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able, to have the physical power; whilst savoir denotes the mental power. Thus, in the conditional you may say of yourself, je ne saurois, instead of je ne puis, I cannot, because you are an intelligent being; but of a physical object to be accomplished, you cannot say cela ne sauroit se faire, you must say, cela ne peut se faire.

peindre, reg. v. a. of the 4th conj. like joindre. In the pl. of

the

pr. ind. it makes nous peignons, vous peignez, ils peignent, which are also the pl. of the pr. ind. of the verb peigner, 1. conj. to comb; hence a Frenchman would avoid saying, vous peignez très bien, you paint extremely well; he would prefer, vous êtes bien habile à peindre. Again, in the imperf. the two verbs are alike. Elle peignoit un enfant, may mean, she was combing a child, and she was painting a child. We therefore should say, elle étoit occupée à peindre, and in the subj. je veux qu'il me peigne, may signify, I want him to comb or to paint me. This is one of the numerous instances of ambiguity to which the French language is exposed from its poverty. Peignez moi, in the imperf. is both paint and comb me.

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, 66 un, one," it becomes nasal, and cannot be described, It must be learned from a Frenchman.

as in

The German u, when not marked in the printed text, is always the English double o in " pool," or like the u in "under, upper," 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, ŭ, 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 ae and oe. The former is pronounced like the Eng

lish ai in "maid," the latter like the French eu in "peuple, heureux." Sch, in German, is the same as the English sh.

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,

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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.
Nach viel vergeblichem Bemühn
Heiszt er die Fremden wieder ziehn.
Sucht selber in dem Hause nach,

Durchsucht des Vaters Schlafgemach,

Und findt mit leichter Müh, (wie grosz war sein Vergnügen!)
Ihn unter einer Diele liegen.

THE TREASURE.

A sick Father called his Son: Son, said he, in order to provide for thee, I have a long time ago hid a treasure. It lies-here, (on saying these words) the Father died. What was the Son's consternation? A treasure! such were his words. A treasure! but in what place? Where shall I find it? He sends for people who are reported to be able to dig for treasures; breaks through the hard floors of the barns, digs all over the garden and the house, and yet he discovers no treasure. After many fruitless exertions, he dismisses the strangers, sets himself about searching the house and his father's bed-room, and, at last, (how great was his joy !) he finds the treasure hid under a deal board.

Der Schatz, m. the treasure, des Schatzes, dem Schatze. The pl. is Schätze. It is also means a stock of goods, a collection: as ein Kornschatz, a stock of corn; ein Brautschatz, a marriage-portion; ein Kunstschatz, a collection of curio

sities of art. In very familiar language, Schatz is a term of endearment; mein Schatz, my love; hence the verb schätzen, to value, and the adj. schätzbar, valuable.

Ein kranker Vater, a sick father. The r would be dropped if it were the "the sick father," because the article der would show the gender. "My father is sick," would be mein Vater ist krank; der Vater, des Vaters, and in the pl. die Väter. All words in er are masc. except of course die Mutter, die Tochter, and die Schwester, mother, daughter, and sister; and die Butter, butter; die Feder, the pen; die Kammer, the chamber; das Wasser, the water; das Feuer, the fire; das Laster, vice; das Wunder, the wonder; das Zimmer, the room; das Frauenzimmer, the female, the fair sex.

rief den Sohn, called the son. See page 11, No. I. den Sohn, acc. sing. m. der Sohn, the son; des Sohnes, dem Sohne, The h renders the o longer than in English. In the pl. it has the diphthong die Söhne, the sons. All the words in ohn are masc. as der Lohn, the reward, wages; der Hohn, scorn. Sohn, sprach er, son, spoke he, said he. See page 9,

No. I.

um dich zu versorgen, to provide for thee; um zu, a conjunction, like the English "for to," instead of "in order to." The um strengthens the zu, and marks the object or purpose of an action more intensely. Ich esse um zu leben, I eat in order to live; but the gov. of the verb is always placed between the um and zu: er thut es um seinen Zweck zu erreichen, he does it for to obtain his end. Versorgen, reg. v. a. insep. comp. to provide for, derived from sorgen, to care. Versorgen may have anciently been fürsorgen, to care for. The ver has not its destructive power here, as in verbrauchen, to consume by using; verbrennen, to consume by burning, &c. Ver being insep. like ent, page 9, No. I. it has no ge in the part. past, and makes simply versorgt: Ich habe meinen Sohn versorgt, I have provided for my son.

