A Spanish grammar, with practical introductory lessons

1917·12.7 MB·Spanish

by  Coester, Alfred, 1874-1958

P<M^
A SPANISH
COESTER

Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2010
http://www.archive.org/details/spanishgrammarwiOOcoes

A SPANISH GRAMMAR
WITH PRACTICAL INTRODUCTORY
LESSONS
BY
ALFRED COESTER, Ph.D.
GINN AND COMPANY
POSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO LONDON
• • •
ATLANTA • DALLAS • CüI.UMliUS • SAN FRANCISCO
rOPVKlCIIT, 1912, 1917, ÜY
ALFRKI) COESTER
ALL RIC.HTS KESERVED
A418.10
GINN AND CUMPANY PRO
PRIETOKS• BOSTON••U.S.A.
PREFACE
This book is the outcome of teaching Spanish for several years
to different types of pupils. The author's purpose has been to
supply a useful book to English-speaking students of Spanish.
Usefulness has therefore been the standard in determining the
arrangement of the material. The introductory lessons are easy
and progressive, assuming little or no general knowledge of gram-
marandlanguage. They attempt to take advantage ofthe strength
of first impressions; for example, the use of usted is given prom-
inence at the outset so that the pupil will be less likely at a later
period to employ tú and the second singular in business corre-
spondence. Other features of the book are, (i) exercises specially
designed for drill on peculiarities of grammar that require habit to
fix ; (2) ampie material for oral work; (3) a progressive vocabu-
lary that attempts to include the commonest and henee most im-
portant words and phrases with many colloquial expressions that
are necessary in social intercourse (4) an order of development
;
that has been provedof practical valué.
In the first fewlessons, sentences illustrative of the grammatical
topic of the lesson have been given before the explanation, as it is
intended that these sentences should be committed to memory be-
fore proceeding to the explanation. Special vocabularies to each
lessonhavebeenomitted because the preparation of such a special
vocabulary is a useful exercise which is too often sacrificed in ele-
mentary books.
Part I furnishes an introduction to the chief characteristics of
Spanish and is sufficient for a good working knowledge of the
language. Part II takes up in systematic order those details of
SPANISH GRAMMAR
iv
grammar which were neglected or hastily passed over in the first
part. As the second part will not be studied until the pupil finds
his reading in a continued text, no Spanish exercises are given.
On the other hand, abundant material is provided for the transla-
tion of English to Spanish. The sentences in these exercises are
short, according to the author's principie of presenting to the pupil
only a few difficulties at one timewith ampie practice on the point
underdiscussion. As the English sentences are mainly translations
of colloquial or literary Spanish, their rendering by the student
should result in characteristically idiomatic expression.
The purposeof the illustrations is to teach pictorially some ideas
about Spanish civilization and histoiy in Spain and America. The
text accompanying the pictures may be used as translation exer-
cises on which the teacher may base questions in Spanish similar
to those suggested. In order that early use may be made of the
illustrations, the first questions are framed in simple language. The
laterpictures are inserted in a historical order so as to give a brief
survey of the most important events in Spanish history.
The teacher who desires to use only Spanish in the classroom
will find at the end of the book a brief summaryin Spanish of the
rules discussed in Part I. This will supply not only the proper
grammatical terms but also idiomatic languageto usewhen talking
about grammar with the pupils.
The author wishes to thank Mr. E. S. Harrison for his sugges-
tions and kindness in reading the manuscript and proof.
ALFRED COESTER