term, "a firm," is une raison de commerce. Thus you say, ils font la banque sous la raison de Rothschild et Compagnie; they are bankers under the firm of R. & Co. Observe, that all the words in aison are fem.

nous aurions le dessus, we should have the upperhand, the superiority; dessus, as a prep. and adv. means "upon," and is the contrary of dessous, "under." They both are used as subst. for the upper part, the under part. But avoir le dessus, is, to have the advantage, to be conqueror; avoir le dessous, or better, avoir du dessous, to be worsted. Voltaire pretended, that avoir le dessus was an expression fit only for burlesque poëtry; but Racine has said, Phèdre a le dessus." As a sea-term, le dessus du vent means the advantage of the wind, the weather-gauge. All the words in us are masc. and the letter s is not heard.

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si mes confrères savoient peindre, if my brethren knew how to paint, if they could paint. Si is both the conj. “if,” and the adv. "so." As a conj. it never is construed with the verb in the future or conditional tense. You must say, si j'avois voulu, if I had liked; si je voulois, if I had liked; ́ s'il venoit, if he should come. Confrère, m. a fellow-member of the same society; here it means a brother. Though the greatest number of the words in ère are fem., as une bergère, a shepherdess; une bouchère, a butcher's wife; une boulangère, a baker's wife; une écaillère, an oyster-woman; une gauchère, a left-handed female, &c. yet there are many masc. as le père, the father; le monastère, the monastery; le presbytère, the parsonage-house, &c.

savoient, 3d person pl. of the imp. ind. of the irr. v. savoir, to know, the conjugation of which must be learnt by heart. It is the Latin scire, to know by the mind; whilst to know by the senses, the Latin cognoscere, is "connoitre." Consult page 13, No. I. Here it stands opposed to pouvoir, to be

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