Page:A simplified grammar of the Danish language.djvu/50

38 Pris er höjere en Sölvets, "The price of gold is higher than (that of) silver;" Kapteinens Heltemod var större end Generalens, "The Captain's valour was greater than the General's."

The prepositions ad, af, til, etc., may be used to indicate the genitive; as, en Sön ad (af, or til) Dronningen, "A son of the Queen."

Words expressing weight and quality are placed in direct apposition to the noun which they govern, without taking the genitive case, or using a preposition; as, et Pund Smör, 'a pound (of) butter;' et Glas Vin, 'a glass (of) wine.'

The objective noun which is used directly in the dative precedes the simple objective; as, Manden gav Blommen, "The man gave the boy the plum;" but where the dative is governed by a preposition, it follows the objective; as, Manden gav Blommen, "The man gave the plum to the boy."

Traces of the inflections of nouns in the Old Northern yet linger in Danish in certain forms of expression, in which the ancient terminations of cases (generally the genitive and dative) have survived; as, ad Hjærtens Lyst, 'to one's heart's content;' at have i Sinde, 'to intend' (have in one's mind); i Live, 'alive;' til Döde, 'till (or to) death.'

In the oldest forms of Dano-Norwegian, nouns were classed under three genders, survivals of which are still to be found in the provinces, where the peasants retain the use of the feminine gender for various inanimate objects.

Nouns of the common gender acquire a distinct feminine significance, (1) by the addition of inde, or ske; as, en