A Simplified Grammar of the Danish Language/Part II/Verbs

by E. C. Otté

Verbs. (Udsagnsord.)

In a primary, simple sentence, the verb follows the noun or pronoun which governs it; as, Jeg så Manden som kom ind ad Dören, 'I saw the man who came in at the door.'

In a secondary or subjective sentence, the verb precedes the noun or pronoun by which it is governed; as, Hvis Manden kommer ind, går jeg ud, 'If the man comes in, I shall go out;' Går Barnet op ad Treppen, falder han ned, 'If the child should go up the stairs, he will fall down.'

In interrogative sentences the verb, as in English,

precedes the noun or pronoun which governs it; as, Er hun syg? 'Is she ill?' Kommer Manden ikke i Dag? 'Is the man not coming to-day?'

The tendency of modern Dano-Norwegian is to reject in common parlance the distinctive terminations of the plural in the present indicative; as, De har Ret, 'They are (is) right;' Vi er ikke i Stand til at komme, 'We are (is) not in a position to come;' Gutterne löber op ad Gaden, 'The boys are running (runs) up the street.'

A similar process of simplification is apparent in regard to the tenses of verbs, which in the spoken language are, with the exception of a few imperative and optative expressions, reduced to the indicative mood, of which the plural form is seldom used. This merging of the two numbers under the singular has been carried especially far by the grammarian Grundtvig, who writes vi kan, skal, vil etc., although the plural forms of these auxiliaries are still very generally used, as vi kunne, skulle, ville, etc.

Distinctions of persons which have been lost in modern Danish verbs are occasionally employed in poetry, as du vilt, which represents the Old Northern form of the second person singular. A similar reversion to the old mother tongue is to be traced in such plurals as drukke for drak (drikke, 'to drink'), svande for svandt (svinde, 'to vanish').

The infinitive of verbs may be used as a gerund; as, De får ingen Nytte ved at være altfor strenge, 'They will gain nothing by being too strict.' It is also used elliptically, with a transposition of the preposition; as, Han er slet at arbejde for, 'He is bad to work for;' Det er vanskeligt at skrive om, 'This matter is difficult to write about.' In Danish and the kindred Swedish there is no inelegance in sentences of this kind; but, on the other hand, it is inadmissible to use the present participle in the sense of a gerund, and hence such English forms of expression as 'On seeing me, she ran away,' 'On hearing the man call, the child hid himself,' must be rendered by the use of a tense of the verb; as, Da hun så mig, löbte hun bort; Så snart som Barnet hörte Manden råbe, skjulte han sig.

The present participle remains unchanged, whether used as an adjective or as a verbal-predicate; as, En rödmende Pige, 'A blushing girl;' Et rejsende Selskab, 'A travelling company;' Generalinden og Kapteinen kom körende, 'The General's wife and the Captain came driving.'

It may also be employed in the following elliptical manner: Mit iboende Hus, 'The house I live in;' Den afholdende Auktion, 'The auction which is to be held.' In such expressions it has the force of the Latin future participle.

The past participle can be used as an adjective, and must in that case agree in gender and number with the noun; as, en reven Kåbe, 'a torn cloak;' et revent Bånd, 'a rent tie;' revne Klæder, 'torn clothes.'

In accordance with strict grammatical rules the past participles should all agree in gender and number with the subject, where the passive is rendered by the help of blive, 'to be;' as, Brevet er blevet skrevet, 'The letter has been written;' Bögerne ere blevne skrevne, 'The books have been written.' In common parlance, however, this form is rejected as pedantic, and wanting in euphony; and it is customary to say, Brevet er bleven skrevet; Bögerne er bleven skrevne.

The present tense of the indicative is used indifferently in the present, future, conditional, and subjunctive moods; as, Han kommer i Dag, han kommer ikke i Morgen, 'He is coming to-day, he will not come to-morrow;' Hvis han ikke kommer, går jeg ikke med, 'If he should not come, I will not go;' Jeg håber det er sandt, 'I hope it may be true.'

The subjunctive or optative is only used in a few expressions, such as Gud velsigne Dem! 'God bless you!' Leve Kongen! 'Long live the king!' Så hjælpe mig Gud! 'May God help me!' The interjections gid (corruption of Gud give) and bare, 'only,' are used to express a wish; as, Gid han kunne komme, 'I wish he could come;' Bare jeg kunne få Bonden at se! 'If only I could see the countryman!'

The Danes have of late followed a German mode of construction, regarded as erroneous by Scandinavian grammarians, which admits of the use of the auxiliary være, 'to be,' instead of have, 'to have,' in reflective or passive verbs, and in expressing action; as, jeg er truffen sammen med ham för, instead of jeg har truffen, 'I have met him before.' Norwegians do not commit this error, which is now being so far modified by some Danish authorities, that an attempt is being made to limit the use of være, and to employ it only where a change in the condition of the subject-noun, or a temporary action, is expressed; as, Han er kört bort, 'He has driven out;' Han er gået ud i Haven, 'He is gone out into the garden.' When a definite action or permanent act is expressed, the verb have should be employed, in accordance with this distinctive use of the auxiliaries; as, Han har længe gået omkring i Haven, 'He has walked about the garden for a long time;' Han har kört tyve Mil, 'He has driven twenty miles.'

