A Danish and Dano-Norwegian Grammar/Adverbs
THE ADVERBS.
236. The neuter form of most adjectives can be used as an adverb: snart soon; höit high, or highly; smukt nicely; godt well etc.
Note. Of adjectives ending in -ig, -lig in Norway the common gender form is used as adverbs but in Denmark the neuter: D. oprigtigt, N. oprigtig candidly; D. ærligt, N. ærlig honestly (in both cases pronounced oprigti, ærli).
Adverbs may furthermore be formed of adjectives (and partly of nouns) by the following endings:
1. –lig: snarlig soon; nylig recently; storlig greatly (of nouns: öieblikkelig instantly; hovedsagelig chiefly; fængslig only in connection with the verb anholde: fængslig anholde to arrest, derived from fængsel prison).
2. –vis, heldigvis happily; lykkeligvis happily; tydeligvis plainly (of nouns delvis partly; parvis in pairs; skevis by one spoonful).
3. –e: bare only; ilde ill; vide widely; gjerne willingly; D. grumme highly.
Note. To the adjective god good correspond the adverbs godt and vel. Sometimes both may be used promiscuously: jeg ved det godt and jeg ved det vel I know it well. In other cases one of them alone can be employed: lev vel live well (i. e. good bye); sov godt sleep well (but sov vel og dröm behageligt sleep well and have agreeable dreams); vel is also used by adjectives and adverbs in the meaning of rather: det er vel meget af det gode it is rather much of a good thing (not quite as strong as: det er for meget).
237. Adverbs which have the same form as the neuter (or in Norwegian in some cases the common) gender of the adjectives are susceptible of comparison:
| snart | soon | snarere | snarest | |
| höit | highly | höiere | höiest | (or höist) |
Ex. jeg sidder höiest oppe i Træet I am highest up in the tree; jeg er höist ulykkelig I am most unhappy.
Also some ending in –e:
| længe long (time) | længere or længer | længst | |
| (also: | langt | længere or længer | længest) |
| ofte often far | oftere | oftest |
The following adverbs have a different stem in comparative and superlative from that of the positive;
| vel | well | bedre | bedst |
| ilde | badly | værre | værst |
| gjerne | willingly | hellere or heller rather | helst |
Jeg vil heller danse end synge I will rather dance than than sing (but it is rather a large house–det er et temmelig stort Hus.)
238. The adverbs are generally by grammarians divided according to their use in the sentence into demonstrative, relative, interrogative and indefinite, or according to their signification into adverbs of time, place, mode, degree etc. We shall here only mention some peculiarities in the formation and use of some adverbs:
| bort away (to a place) | borte away (in a place) |
| derhen thither | derhenne there |
| hvorhen whither | hvorhenne where |
| frem forth | fremme in front |
| ind in (to a place) | inde in (in a place). |
| hjem home | hjemme at home |
| ned down (to a place) | nede down (in a place) |
| op up (to a place) | oppe up (in a place) |
| ud out (to a place) | ude out (in a place) |
| siden since | for lang Tid siden long ago |
| saaledes |  |
thus | hvorledes | |
how. |
saadan
|
hvordan
|
saadan and hvordan may also be used as adjectives; saaledes and hvorledes only as adverbs.
The affirmative adverb ja is used in answer to a positive query, jo to a negative. Har Hr. Persen været her idag? Ja. Has Mr. P. been here to-day? Yes. Har ikke Hr. Persen været her idag? Has not Mr. P. been here to-day? Jo Yes.
Note. The more the better is in D.-N. jo mere desto (or des) bedre; jo mere vi gik, desto længere syntes vi at være borte fra tort Maal the more we walked along the farther we seemed to be from our destination; colloquially there may also be said jo mere jo bedre in the same meaning.
239. About the demonstrative local adverb der and the interrog.-rel. local adv. hvor can be noticed that they are used in many compounds without any local signification representing the dem. pronoun neuter det and the relative-interr. hvilket; derpaa thereupon; derefter thereafter; derfor therefore; hvorefter after which; hvorfor why.