Norwegian: Løft ditt hode, du raske gutt

winenous

Senior Member
English - British
As there is no definite article, why "du raske gutt" rather than "du rask gutt"?

My instinct is that it is because the boy is being addressed, and there are parallels with more normal expressions like "kære venn" and "kjære deg". Does that sound reasonable?
 
  • Yes, you are absolutely right. The weak declension of adjectives is used in “vocative” constructions (if I may use such a term).
     
    Thank you!

    You may indeed use such a term as "vocative". In fact I almost did in my question, but thought better of it.

    On the other hand, if you'd said "weak declension of adjectives" out of context, I would not have understood 🙂
     
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