The use of være, 'to be,' is indicated where a changed or temporary condition has to be expressed; as, Barnet er falden ned af Muren, 'The child has fallen off the wall.' Blive, 'to be,' 'remain,' 'become,' serves to give a passive sense to an active verb; as, Hun blev elsket, 'She was beloved.' And when used in an active sense it loses its character of an auxiliary; as, Han blev gal, 'He became mad;' Kongen bliver i Byen, 'The king remains in town;' Bliv ikke vranten, 'Do not be cross!'

Some verbs, as at stå, can only be conjugated with at have, 'to have;' others, as at komme, require være; as, Han har stået på skibet Siden i Morgen, 'he has been on the ship since this morning;' Fruen er kommen til Bys, 'The lady has come to town.'

The use of skal, 'shall,' vil, 'will,' is often the same as in English; but it may be still more exactly defined by saying that the former implies the will of the subject, and the latter the agency of some person, or thing, apart from the subject: as, Jeg skal nok komme hjem i Aften, 'I shall be sure to come home to-night;' and Min Mand vil næppe komme hjem i Aften, 'My husband will scarcely come. . . .'

The auxiliary at få implies a necessity or obligation where it is not used in the sense of 'to get;' as, Han får gå, 'He will have to go;' Matrosen fik intet at spise hos Admiralen, 'The sailor got nothing to eat at the Admiral's.'

When the auxiliaries være and blive are used impersonally, they are followed by an objective; as, Det er mig, 'It is I (me);' Det bliver dig! 'It must be you (thee)!'

The defective auxiliaries skulle, ville, burde, turde, lade, are followed immediately by an infinitive present, without the intervention of at, 'to;' as, Jeg..., skal..., vil, or burde komme, 'I shall, will, or ought to come;' Hun turde ikke tale, 'She did not dare to speak;' Lad ham gå i Fred, 'Let him go in peace.' The at is similarly dispended with after verbs which express a function of the senses; as, Jeg hörte Barnet skrige, jeg så ham falde, jeg fölte ham slippe fra mine Hænder, 'I heard the child cry,' 'I saw him fall,' 'I felt him slip out of my hands.'

All active verbs may be put in a passive form by the transposition of the subject and the object, the former being in that case governed by a preposition; as, Jægeren skyder Haren, 'The huntsman shoots the hare;' Haren skydes af Jægeren, 'The hare is shot by the huntsman.'

A passive sense may be imparted to an active verb by the use of the auxiliary at blive, 'to be;' as, jeg elsker, 'I love;' jeg bliver elsket, 'I am loved,' (instead of jeg elskes).

The s, which now forms the distinctive characteristic of the passive form in Dano-Norwegian verbs, is a survival of the Old Northern st, which represented the still older affix sk, contracted from sik, modern sig, which is the reflective pronoun 'self.'

Deponents, which are often defective, and must always be conjugated with at have, 'to have,' differ from passives, with which they otherwise agree, by requiring that the participle past shall end in ts; as, Det har lykkets Majoren at komme usåret tilbage fra Krigen, 'The Major has been so fortunate as to return unwounded from the war.' Many writers deviate from this rule for the sake of euphony, and prefer the less correct form lykkeds.

Nice distinctions of meaning are conveyed by the respective use of a reflective pronoun, or of the passive form; as, de så hinanden i Går, and de sås i Går, 'they saw each other yesterday;' the former implying simply that they saw one another, while the latter conveys the meaning that they were brought into close contact with one another, and that they actually met.

Certain affixes, as be, er, for, mis, impart a more comprehensive, or ideal meaning to some primary verbs; as, at gribe, 'to grasp;' at begribe, 'to comprehend;' at kende, 'to know;' at erkende, 'to recognize;' at tjæne, 'to serve;' at fortjæne, 'to deserve;' at danne, 'to create;' at misdanne, 'to deform.'

The three first named of these affixes, be, er and for, are German, and usually occur in verbs derived from that language; as, at begribe, 'to understand;' at erstatte, 'to indemnify;' at forsætte, 'to misplace;' The for represents the German ver, and these three alien affixes are unaccentuated; while in the following particles, fore, und, mis, and over, the vowels are accentuated; as, forebilde, 'to prefigure;' undgå, 'to evade;' misforstå, 'to misunderstand;' overköre, 'to drive over.'

The same rule of accentuation holds good in regard to nouns and adjectives; as, Forstand, 'understanding' (German Verstand); undselig, 'bashful;' Overhoved, 'supreme head.'

Some verbs compounded of a preposition affixed to another verb admit of being decomposed, although in that case they generally lose their special meaning; as, at påtage, 'to assume,' 'to take upon oneself;' at tage på, 'to put on (clothes);' at overdrage, 'to entrust;' at drage over, 'to cross over.'

Some verbs, on the other hand, retain the same meaning when compounded, and when decomposed; as, at sammenlæge, or at læge sammen, 'to put together;' at overgive, or at give over, 'to surrender.'

