EXERCISE 3. I. That old man has grandchildren who are [= make] all his happiness. 2. We saw [pret. indf.] little children playing on the bank of the river. 3. I think like* you : good friends are a great consolation in life.† 4. Many [1. bien, 2. beaucoup] men are dissatisfied with their fate. 5. You have as many enemies as friends. 6. He has not enough modesty; he shows arrogance everywhere. 7. There are many [bien] men who excuse their (own) faults and who accuse their neighbour; and there are many [bien] others who do not even think of their faults. 8. Most men only think of their happiness. 9. Paris has fewer inhabitants than London. 10. He addressed his words to reasonable2 men,1 and not to little boys. II. She was thinking of old stories. 12. Is it true that those who have knowledge, generally§ have [subj.] few friends? 13. You will have much [bien] pleasure in the country; most of your friends will be there. 14. Give [= tell] him kind [= many, bien] regardṣ from * Comme is used in comparisons; comment in questions. 1 First Exercise Book, p. 137 (C). First Exercise Book, p. 164 (a and b). I EXERCISE 4. 1. Now, enormous rocks hung [impf.], like ruins, over my head; now, high and noisy cascades covered [impf.] me with thick fog [pl.]; a remarkable2 mixture1 of [the] wild2 and3 cultivated+ nature1 showed [impf.] me everywhere the hand of man [pl.]. 2. At Moscow you see miserable huts, magnificent2 palaces,' a great number of churches, many public buildings,' forests and gardens (which are) like parks. 3. This venerable old-man has daughters-in-law and grand-children who, by their true filial love, make him almost forget that he once had [pret. indf.] the happiness of being* (a) father. 4. If you do not succeed in [à] making* acquaintance with French (people), endeavour to make up for the [= this] want of conversation by [the] reading [of] dramatic pieces, preferring† at first comedies to tragedies. 5. Of [= among] the great number of [the] good dramatic compositions which are the pride and [the] joy of the French, you ought above all to choose the works of Molière, [of] Regnard, [of] Delavigne and [of] Scribe. 6. In the works of the last you will find [faithfully] the uses [sg.] of modern conversation' (faithfully given); for this reason I advise you to learn some§ of the finest || scenes by heart. 3. daughters-in-law belles-filles, f. 2 I. now...now tantôt...tantôt étonnant Moscou semblable à *First Exercise Book, p. 58. Gr. p. 9. Tinonder suppléer § First Exercise Book, p. 155. inun-dari suppl-ere (aujourd'hui Ibid, p. 127: au + jour de + hui diurn-us, -a, -um hodie THE VERB. On the use of the Preterite Definite, the Imperfect, and the Preterite Indefinite. (a) The Imperfect serves to express : 1. A state or action, of which neither the beginning nor the end is referred to; it answers to the question : qu'est-ce qui était déjà? What was already (in existence)? or; What was going on? Nous lisions quand vous entråtes. Je mourais* de faim; il mouraitt de faim. 2. Two simultaneous states or actions:-— Les deux garçons travaillaient pendant que leurs sœurs jouaient. 3. A state or an action which, by its frequent repetition, has become a habit : : Dans ma jeunesse j'étais toujours gai et content; je travaillais avec ardeur en un mot j'étais heureux. 4. The Imperfect also serves to depict and to describe a state or an action : Au loin, par intervalles, on entendait les roulements solennels de la cataracte de Niagara, qui se prolongeaient de désert en désert, et expiraient à travers les forêts solitaires. i.e. I was dying of hunger (but I recovered afterwards); it would be impossible to say, je mourus de faim, because nobody could tell his own death. tie. he was dying of hunger (but he recovered afterwards). In this case we could say, il mourut de faim, if we wanted to say: he (actually) died of hunger. If we wanted to point out the origin, the commencement of this state, the Pret. Def. ought to be used (see below, b, 1) :— Depuis ce moment-là je fus toujours gai et content; je travaillai avec ardeur— en un mot je fus heureux. (b) The Preterite Definite serves to express : 1. The origin or the commencement of a state or an action; it answers to the question: qu'est-ce qui arriva? What happened? What happened then or after that? Nous lisions quand vous entrâtes. 2. An historical fact; the result of a state or an action; a duration—whether long or short-without interruption (especially if the sentence contains some adverb expressive of a continuous action). Jeanne d'Arc naquit à Domrémy. Ce jour-là le ciel fut serein, l'air fut doux, les oiseaux chantèrent sous le feuillage.* Il passa toute sa vie à Paris. 3. A state or an action which we wish to represent as completely elapsed (it is, therefore, used especially after Adverbs of time such as hier, la semaine dernière, l'année passée, dans le siècle dernier). Cet événement se passa hier, la semaine dernière, etc. Huit jours après son départ il m'écrivit une lettre remplie de lamen tations. Remark. In conversational language, the Preterite Indefinite is generally used instead of the Preterite Definite : Cet événement s'est passé hier; huit jours après son départ il m'a écrit une lettre remplie de lamentations. * The Imperfect might also be used in this example: ce jour-là le ciel était serein, etc.; but in such a case we should no longer indicate the result of the whole day, but give rather to understand the possibility of a change or of an interruption, as, for instance: ce jour-là, l'air était doux, le ciel était serein, mais vers le soir il se couvrit de nuages. Thus we say: nous vécumes très heureux dans notre paisible retraite, if our happiness was complete, if it was not interrupted by any disturbing circumstance. On the other hand, we must say nous vivions très heureux, etc., if we wish to imply that it was not complete, that it was eventually interrupted by some unforeseen event, e.g. nous vivions très heureux dans notre paisible retraite, lorsqu'un jour un étranger vint frapper à la porte de notre chaumière. (c) The Preterite Indefinite represents a state or an action not as completely elapsed, but as reaching up to the present time, up to the period in which we still find ourselves; it is, therefore, used especially with Adverbs of time such as aujourd'hui, ce matin, cette semaine, ce mois, cette année:— Cet événement s'est passé aujourd'hui, cette semaine, cette année. (d) To resume, then, the Imperfect ought to be used in French, when we are able to change the English Past Tense, e.g. he played into he was playing or he used to play (see above a 1. and a 3.); if neither of these two modes of expression can be used, we must employ the Preterite Indefinite, and in some cases, the Preterite Definite (See above b). EXERCISE 5. 1. When I was in the country, I walked about, I read, I ran all day long. 2. During our long and painful passage, it rained and thundered without ceasing. 3. We set out yesterday from Paris at nine o'clock in [of] the morning. 4. God created [or: has created] the human2 race.1 5. God created [or: has created]* two great luminaries, the sun and the moon. 6. Whilst the barons of Germany built castles and oppressed the people, Venice furnished it with all the productions of the East; * See b (3), but also c. |