| Here are a few key things you need to know about Danish grammar: |
Danish nouns (things) have two genders:
a car = en bil
a house = et hus There are some obscure rules about when to use en and when to use et, but you needn't worry about them. As your Danish improves, you will just naturally remember which one to use. |
the car = bilen
the house = huset Think of the suffix as a 'definite form maker' instead of as the word 'the'. |
Possessive pronouns:
1) my car = min bil
2) my house = mit hus 3) my cars/houses = mine biler/huse |
Adjectives:
1) a big car = en stor bil
2) a big house = et stort hus 3a) big cars/houses = store biler/huse
3b1) the big house/car = den store hus/bil
3b2) John's big house/car = Johns store hus/bil
3b3) my big car = min store bil, my big house = mit store hus These changes of pronouns and adjectives are called inflections.
Danish has only these 3 inflections (2 for gender and 1 for plurals and definite forms). |
Subject-verb agreement: Danish has only one form of the verb for each tense:
I am = Jeg er
We are = Vi er
He is = Han er I was = Jeg var
We were = Vi var
She was = Hun var |
Danish does not use helping verbs (e.g. to do, to be) in the way that English does
(remember, light-blue text = literal meaning): Do you speak Danish?
Taler du dansk? (Speak you Danish?)
I do not speak Danish
Jeg taler ikke dansk (I speak not Danish) Do you have children?
Har du børn? (Have you children?)
Does he have a dog?
Har han en hund? (Has he a dog?)
Do you smoke?
Ryger du? (Smoke you?)
Did you see him?
Så du ham? (Saw you him?) Is he coming?
Kommer han? (Comes he?)
Are they studying?
Studerer de? (Study they?) |
For those who didn't pay attention in school:
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, yours, myself, him, etc.) |
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