A GRAMMAR OF THE PORTUGUESE LANGUAGE En a Simple and Practical Form WITH A COURSE OF EXERCISES BY ALFRED ELWES AUTHOR OF THE SPANISH AND ITALIAN GRAMMARS, AND OTHER WORKS IN WEALE'S CROSBY LOCKWOOD & CO. 7, STATIONERS' HALL COURT, LUDGATE HILL PREFACE. SOME years have now elapsed since any work has been produced in England fitted to assist the student and the merchant in acquiring the pleasant language of Portugal and Brazil, and in the interim it has undergone some change and improvement in its orthography. The kind reception granted to my Italian and Spanish Grammars has encouraged me to compile, and the publishers to produce the present work, which, though small in size, will be found to contain as much really useful matter as many books of far larger dimensions. I have bestowed particular care upon the Conjugations of the Verb, whose irregularities constitute one of the chief difficulties of every language; and I have grounds for the belief that the pains I have taken to bring this invaluable but refractory part of speech into something like order, will turn out to be not labour in vain. A. E. |