Page:A simplified grammar of the Danish language.djvu/26

14 words of foreign origin the accent is very commonly on the last syllable, as Generāl, Kollegiūm.

The first syllable very usually takes the accent in Northern words, unless they are compounded with the German prefixes, be, er, for (Ger. ver), which are unaccentuated; as, bĕgrive, 'to comprehend;' ĕrindre, 'to remember;' fŏrrådne, 'to putrefy.' In words compounded of Northern particles, these take the accent; as, fōrekaste, 'to upbraid;' vēdblive, 'to continue.'

In compound words the stress is usually thrown on the syllable which marks the leading characteristic of the whole; as, en Præstegård, 'a parsonage;' Nordsöensbölger, 'the waves of the German Ocean;' Frederiksborg, 'the castle of Frederick.'

Two genders are recognized in modern Danish, viz. the Common Gender (Fælleskön), and the Neuter Gender (Intetkön).

Articles and adjectives must agree in gender and number with the noun to which they refer.

There are three distinct articles, viz. the Indefinite Article (ubestemte Kendeord), and two forms of the Definite Article (bestemte Kendeord), known as the "Noun Article" and the "Adjective Article."