B Uf's New and Complete Grammar of the French Tongue; In Which the Construction of the Language Is Reduced to Its Simplest Principles ... (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1841 edition. Excerpt: ...pictures than those landscapes. Bad friends are worse than wise enemies. Are you not better than your friend? Those books are cheap enough, but you would have had them cheaper at auction. He will be here earlier tomorrow, particularly if you a.wake him. Do you go to church early on Sundays? OF THE SUPERLATIVE. The superlative expresses the quality in the highest state, or in a very high state; hence there are two sorts of superlatives, the relative and the absolute. X OF THE RELATIVE SUPERLATIVE. The relative superlative is formed by prefixing the articles le, la, les, (and the contractions of this article with the prepositions de and &, ) or the possessive adjectives mon, ton, son, $c, to the French comparative, that is to say, to the adverbs plus or moins, thus standing for most and least, or to the adjectives, meilleur, moindre, and pire, corresponding in this last instance to the English adjectives, best, least, and worst. It is called relative, because it expresses a relation to other objects. Ex.: Paris est la plus belle ville, Paris is the finest city. Le meilleur homme, The best man. Mon plus fidele ami, My most faithful friend. N. B. Remark that moindre and pire are oftener used in the superlative than in the comparative. Rule 1. Since the article or possessive adjective is the only distinguishing mark between the'relative superlative and the comparative, this article or possessive adjective cannot be omitted under any circumstances whatever, even when the adjective follows the noun, which very often occurs, according to the rules that have been given. The article must therefore be repeated in this instance, but if the noun be determined by a possessive adjective, the relative superlative will be indicated by an article, ...