{"id":1069,"date":"2014-04-30T23:35:28","date_gmt":"2014-04-30T23:35:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/?p=1069"},"modified":"2014-04-30T23:35:28","modified_gmt":"2014-04-30T23:35:28","slug":"danish-noun-phrases-for-dummies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/2014\/04\/30\/danish-noun-phrases-for-dummies\/","title":{"rendered":"Danish Noun Phrases for Dummies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mockingbird_silhouette\"<\/a>Fuglen synger. Bussen k\u00f8rer.<\/b> (The bird is singing. The bus is driving.) An awful lot of phrases consist of a noun phrase + a verbal phrase. Danish verbal phrases are a piece of cake: Er<\/b>, for example, means both am<\/i>, is<\/i> and are<\/i>; snakker<\/b> can be translated as talk, talks<\/i> and am\/is\/are talking<\/i>. Noun phrases are slightly more complex\u2026<\/p>\n

Is my noun-of-choice f\u00e6llesk\u00f8n<\/i> (common gender) or intetk\u00f8n <\/i>(neuter)? In Danish, that\u2019s the first thing you need to know. All the common nouns of the language have one of those two genders. Even sexless things like roads and houses!<\/p>\n

The gender of a noun is revealed every time you translate an<\/i> or a<\/i> \u201dsomething\u201d from English: an orange<\/i> > en appelsin<\/b>, a cat<\/i> > en kat<\/b>, a cap<\/i> > en kasket<\/b> \u2013 those words are f\u00e6llesk\u00f8n<\/i>; an autumn<\/i> > et efter\u00e5r<\/b>, a tree<\/i> > et tr\u00e6<\/b>, a life<\/i> > et liv<\/b> \u2013 those are intetk\u00f8n<\/i>. Unfortunately, there are no good rules to tell the gender of a noun; you have to learn it by heart. Fortunately, about 80 % of all nouns are f\u00e6llesk\u00f8n<\/i>, so stick to en<\/b> whenever you\u2019re in doubt! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Is my noun phrase more like a general example, or is it pointing at something concrete? In English, you can easily turn an indefinite noun phrase <\/i>such as \u2019a car\u2019 into a definite<\/i> one: the car<\/i>, this car<\/i>, that car<\/i>, Mia\u2019s car<\/i>, my car<\/i>\u2026 In Danish, there is a bit more variation: bilen<\/b>, denne bil<\/b>, den bil<\/b>, Mias bil<\/b>, min bil<\/b>. With a neuter word like hus<\/b> (house), it becomes: huset<\/b>, dette hus<\/b>, det hus<\/b>, Mias hus<\/b>, mit hus<\/b>.<\/p>\n

The definite-indefinite thing becomes really important when you want to throw in an adjective or two in your Danish noun phrase. Singular, neuter nouns generally infect their adjectives with a t<\/b> ending: bilen er r\u00f8d<\/b> (the car is red) > huset er r\u00f8dt<\/b> (the house is red); en r\u00f8d bil<\/b> (a red car) > et r\u00f8dt hus<\/b> (a red house).<\/p>\n

However, as soon as an indefinite noun phrase is made definite (a car<\/i> > this car<\/i>), any built-in adjective gets an e<\/b> ending, no matter the noun\u2019s gender: en r\u00f8d bil <\/b>> Susannes r\u00f8de bil<\/b> (Susanne\u2019s red car), et r\u00f8dt hus<\/b> > mit r\u00f8de hus<\/b> (my red house). (Okay, I lied to you: A few adjectives, such as orange<\/b> and cool <\/b>and h\u00f8jere<\/b>, higher<\/i>, never get a t<\/b> or an e<\/b> ending.)<\/p>\n

Please note that \u201dthe<\/i>-phrases\u201d with and without adjectives are worlds apart in Danish: tr\u00e6et<\/b> (the tree) \u2013 det gr\u00f8nne tr\u00e6<\/b> (the green tree).<\/p>\n

Now you know the basics of Danish noun phrases. But how about the plurals? Most of them end in -er<\/b>. As with the gender, however, the specific plural ending of each word has to be learnt separately. These are the most common \u201dpluralizers\u201d:<\/p>\n

\u2022 er<\/b>: tr\u00e6 <\/b>> tr\u00e6er<\/b>, pige<\/b> (girl) > piger<\/b>, demokrati<\/b> (democracy) > demokratier<\/b><\/p>\n

\u2022 e<\/b>: hus<\/b> > huse<\/b>, dreng<\/b> (boy) > drenge<\/b>, computer<\/b> > computere<\/b><\/p>\n

\u2022 (no ending): \u00e5r<\/b> > \u00e5r<\/b> (year)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The vast majority of adjectives receive an e<\/b> ending in the plural, no matter whether they describe something definite or indefinite. Note, though, the word sm\u00e5<\/b>, which is an irregular plural of lille<\/b> (little, small): glade, vilde, sm\u00e5 drenge<\/b> (happy, wild, small boys); disse glade, vilde, sm\u00e5 drenge<\/b> (these happy, wild, small boys).<\/p>\n

Dansk er egentlig ret nemt, ikke?<\/b> (Danish is actually quite easy, isn\u2019t it?)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Fuglen synger. Bussen k\u00f8rer. (The bird is singing. The bus is driving.) An awful lot of phrases consist of a noun phrase + a verbal phrase. Danish verbal phrases are a piece of cake: Er, for example, means both am, is and are; snakker can be translated as talk, talks and am\/is\/are talking. Noun phrases…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":1070,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3152,3232,3007,274897],"class_list":["post-1069","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grammar","tag-definite","tag-indefinite","tag-noun","tag-noun-phrase"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t