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16 4. Also observe how the final consonants h, k, and g, and some of the initials, are often half-suppressed or seem wholly to disappear in the easy, native mode of speaking. Very close attention should be given to these idiomatic changes, so soon as thoroughness is attained in enunciating words singly. This is essential to ease and accuracy in public address and common conversation.

5. It will be found useful to practice writing out, in the Romanized form, simple phrases heard in conversation. This will serve to fix them in the memory, and to draw the attention to many important words or particles, which otherwise might not be thoroughly learned for years.

6. The student should by no means confine himself to his books and teacher, but should mingle with common people and observe carefully their modes of speaking. The union of study and observation will help to form a style, alike removed from coarseness and excessive refinement, while exclusive study with a teacher will tend to the formation of a book-colloquial style, not fully or readily understood by the people at large.

In reference to their uses and meanings, Chinese characters are often classed as 活字 wak che, living words, 實字 sik che, real words, and 虛字 hü che empty words. A verb is wak che, a noun is a sik che, and a preposition is a hü che. But of course the native nomenclature is designed to embrace all Chinese words. We adopt the English terms for the different parts of speech, as the one most likely to prove satisfactory to the student, and as a convenient mode of exhibiting the nature of Chinese words and their relative position in a sentence. The parts of speech are numbered and treated of in their order, after which other words, not properly classible under them, are noticed under distinct headings. This arrangement gives the student an insight into this dialect, as contrasted with his own language, and may help him to avoid using foreign idioms in his early attempts to speak a strange tongue.