Macmillan's Selection of French Idioms [antikvár]

PREFACE. This collection of French idioms does not require a lengthy-introduction to the student of the French language. It was prepared, at my request, for the use of candidates for the L.L.A. title of the University of St. Andrews. Its principal features are : 1. That it contains only such idioms as belong to the spoken language, and as are current in literature, to the exclusion of really obsolete phrases and of slang properly so called. 2. The corresponding idiom in English is not given, the meaning of the French phrase being explained, instead, by a synonymous French phrase. This is supported, as the case may be, by an apt quotation, a note on the origin of the idiom, a phrase of a less idiomatic form, or by a circumlocution. Thus this book is not for beginners who are ignorant of the rudiments of the language, or unacquainted with its ordinary grammatical processes. In this little volume the omission of the English corresponding idiom is deliberate, the purpose being to prevent the learning of idioms by rote, to reserve some occupation for the teacher and for the mind of the learner, and to accumulate in the head of the latter a quantity of synonymous expressions mutually defining each other, and leading the student