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:

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.

Pronouns

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)
Ex:

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

& neuter (et)
Ex:

• 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.

Adjectives

Adjectives are declined to the gender or number of the noun they are describing.

Ex:
Green

• Common (en) words - grøn
• Neuter (et) words - grønt
• Plural words - grøne

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 have” - to have

Most verbs are conjugated in the present tense by adding -r to the stem. The stem is usually found by removing an -e from the verb’s infinitive form, but there are exceptions (see below):

Command forms:

These are usually just the stems of the verbs. Exceptions exist, but not in this text.

Present Tense:

• at have - to have
  • Jeg har
    • I have
  • Du/ De har
    • (Informal/ formal) you have
  • Hun/ han/ den/ det har
    • He/ she/ it has
  • I har
    • (Plural) you have
  • Vi har
    • We have
  • De har
    • They have

Present Passive:

at tage - to take → at tages - to be taken

The passive voice is used when the subject is unknown or not important information. In the present tense, the passive voice is formed using the passive form of the verb. The passive form of the verb is created by adding an -s to the infinitive and reorganizing the sentence so the object becomes the subject.

Ex:
Active voice: Drengen griber bolden -- The boy catches the ball
Passive voice: Bolden gribes (af drengen). -- The ball is caught (by the boy).
The items in parenthesis are optional and is often left out if the person carrying out the action is unknown or unimportant in the context.

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.

• Jeg har krydset...