In some verbs composed of an affix, more especially be, er, for, fore, und, the latter are inseparable from the primary verb; as, at betale, 'to pay;' at erholde, 'to obtain;' at forsone, 'to reconcile;' at foreslå, 'to propose;' at misforstå, 'to misunderstand;' at underskylde, 'to exculpate.'

In regard to the two distinct classes of verbs which are characterized as svage, or 'weak,' and stærke, or 'strong,' it may be observed that the former includes the larger number of foreign verbs, and is gradually being augmented by the addition of verbs originally belonging to the strong group. The weak mode of inflection, which embraces the two conjugations, taking respectively ede, et and te, t, in the imperfect indicative tense and in the past participle, shows less affinity with the Old Northern than the strong mode of inflection, which still includes about a hundred verbs.

Many weak verbs of the first conjugation closely follow the more euphonious forms of the corresponding Old Northern; as, at elske, elskede, from the older at elska, elskadi (imp. ind.). Where the terminations are of less soft sound in the mother-tongue, as in the past part. elskader, and in the various modifications which marked the several persons in the singular and plural, they have either been changed, as elsket (past part.), or they have been set aside, and thus in modern Danish one termination, er or r, is being more and more exclusively applied to all persons of the present indicative.

A similar process of simplification is breaking down the distinctive differences of the imperfect indicative in the first and second conjugations of the weak verbs; and many verbs may be conjugated in accordance with either mode of conjugation, as at bröle, 'to bellow,' which may take either brölede or brölte in the imperfect of the indicative.

The strong mode of conjugation, also known as the irregular, includes generally only verbs derived from the Old Northern, with which its inflections have more affinity than those of the weak form. Its chief distinctive feature is that the imperf. indicative retains the monosyllabic root of the words, without taking any terminal additions such as mark this tense in weak verbs, although the radical vowel generally undergoes a change either in the imperfect alone, or both in the latter, and in the participle.

This strong form may therefore be classified under the following heads:

1. Verbs in which there is no change in the radical vowel; as, at græde, 'to weep;' græd, imperf. ind.; grædt, past part.

2. Verbs in which the radical vowel changes both in the imperf. ind., and in the past participle; as, at skrive, 'to write,'—i. i. skrev, p. p. skrevet.

3. Verbs in which the radical vowel changes only in the imperfect tense; as, at lide, 'to suffer,'—i. i. led, p. p. lidt.

4. Verbs in which different vowels replace the radical vowel in the imperf., and the past participle; as, at drikke, 'to drink,'—i. i. drak, p. p. drukket.

The changes in the radical vowels of irregular verbs are similarly amenable to certain rules; thus:

1. æ and e frequently change to a or å in the imperfect indic.; as, at træde, 'to tread,'—i. i. trådte, p. p. trådt; at bede, 'to pray,'—i. i. bad, p. p. bedt.

2. i changes to a and to e; as, at sige, 'to say,'—i. i. sagde, p. p. sagt; at blive, 'to remain,'—i. i. blev, p. p. bleven, blevne.

3. ö changes to u; as, at dölge, 'to endure,'—i. i. dulgte, p. p. dulgt.

The largest number of irregular verbs form their past tense in a or e; as, at vælge, 'to choose,' i. i. valgte; at synge, 'to sing,' i. i. sang; at binde, 'to bind,' i. i. bandt; at rive, 'to tear,' i. i. rev; at skrige, 'to cry out,' i. i. skreg.

Where a verb can be used both transitively and intransitively, it usually follows in the first case the 'weak' (regular), and in the second case the 'strong' (irregular) mode of conjugation; as, at hænge, 'to hang,' trans. hængte, intrans. hang. Han hængte Kjolen på Træet, 'He hung his coat on the tree;' Kjolen hang på Træet, 'The coat was hanging on the tree.'

Many intransitive verbs acquire a transitive character by a mere "umlaut," or change of the vowel; as,

at falde,	to fall;	at fælle,	to fell.
... fare,	... drive;	... före,	... lead.
... knage,	... creak;	... knikke,	... crack.
... ligge,	... lie;	... lægge,	... lay.
... ryge,	... smoke;	... röge,	... to cure by smoking
... sidde,	... sit;	... sætte,	... set.
... springe,	... spring;	... sprænge,	... burst.
... våge,	... watch;	... vække,	... awaken, be awake.

Deponent verbs are declined in all their simple tenses like passives, viz., by adding s or es to the corresponding tenses of the active form. In their compound tenses they employ the active auxiliary at have. Their supine is formed by the addition of t or ts; but, for the sake of euphony, this rule is frequently disregarded, and des or edes is employed for the older and more correct form; as, instead of writing Det har lykkets mig, 'I have succeeded,' we find Det er lykket mig, or Det lykkedes mig.

Verbs having a reciprocative sense assume the passive form when used simply with the subject-noun, or pronoun; as, de ses, 'they see each other;' Hans og Jens slås, 'Hans (John) and Jens are fighting.' De slå hinanden, and de slås, convey different meanings; the former signifying 'they are beating each other,' while the latter implies the more forcible act of fighting.