Hab' ich for habe ich, have I, because um dich zu versorgen stands first. See page 12, No. I.

vor langer Zeit, before a long time, a long time ago. Vor is a prep. " before," which governs the dat, and acc. accord

ing as there is a locomotion or not. Here it has the dative, which, as the adj. is used without an article, is marked in the adj. itself. Langer, f. because Zeit, time, is f.; in the pl. die Zeiten. All words in eit are fem. except der Streit, the dispute, the contention. The adjective in German is indeclinable like the English, when it is a predicate or attribute, and refers to a substantive, generally by means of the verb is. Mein Vater ist sehr gütig. Meine Mutter ist sehr gütig. Meine Schwestern sind sehr gütig. My father, my mother is, and my sisters are very kind. But when the adj. is coupled with the subst. as an epithet, we have already noticed its construction with the def. art. page 11, and with the art. indef. page 12, No. I. there remains only the case when it is employed as in English, "good wine, fine apples," without any article; in that case it takes the termination of the articles themselves. In the masc. guter Wein, gutes Weines, gutem Weine, guten Wein, good wine. Hence you must say in the acc. "Have you good wine?" Haben Sie guten Wein? In the fem. grosse Freude, grosser Freude, grosser Freude, grosse Freude, great joy: Es ist ein Zeichen grosser Freude. It is a sign of great joy. In the neut. schlechtes Korn, schlechtes Kornes, schlectem Korne, schlechtes Korn, bad corn. In the pl. for all three genders, kleine Kinder, kleiner Kinder, kleinen Kindern, kleine Kinder, little children.

einst, an adv. of time," once," but it also refers to the future, Ich hoffe Sie einst wiederzusehen, I hope to see you again at some future time. Here it is rather an expletive. einen Schatz, acc. m. with the indef. art. a treasure. verborgen, hid, part. past of the insep. comp. verb verbergen, to hide, derived from bergen, which originally signified to save, to preserve; nun bin ich geborgen, now I am safe, secure; gestrandete Güter bergen, to save stranded goods. Verbergen, to preserve away, so that it be unknown to others, is to hide; it follows the irreg. of bergen, viz. verbarg in the imperf. and verborgen in the part. past.

er liegt, he lies, because it refers to der Schatz, m. liegt, from liegen, to lye; irr. ich lieg, ich lag, ich habe gelegen. It is neut.; the active is legen, to lay, reg. We have several

neuter verbs in German, which become active by changing the vowel, as sinken, to sink, n. makes senken, to sink, act.

Hier starb der Vater schon, here died the Father already. Starb, imperf. of the irr. n. v. sterben, which in German is not to starve, but to die any kind of death. It has gestorben in the part. past, and is conjugated with the verb seyn, to be. Er ist gestorben, he has died. He is dead, would be, Er is todt. Schon, adv. of time, "already," sind sie schon hier? are you here already?

Wer, who, pron, inter. masc. and fem, wer ist da? who is there? A German soldier, on duty, does not say, who goes there? but simply wer da? who is there? omitting the verb by way of an ellipsis.

war "was," imperf. of the aux. verb seyn, to be, which must be learnt by heart in the Grammar.

bestürtzter, more alarmed, is the compar. of the adj. and part. past. ; bestürtzt, alarmed, in consternation. The degrees of compar. are the same in German as in English. er, added to the adj. gives the comp. of whatever length the positive may be; nachlässig, negligent, makes nachlässiger, more negligent; aufmerksam, attentive; aufmerksamer, more attentive.

als der Sohn, than the Son; als is the conj. as, which is employed after a comp. for "than." Tugend ist besser als Reichthum, virtue is better than riches.

So waren seine Worte, so were, such were his words. Wort is one of those nouns which have two plurals, one Worte, and the other with the diphthong Wörter. The former is collective, and means spoken, or connected words, the component parts of a speech, (verba" des paroles") the latter (wörter) individual, unconnected words, (vocabula "des môts." A Dictionary in German is ein Wörterbuch, n.

allein, conj. but, is the same as aber; but it is also an adj. " alone."

an welchem Orte, at what place, in what place; an like in gov. both the dat. and acc. Here it is construed with the dat. because there is no locomotion. welchem, dat. masc. sing. of the pron. rel. welcher, welche, welches, which, to agree

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