Page:A simplified grammar of the Danish language.djvu/71

Rh (Biord.)

There is a tendency among modern Danish and Norwegian writers, in conformity with the Swedish usage, to break up the compound adverbs into their integral parts, more especially when these consist of a preposition and a noun, and thus, for example, to write i Dag, instead of idag, 'to-day;' i År, instead of iår, 'this year;' til Stede, instead of tilstede, 'on the spot,' etc. Similarly, engang is written en Gang, 'once;' iligemåde, ilige Måde, idetmindste, i det mindste, 'at least,' etc.

Certain adverbs, when required to be used in the superlative, may be expressed by a neuter adjective with a preposition; as, på det bedste, 'best;' på det aller venligste, 'most friendly' (in the most friendly way).

Certain adverbs imply motion, or rest, by the absence or presence of a terminal e; as, Barnet går ikke ud, 'The child is not going out;' Barnet står allerede ude på Marken, 'The child is already standing out in the field;' At gå hjem, 'to go home;' at være hjemme, 'to be at home.' In these cases the final e may be regarded as a survival of an otherwise obsolete ablative form.

Certain adverbs of place and time may be put after the noun to which they refer, and used elliptically without a verb; as, Börnerne her, 'the children (who are) here;' Opröret i Fjor, 'the disturbance (which happened) last year.'

The adverbs ja and jo, 'yes,' cannot be used indifferently; the use of the former being required in answer to a question involving no negation, while the latter must be employed