Page:A simplified grammar of the Danish language.djvu/59

Rh Kender du Manden jeg stod hos? 'Do you know the man with whom (at whose house) I was?' It is also frequently omitted where the predicate verb is preceded by the adverbs her, 'here,' der, 'there;' as, Manden her står, er en gammel Ven, 'The man, who stands here, is an old friend;' Koen der ligger, er syg, 'The cow, which is there, is sick.'

In common parlance, hvem, 'whom,' is used in place of hvo, 'who;' as, Hvem er det?, 'Who is that?' But in secondary interrogative clauses, hvo is more commonly used. In such cases, however, excepting where the adverbs her and der precede the verb, it must be followed by the relative som, or der; as, Jeg ved ikke, gjordt det, 'I do not know who (that) has done it;' Hun ser,  her, 'She sees who is here.'

The impersonal pronoun det, 'it,' is used as 'it' and 'that' in English; as, det blæser, 'it blows;' det glæder mig, 'it charms me.'

The final t of det is dropped in ordinary speech. Der, 'there,' with the vowel short, is used in the sense of 'there are,' (il y a,) 'they,' 'one,' etc.; as, Der er mange Træer i Haven, 'There are many trees in the garden.' When der is used with a passive, or deponent verb, it acquires the special sense of 'people,' 'they,' and gives to the verb the force of a gerund; as, Der læses i Skolen, 'They are reading in the school;' Der danses her i Aften, 'There will be dancing here to-night.'

The expressions Folk sige, de sige, 'people say,' 'they say,' although often heard, are best rendered by man siger, 'one says.'