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NEW AND IMPROVED

SPANISH GRAMMAR,

DESIGNED FOR

EVERY CLASS OF LEARNERS,

BUT ESPECIALLY

FOR SUCH AS ARE THEIR OWN INSTRUCTORS.

In Two Parts :

PART I.-AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO THE ELEMENTS OF THE
SPANISH LANGUAGE.

PART II.-THE RULES OF ETYMOLOGY AND SYNTAX FULLY
EXEMPLIFIED; WITH OCCASIONAL NOTES AND
OBSERVATIONS.

WITH AN APPENDIX,

CONTAINING A USEFUL VOCABULARY-DIALOGUES WITH NUMERICAL
REFERENCES TO THE RULES IN THE GRAMMAR A FEW SPECIMENS
OF COMMERCIAL DOCUMENTS-AN EXPLANATION OF THE RULES
AND PRINCIPLES OF SPANISH POETRY-AND SOME RULES FOR

DERIVATION.

By L. J. A. McHENRY, A NATIVE OF SPAIN.

New Edition,

CORRECTED AND IMPROVED.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR SHERWOOD, GILBERT, AND PIPER,

PATERNOSTER-ROW:

SOLD ALSO BY J. WACEY, OLD BROAD-STREET; DULAU AND CO.;~
AND TREUTTEL, WURTZ, AND RICHTER, SOHO-SQURAE.

1833.

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London: Printed by W. Clowes, Stamford-street.

TO HIS EXCELLENCY

SIR RALPH JAMES WOODFORD, BART.

GOVERNOR OF THE ISLAND OF TRINIDAD,

ETC. ETC. ETC.

SIR,

GRATITUDE being sometimes allowed to occupy that situation in literary productions, which is, not seldom, usurped by adulation, I am encouraged to hope I may, without censure, gratify my feelings by prefixing your name to a work which introduced me to the honour of your friendly regard.

The liberal approbation which you were pleased to bestow on the first edition of these pages, and the favourable manner in which they have been received by the public, naturally incline me to consider them not altogether unworthy of being thus offered as a small testimony of my grateful sense of your numerous civilities and kind

attentions.

But great as is the honour which I confer on myself, by presuming to inscribe this humble volume to so respectable a name, permit me to assure you, that it is at least equalled by the deference and sincerity with which I have the pleasure of declaring myself,

LONDON

Sir,

Your Excellency's faithful

and obliged Servant,

LUIS JOSEF ANTONIO MCHENRY.

EXERCISES on the ETYMOLOGY, SYNTAX. IDIOMS, and SYNONYMS of the SPANISH LANGUAGE, adapted to any Spanish Grammar, but more especially to that of the Author.

"Mr. McHenry is advantageously known to the public as author of one of the most complete, and unquestionably the most modern, Spanish grammars extant; and the present small but instructive volume is admirably adapted to the Grammar, and cannot fail of being peculiarly useful to those persons who direct their inquiries to the accurate distinction of words apparently, but not really synonymous."-Literary Panorama, March 1814.

"The author has produced unquestionably the best book of Spanish Exercises which has hitherto been published; and his addition of the Synonyms is a very valuable and very necessary appendage."—Gent. Mag. Sup. 1814.

"This is an accompaniment to a Spanish Grammar by the same author, and does credit to his methodizing powers. The exercises are well chosen, and the grammatical rules both accurate and clear. We can recommend it to any one who is desirous of attaining with ease an acquaintance with the idioms and syntax of the Spanish language."-British Critic.

"In our 17th Volume we noticed Mr. McHenry's Grammar of the Spanish Language, and we cannot give a better character of the present work than to say, that it is excellently adapted to accompany the former one in facilitating the acquisition of the Spanish Language."-Universal Magazine, March 1814.

SYNONYMS of the SPANISH LANGUAGE explained, and elucidated by copious Extracts from the most approved SPANISH POETS. Intended as an Appendix to English-Spanish Dictionaries.

"The author of this work gives proof of much ability, many fine distinctions are here pointed out, and the examples are so tastefully selected, from excellent authors, that the book forms a very pleasant medley of Spanish Literature.”Literary Gazette, Oct. 1826.

"The perspicuous brevity and talent apparent in the Grammar and Exercises of the author are not forgotten in this work, nor is the more abstruse part of the treatise deficient in interest. The various Synonyms are alphabetically arranged, their meaning clearly made known, and the distinctness of each pleasingly developed."-Literary Chronicle, Oct. 1826.

"To facilitate the attainment of a critical as well as grammatical knowledge of the Spanish language is the object of the present work, and whoever knows the difficulty of accurately distinguishing the various shades of difference which prevail in words, which, by common minds, are often esteemed as entirely and perfectly synonymous, will, we are persuaded, accept Mr. McHenry's work as a valuable aid in this department of learning. The high character gained by his former works cannot be injured by that, which the value and merit of the present volume must confer on him.-Ladies' Museum, Oct. 1826.

"This is a most useful little work not only to beginners, but to those who have made the Spanish language for some time their study, and deem themselves its masters. No student of the Spanish language should be without this work."— New Monthly Magazine, Dec. 1826.

"Mr. McHenry appears to be fully competent to the task which he has here undertaken. The student will not only learn from his book how to distinguish between expressions, which are translated into nearly the same words in English; but he will also gain from it an acquaintance with many well-chosen specimens of the best poetry which the Peninsula has produced."-Monthly Review, Dec. 1826.

PREFACE.

In introducing the present work to the notice of the public, some reasons will naturally be expected for the appearance of another Spanish Grammar, especially at a time when the number has recently been so much augmented by new editions as well as fresh productions.

It has been a matter of frequent complaint, that there is no English-Spanish Grammar capable of affording the necessary assistance to those persons who are obliged to be their own instructors; for although several of the Grammars in circulation possess great merit, yet most of them are written under the disadvantages which inevitably arise from an author's attempting to explain in a language with which he is but very imperfectly acquainted.

The present work, therefore, is respectfully submitted to the candid notice of the public, with the humble hope, that it will be found less exceptionable in several particulars than some of its predecessors; its author being a native of Spain, in which country he had the advantage of a liberal education, and having, by a residence of several years in England, acquired a considerable knowledge of the pronunciation, genius, idiom, and general structure of the English language.

Anxious as the author has been to render this Grammar peculiarly useful to those persons who cannot conveniently have access to a master, he has devoted particular attention to the subject of pronunciation. Not contenting himself with minutely describing and elucidating the different powers of the letters, he has also

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