THE

CLASSICAL FRENCH GRAMMAR

BASED ON THE NATURAL RELATION OF

FRENCH TO LATIN,

AND CONTAINING

LAWS OF DERIVATION; A SYSTEM OF DECLENSION; RULES OF
CONJUGATION; RULES OF GENDER; THE RULES OF LATIN AND
FRENCH SYNTAX COMPARED; PARTICULAR RULES

OF GRAMMAR; RULES OF POSITION;

ETC., ETC.,

BY

GUILLAUME G. ANDRÉ.

Professor of the French Language and Literature at the Royal
Grammar School, Guildford.

SIMPKIN, MARSHALL AND CO.

303. g 17.

DORKING:

PRINTED BY JOHN ROWE.

PREFACE.

In offering another French Grammar to the Public, a few words are needed and will suffice. The author believes that, notwithstanding the immense number of French Grammars which have been published in this country, another was wanted which should treat the subject from a point of view that has hitherto been left unnoticed. Philological science has shown us that languages must be studied in their natural relations one to another; that their grammatical forms and laws must be traced back to their origin, and that the words of which they are composed must be analysed, considered with their roots and compared with the same or with cognate words in kindred languages, in order to gain a full comprehension of them, It is true that as far as the Greek and Latin languages are concerned, the necessity for this method of study has long been. recognised, and a new system has for some time past been gradually superseding the old. But this system has not been carried out to the modern Romance languages, the direct offsprings of the Latin. Classical students still study French and Italian as though there was no connection between these and the languages of antiquity, instead of studying them as mere modifications of the language of