Page:A simplified grammar of the Danish language.djvu/67

Rh 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