A Little Book of French Grammar, Translated into Latin

else, such as au maistre de la maison (to the master of the house), au pere de Iehan (to John's father).

Au is common to the dative, accusative, and ablative singular of appellative masculine nouns. Aux is likewise common to the dative, accusative, and ablative plural of appellative nouns, both masculine and feminine. Example of the singular: Ie l'ay rendu au pere (I returned it to the father), au païs (to the country), Ie m'en uay au païs (I am going to the country), Ie l'ay laissé au païs (I left it in the country). Concerning the plural: Ie l'ay donné aux parens (I gave it to the relatives), Ie m'en uay aux champs (I am going to the fields), Il est aux champs (He is in the fields), and better es champs.

Du and des are sometimes placed in place of a pronoun: as when we say, Il y a du vin la dedans (There is some wine in there), Il y a des hommes la dedans (There are some men in there): that des signifies the same as if you were saying, Il y a aucuns hommes (There are some men). Similarly, Du is sometimes in place of de and ce, the demonstratives: as Ie mange du mouton que nous auons tué (I am eating [of] the mutton that we killed), which is, de ce mouton (of this mutton).

De is frequently found before the articles le and la: as, Le maintien de l'homme (The bearing of the man), La cousture de la robe (The seam of the dress), La prenelle de l'œil (The pupil of the eye), Le iugement de l'homme (The judgment of the man).

Le and La are never placed before the proper names of men or women. For we do not say, Le Pierre, Le Iehan: yet we do say, La Seine, Le Rosne, La Champaigne. Sometimes it denotes that about which it has already been spoken, or about which mention is being made: as, I'ay veu l'homme qui a faict cela (I have seen the man who did that), Pierre m'a iniurié, vous cognoissez l'homme (Peter has insulted me, you know the man). Sometimes they are placed before adjectives joined to proper nouns, and then they signify the same as the word dict (said), or qui est (who is), or estimé (esteemed): as, Philippe le