Page:A simplified grammar of the Swedish language.djvu/35

Rh ADJECTIVES. (Egenskapsord.)

Swedish adjectives agree in gender and number with the noun which they qualify; as, en flitig man, och en flitig qvinna, 'a diligent man and woman;' ett flitigt barn, 'a diligent child;' gode (a) söner, 'good sons;' flitiga flickor, 'diligent girls;' ädla namn, n., 'noble names.' Here it will be observed that in this indefinite so-called "weak" form of the adjective, which is also used as a predicate, the masculine and feminine in the singular are identical, while the neuter takes a t. The masculine plural in e is in accordance with the older forms of the language, but by modern and common usage an a is generally substituted for the e, and the plural of all genders is thus reduced to one mode of termination in the indefinite form of the adjective. Thus while the same form of the adjective is used for the masculine and feminine, or common gender in the singular, the neuter is marked by the addition of t, and the plural by a, as:




 * - align="center"
 * colspan="3" | Singular.
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * god, good. || || godt, good.
 * - align="center"
 * colspan="3" | Plural.
 * - align="center"
 * colspan="3" | goda, good, for all genders,
 * }
 * }

excepting in some cases as above referred to, where the masculine takes final e instead of a.

This termination of e is also met with for all genders in