Edue T1718.69.130 HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY GEORGE ARTHUR PLIMPTON JANUARY 25, 1924 PREFACF. Learn a foreign language as you learn your mother tongue: this is in a few words the method which I have adopted in this little work. It is the way that nature herself follows, it is the same which the mother points out in speaking to her child, repeating to it a hundred times the same words, combining them imperceptibly, and succeeding in this way to make it speak the same language she speaks. To learn in this manner is no longer a study, it is an amuse ment. Supposing the pupil to have learned his own language by principles, I thought it proper to add a few rules, which will serve to shorten the course and render the progress more secure. THE AUTHOR. TABLE OF THE GERMAN DECLENSIONS. ARRANGED By Dr. MARTIN WEISS, FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF BERLIN, LATE FRENCH AND GERMAN MASTER, AT E ROYAL COLLEGE DUNGANNON. Almost every German Grammar used in England states a different number of Declensions. Dr. NHDEN whose Grammar is in every respect unquestionably the best, has attempted to reduce the number of Declensions to four, and I think most successfully. But German Grammarians have not adopted his system. WENDEBORN who tries to imitate the Latin gives five Declensions, whilst Dr. RENDER in his anxiety to smooth the way to the learner, has made appear an absurd doctrine of one Declension. In Germany itself Grammarians follow either ADELUNG or KLOPSTOCK. The system of the former being the best and offering the least confusion to the student. I have tried in the following table to arrange the Declensions of all German Nouns upon ADELUNG'S plan. I. The Genitive Singular being alike, and the Plural different. 3. The Nouns collective beginning with ge, and not ending in e, l, or r, as das Gericht, Geschenk, Gebüsch. n. Most Nouns of this Declension are Of this Declension are all the of the Neuter Gender, as, das Amt, The few Masculines of this declen Those collectives which end in e orrsion 4. Foreign words in an, in, on, er, plural, as, The Masculines, Der Abt...... are, Der Bösewicht, The Wicked man, Geist, Spirit, Gott, God, Irrthum, Error, Leib, Body, Mann, Man, Aebte, Ort, Place, Ball .Bälle, Rand, Border, Rock Röcke. The Neuters, Reichthum, Das Arsenal Arsenäle, Wald, Forest, Chor... Chöre, Wurm, Worm. Floß Flösse, Boot... Böte. III. The words remaining unchanged in the Singular. Sing. 6. Derivatives with a particle in the begin Of this Declension are the following radical Nouns Feminine. Angst, Fear, Kunst, Art, Art, Axe, Kuh, Cow, Armbrust, Crossbow, Laus, Louse, Aderlaß, Bloodletting, Luft, Air, Bank, Form, Bank, Leinwand, Linen, Braut, Bride, Lust, Lust, Brust, Breast, Macht, Might, Brunst, Conflagration, Magd, Servant girl, Flucht, Flight, Furcht, Fright, Frucht, Fruit, Gans, Goose, Gruft, Pit, Grave, Gunst, Favor, Hand, Hand, Kraft, Power, VII. Die Absicht. Sing. Plur. en, n. en, n. en, n. en, n. Of this Declension are, 1. All Nouns Feminine in e, as die Amme, die Ammen. 2. Those in ce, and ie, die See, die Harmonie. 3. The Feminines in el, as die Gabel. 4. The Feminines in er, as die Feder. 5. Radical Feminines, as Thur, Uhr. ning, as die Andacht. 7. Those with an end-syllable, and particu- die Natur, Nature, Person, Person, Musik, Music. Burg, Castle. Kluft, Clift, Maus, Mouse, Nacht, Night, Naht, Seam, Noth, Necessity, Nuß, Nut, Schnur, Lace, String, Schwulst, Swelling, Wand, Wall, Wurst, Sausage, Zunft, Society. in the Plural, ral, except Leinwand. All those in a, o, u, take the diphthong All the Feminines in niß are also of this declension, as die Betrübniß, die Besorgniß, die Finsterniß, &c. |