Danish grammar
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Introduction to Danish Grammar
A quick refresher
noun
a thing (car, book, cat)
verb
an action (speak, walk, write)
adjective
a descriptive word (beautiful, big, red)
pronoun
stands in place of a person or a thing (I, you, he, it, they, my, mine, etc.)
Nouns
Danish nouns have two genders, shown by the articles en and et:
en bil
a car
et hus
a house
There is no reliable rule for en vs et - learn them with each noun.
In this course all et-words are in orange, to help you remember them.
The noun gets a suffix in the definite form. Think of the suffix as a definite form maker instead of as the word "the":
bilen
the car
huset
the house
Possessive pronouns: min & mit
min bil
my car
mit hus
my house
mine biler / mine huse
my cars / my houses
The possessives above agree with the noun they refer to (the thing possessed), not with the owner.
Adjectives (descriptive words)
Adjectives have three forms: 1) base (common gender), 2) -t for neuter, and 3) -e for plural/definite.
Adjectives change according to the gender and number of the noun they describe.
Base (common gender)
en stor bil
a big car
t-form (neuter)
et stort hus
a big house
e-form (plural and definite forms)
store biler
big cars
store huse
big houses
den store bil
the big car
det store hus
the big house
Johns store bil
John's big car
Johns store hus
John's big house
min store bil
my big car
mit store hus
my big house
Possessives (min/mit/mine) and adjectives (stor/stort/store) show agreement with the noun.
Subject–verb agreement
Danish has only one form of the verb for each subject.
to be
Jeg er
I am
Vi er
We are
Han er
He is
to be (past)
Jeg var
I was
Vi var
We were
Hun var
She was
to sleep
Jeg sover
I sleep
Du sover
You sleep
Han/hun/det sover
He/she/it sleeps
Helping verbs
Danish does not use helping verbs (e.g. do and be) in the way that English does:
Taler du dansk? (Speak you Danish?)
Do you speak Danish?
Har du børn? (Have you children?)
Do you have children?
Ryger du? (Smoke you?)
Do you smoke?
Han ryger ikke (He smokes not)
He does not smoke
Continuous tenses
Går du? (Walk you?)
Are you walking?
Hun synger (She sings)
She is singing
Jeg spiser (I eat)
I am eating
Negation
Formed with ikke (not).
Jeg taler ikke dansk (I speak not Danish)
I don’t speak Danish
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