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	Danish	English
#5	Danish by sen
	Ah, denne by ! Blomsternes sang dækker over skammen og skønheden. Igen har jeg krydset, som om jeg var i en drøm I den flerfarvede nat mens flammerne brænder. I mørket så jeg pragtfulde masker. “Disse varer her, kan du være så venlig at fortælle mig Hvor meget de koster?” Ansigterne, som en fes smukke historie, Går, smiler, og køber i mørket! De stolte soldater marcherer videre. Fløjterne smiler, basguitarerne stønner. Et barn, iført klude som om de gemmer sig i natten, Flyver jævnt som en ung flagermus. En pige i hvid, der bevæger sig som dej; Overfor spilles noterne, Som i et spindelvæv; Hvirvlen af mennesker forsvinder.	Ah, that city! The flower’s song covers over the shame and the beauty. Again I have crossed, as if I was in a dream In the multicolored night while the flames burn. In the darkness, I saw splendid masks. “These wares here, can you be so kind to tell me How much they cost?” The faces, like a fairy’s beautiful story, Walk, smile, and buy in the darkness. The proud soldiers march on. The flutes smile, the bass guitars moan. A child, wearing rags, as if they are hiding themselves in the night, Flies smoothly like a young bat. A girl in white, that moves herself like dough; Overhead, notes are being played, Like in a spiderweb. The whirls of people disappear.

af		of
ansigter	noun (pl)	faces
barn	noun	child
basguitarer	noun (pl)	bass guitars
bevæge	verb	to move
blomster	noun (pl)	flowers
brænde	verb	to burn
by	noun	city
dække	verb	cover
de	definite article	the (pl)
de	pronoun	they
dej	noun	dough
den/ det	definite article	the
denne		this
der	conj.	that
disse		these
drøm	noun	dream
du	pronoun	you
en/ et	indefinite article	a
fe	noun	fairy
flagermus	noun	bat
flammer	noun	flames
flervarvede	adj.	multicoloured
fløjter	noun (pl)	flutes
flyve	verb	to fly
forsvinde	verb	to disappear
fortælle	verb	to tell
gå	verb	to go/ walk
gemme	verb	to hide
have	verb	to have
her		here
historie	noun	story
hvid	adj.	white
hvirvel	noun	swirl
hvor meget		how much
i	prep.	in
iført	verb	wearing
igen		again
jævnt	adj.	smoothly
jeg	pronoun	I
klude	noun	rags
købe	verb	to buy
koste	verb	to cost
krydse	verb	to cross
kunne	verb	can
marcher	verb	to march
masker	noun (pl)	masks
mennesker	noun	people
mens	conj.	while
mig	pronoun	me
mørk	noun	darkness
nat	noun	night
noter	noun (pl)	notes
og	conj.	and
over	prep.	over, up
overfor		overhead/ above
pige	noun	girl
pragtfulde	adj.	splendid
så	verb	saw
så		so
sang	noun	song
sig	pronoun	himself/ herself/ themselves
skam	noun	shame
skønhed	noun	beauty
smile	verb	to smile
smukke	adj.	beautiful
soldater	noun (pl)	soldiers
som	conj.	like
som om	conj.	as if
spilles	verb	present passive of "spille" - to play
spindelvæv	noun	spiderweb
stolte	adj.	proud
stønne	verb	groan/ moan
ung	adj.	young
være	verb	to be
var	verb	was
varer	noun (pl)	wares/ goods
venlig	adj.	kind/ friendly
videre		onward, again

Word order

Danish word order follows a standard SVO pattern, with a few exceptions.

Inversion (VSO) happens in the the text due to the following:

In a main clause when it does not start with the subject:
- I mørket så jeg pragtfulde masker

A main clause is a sentence which is a complete statement, while a subordinate clause is an incomplete statement that only makes sense when it is joined to a main clause.

Articles/Plural

In Danish, there are indefinite and definite articles both of which have a singular and plural form). In Danish the definite articles appear at the end of a noun (suffixes), and the suffix agrees with the gender of the noun. There are two genders in Danish:

common (en)

En nat - a night
Natten - the night
Natter - nights
Natterne - the nights

And neuter (et)

Singular indefinite - et barn - a child
Singular definite - barnet - the child
Plural indefinite- børn - children
Plural definite - børnene - the children

In the examples above, you can see that the plural definite ending -(e)ne is common across both grammatical genders.

When a noun is described by an adjective, the noun no longer receives the suffix -et/-en. It is replaced by det (neuter), den (common) or de (plural) in front of the adjective:

Soldaterne - the soldiers
De stolte soldater - the proud soldiers

There are a lot of different ways to form the plural in Danish, but the most common are adding -er or a vowel change. Any words that appeared in their plural form are placed in the dictionary in their plural form.

Danish cases

There’s only 1 case you have to worry about: Genitive.

This case shows possession much like English’s, well..“ ‘s “.

En fe - a fairy
En fes - a fairy’s

Verbs

In Danish, verbs are only conjugated by tense, not by person or number like in other languages.

The infinitive form of the verb is written with “at” : “at fortælle” - to tell

Most verbs are conjugated in the present tense by adding -r to the stem:

Present Tense: at gå - to go

Jeg går
- I go
Du/ De går
- (Informal/ formal) you go
Hun/ han/ den/ det går
- He/ she/ it goes
I går
- (Plural) you go
Vi går
- We go
De går
- They go

Past perfect tense:

The most common form of past tense used in Danish is the past perfect (I have read, I have learned). In Danish, this is formed by the present conjugation of “at have” and a past participle form of another verb. The past participle is formed by adding -(e)t to the end of the verb stem. The stem is usually found by removing an -e from the verb’s infinitive form.

Igen har jeg krydset...

The other past tense occurs twice in this text. It’s called simple past (I saw, I was). There are 3 common ways to form this tense:
Appending -ede to the stem
Appending -te to the stem
Or adding nothing and changing a vowel

Simple past:

at se - to see
så - saw

at være - to be
var - was