Breakdown of Relikviet gemtes i borgen.
i
in
gemme
to hide (put away, save)
relikviet
the relic
borgen
the castle (fortress)
Questions & Answers about Relikviet gemtes i borgen.
How is the passive verb gemtes formed in this sentence?
It is the past tense s-passive of at gemme (to hide). Because the regular past tense of this verb is gemte, we simply add an -s to make it passive, giving us gemtes. Verbs whose past tense ends in -ede would instead get an -edes ending.
Could I say blev gemt instead of gemtes here?
Yes, Relikviet blev gemt i borgen means the exact same thing and is actually more common in everyday speech. The s-passive (gemtes) tends to sound a bit more formal, literary, or historical, which fits perfectly with a sentence about a relic in a castle.
Since it translates to 'the relic', why does relikviet only add a -t instead of the full neuter definite ending -et?
The root noun is et relikvie. Because the base word already ends in an -e, Danish simply adds a -t to make it definite to avoid an awkward double vowel.
Can gemtes also mean 'was saved' in this context?
Yes, at gemme translates to both 'to hide' and 'to save/keep' (like keeping something for later). In a castle, a relic might be kept safe or literally hidden away. However, if you mean 'saved' as in rescued from destruction, you would instead use the passive of at redde, such as reddedes or blev reddet.