Nouns

Substantiver / navneord

  Genders and articles (køn og artikler/kendeord)

There are two genders in Danish:

1. common gender (fælleskøn) -- en, den
2. neuter gender (intetkøn) -- et, det

They have to be remembered along with the words. A hint: about 75% of nouns are en-words. There are two indefinite articles: et and en and three definite articles: det, den, and plural de. They are used in the form of suffixes -en, -et, -(e)ne. That means they are attached to words (they don't preceed them like in English or German). The following table illustrates the use of articles.

	singular	plural
indefinite en-word	en dreng a boy en pige a girl	drenge boys piger girls
definite en-word	drengen the boy pigen the girl	drengene the boys pigerne the girls
indefinite et-word	et hus a house et træ a tree	huse houses træer trees
definite et-word	huset the house træet the tree	husene the houses træerne the trees

If an adjective is present, articles are used in a different way:

	singular	plural
indefinite en-word	en stor dreng a big boy en stor pige a big girl	store drenge big boys store piger big girls
definite en-word	den store dreng the big boy den store pige the big girl	de store drenge the big boys de store piger the big girls
indefinite et-word	et stort hus a big house et stort træ a big tree	store huse big houses store træer big trees
definite et-word	det store hus the big house det store træ the big tree	de store huse the big houses de store træer the big trees

For the explanation of adjective forms in the above table see the chapter on adjectives.

  Plurals (flertal)

Plurals can be formed in four ways:

1. by adding -er, eg. en kage - kager (a cake - cakes)
2. by adding -e, eg. et hus - huse (a house - houses)
3. no change, eg. en ting - ting (a thing - things)
4. irregularly, eg. en mand - mænd (a man - men)

In a very few cases forming a plural is accompanied by a vovel mutation in the noun stem, eg. en bog - bøger (a book - books). Certain words, though not many, retained their original plural forms (eg. Latin visum - visa or English point - points). Some words are found only in the singular (eg. død, håb (death, hope)) or only in the plurar (eg. briller, bukser (glasses, trousers)).

  Joined nouns (sammensatte substantiver)

Danish words (N, V, Adj, Adv) are often joined together (one observes a similar phenomenon in the German language) by putting s, e, or nothing between them. In such cases the last word decides about the article, and takes the plural form. Examples:

• et eksamensbevis - eksamensbeviser
• et handelsskib - handelsskibe (a trade ship)
• en flyvemaskine - flyvemaskiner (a plane)

  Genitive (ejefald)

Genitive is formed just like in English - we add an s at the end of the word (after all other possible suffixes). The only difference is that in Danish one does not use an apostrophe. If a noun ends with s (or z), we add es, 's or '. In case of a group of nouns (eg. Adam and Eve) s can be attached to both nouns, or only to the last one. Examples:

• min mors bog - my mother's book
• missens mad - the cat's food
• Søren og Jespers plader - Søren and Jesper's records
• Lises venner - Lise's (or Lis') friends
• Lis's venner - Lis' friends (informal)

  Capitalization

Before the spelling reform in 1948 all nouns were spelled with a capital letter (as in German): Derude paa Himlen havde blaagraa Farver vundet Magten, og enkelte Regndraaber slog mod Ruderne. It is not the case anymore.

tsca's Danish Grammar; © 1999 Copyright by Tomasz Sienicki < tsca @ edb.dk >