Page:A simplified grammar of the Swedish language.djvu/56

38 The article is omitted when the noun is preceded and governed by a genitive; as, iqvnnansqvinnans [sic] pligt är att älska sina barn, 'a woman's duty (the duty of a woman) is to love her children.'

The affix-article is not used when the noun is preceded by a relative or interrogative pronoun; as, hvilken pojke var det? 'what boy was that?'

Swedish requires that the terminal article should be added to the noun, even when the latter is preceded by an adjective with the independent article, den, det, de, 'the;' as, det behagede ej lilla prinsessan, 'this did not please the little princess.'

This pleonastic method of construction is also met with when the noun is preceded by the demonstrative pronoun, den, det, de, 'that,' 'those;' as, den mannen skulle jag vilja lära känna, 'that man I should like to know.'

In the older forms of the language the suffix-article was generally omitted in such modes of construction, as may be seen from certain familiar expressions still current; as, i de äldsta tider ', 'in the olden times.'

The use of the definite article before a noun, where the latter is not qualified by an adjective, is regarded as a Germanism, and is of frequent occurrence in the Scriptures, which in many particulars reflect the German literary influences to which the earlier translators had been subjected; thus we find de Romare, 'the Romans;' de Kolosser, 'the Colossians,' instead of the more genuinely Northern construction  'Romarne,' 'Kolosserne.' 

As a general rule it may be assumed that the terminal