An elementary German grammar |
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Common terms and phrases
Abend adjective alte alten Bach Båren Buch Bücher compound conjugation consonants dative declension dieſes English Erde EXERCISES fein Frau geben gefallen gehen gehört gekommen Geld German Handwriting German language gern gesagt gesehen geworden giebt Grammar groschen groß habe Herr heute High German High German language hören hübsch hungrig Imperfect imperfect tense infinitive inflect the vowel inflected vowel Karl kommen können lady LESSON letters Low German machen Maler Masc masculines mögen Morgen muß Nacht Neut neuter Observe Old High German Onkel participle past perf Pferd Pluperfect Plur plural prep present pronoun RULE schreiben Schuhe sehen seid sein sentence ſie sind Sing singular sound sprechen Stadt strong verbs Stube subj subjunctive tense thun to-day Vicar of Wakefield viel Viertel VOCABULARY vowel waren weak wenig werde wohl wollen wollte Word and Phrase-book würde yesterday Zeit
Popular passages
Page 176 - Finding that there was no great degree of gentility affixed to the character of an usher, I resolved to accept his proposal, and having the highest respect for literature, hailed the antiqua mater of Grub Street with reverence. I thought it my glory to pursue a track which Dryden and Otway trod before me.
Page 175 - I had rather be under-turnkey in Newgate. I was up early and late ; I was browbeat by the master, hated for my ugly face by the mistress, worried by the boys within, and never permitted to stir out to receive civility abroad.
Page 175 - I see you are a lad of spirit and some learning ; what do you think of commencing author like me ? You have read in books, no doubt, of men of genius starving at the trade : at present I'll show you forty very dull fellows about town that live by it in opulence. All honest, jog-trot men, who go on smoothly and dully, and write history and politics, and are praised : men, sir, who, had they been bred cobblers, would all their lives only have mended shoes, but never made them.
Page 186 - ... could be bought that would turn to account when disposed of again in London ? Such curiosities on the way as could be seen for nothing, he was ready enough to look at ; but if the sight of them was to be paid for, he usually asserted that he had been told that they were not worth seeing. He never paid a bill that he would not observe how amazingly expensive travelling was : and all this though not yet twenty-one.
Page 184 - Greek ; and, in short," continued he, " as I don't know Greek, I do not believe there is any good in it.
Page 184 - French as were poor enough to be ve^y merry ; for I ever found them sprightly in proportion to their wants. Whenever I approached a peasant's house towards night-fall, I played one of my most merry tunes, and that procured me not only a lodging, but subsistence for the next day.
Page 184 - I had some knowledge of music, with a tolerable voice ; I now turned what was once my amusement into a present means of subsistence. I passed among the harmless peasants of Flanders, and among such of the French as were poor enough to be very merry, for I ever found them sprightly in proportion to their wants. Whenever I approached a peasant's house towards nightfall, I played one of my merriest tunes, and that procured me not only a lodging, but subsistence for the next day...
Page 175 - No. Then you won't do for a school. Can you lie three in a bed? No. Then you will never do for a school. Have you got a good stomach? Yes.
Page 178 - Philanthropes, all wrote better, because they wrote faster, than I. " Now, therefore, I began to associate with none but disappointed authors like myself, who praised, deplored, and despised, each other. The satisfaction we found in every celebrated writer's attempts was inversely as their merits. I found that no genius in another could please me. My unfortunate paradoxes had entirely dried up that source of c omfort. I could neither read nor write with satisfaction ; for excellence in another was...