Page:A simplified grammar of the Swedish language.djvu/73

Rh languages; as, det dansas här i afton, 'there will be dancing here this evening.' They may, however, be used with är and var in an active sense; as, konungen  till Norge, 'the king has gone to Norway.'

In Old Swedish the passive was expressed by the use of the auxiliaries verda (varða), 'to be,'  as it may still be rendered by vara, or more generally by blifva, 'to be,' as, han har blifvit sårad, 'he has been wounded,' instead of han har sårats.

Some verbs can only be used reflectively; as, att beflita sig, 'to strive;'  many verbs admit of being used both reflectively and actively; as, att inbilla sig, 'to imagine;'  man bör icke inbilla en annan sådan något, 'one ought not to make any one believe such a thing.'

Compound verbs are generally declined like the corresponding verbs from which they have been derived; as, håller, höll, and anhåller, anhöll, etc., 'hold,' and 'detain.' But where they have been derived from German, or other foreign sources, they do not follow the inflection of the corresponding Swedish verb; as, hushålla, 'to keep house,' which is not derived directly from hus, 'house,' and hålla, 'to hold,' but from the German ' haushalten, ' and makes husholdte.

Verbs which can be used both transitively and intransitively generally follow the second conjugation in the former and the fourth conjugation in the latter case; as, han hjelpte andra och stjelpte sig sjelf, 'he helped others and ruined himself;' det halp icke, han stalp, 'there was no help for it, he was ruined.'

Some verbs can be used both as intransitives and