Page:A Danish and Dano-Norwegian grammar.djvu/129

Rh naar jeg ser ham, skal jeg hilse ham fra dig when I see him I shall bring him your greeting.

The present tense may also be employed to signify the past. Igaar medens jeg gaar paa Gaden ser jeg pludselig en Mand komme löbende imod mig yesterday while walking in the street I suddenly see a man coming running towards me.

223. The imperfect is used in conditional sentences referring to the present as in English; Ex. hvis jeg vidste hans Navn, saa vilde jeg fortælle dig det if I knew his name I should tell it to you. In the same manner the pluperfect is used in conditional sentences referring to the past: om jeg havde set ham, skulde jeg nok ikke have ladet ham löbe if I had seen him I should certainly not have let him skip.

224. In the future tense skal and vil as a rule have retained some of their original signification of duty and necessity or will and desire and they are used accordingly. There is no distinction as to the use in the different persons as in English. Skal is used in promises: jeg skal sikkert have Klæderne færdig i rette Tid I shall surely have the suit ready in time. For the use of skal and vil in the passive voice see § 233.

The compound future more commonly takes the form of faar elsket (faar with past ptc.) instead of skal have elsket. Ex. naar jeg faar gjort del, skal jeg lade Dem det vide when I shall have done it (or when I get it done) I shall give you word.

In Norwegian faa with infinitive is used to express necessity: jeg faar nok gjöre det, enten jeg vil eller ikke I guess I shall have to do it whether I want to or not, (cfr. Engl. I’ve got to do it.)

225. Some intransitive verbs indicating a change form their perfect by means of være instead of have, when it is intended to express only that something has taken place