The Danish Article[chapterheader]
What is it?
Articles are in English put in front of nouns (objects, people, animals, etc.) to determine whether we are dealing with any object like a car or a specific object, the car.
The grammatical names we will use when dealing with articles and nouns are: Singular, Plural, Indefinite and Definite.
| Singular | means | a single object | e.g. | a car |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plural | means | many objects | e.g. | cars |
| Indefinite | means | any object(s) | e.g. | a car/some cars |
| Definite | means | specific object(s) | e.g. | the car/the cars |
The Rules
In Danish the articles are en (Common Noun Class) and et (Neuter Noun Class).
We use the term Noun Class for the two 'genders' Common and Neuter.
In Danish these are not the conventional male and female as seen in many languages like in Spanish: 'un' (masculin) and 'una' (feminin). Hence, we prefer the term Noun Class.
- Prefixed (put in front) when Indefinite
- Suffixed (at the end) when Definite
| Singular Indefinite | Singular Definite | |
|---|---|---|
| Common | en [noun] | [noun]+(e)n |
| Neuter | et [noun] | [noun]+(e)t |
If the noun already ends on an 'e' the 'e' in brackets is omitted.
Examples
Common Noun Class (en)
| Singular Indefinite | Singular Definite |
|---|---|
en bil | bilen |
| a car | the car |
en stol | stolen |
| a chair | the chair |
en blomst | blomsten |
| a flower | the flower |
Neuter Noun Class (et)
| Singular Indefinite | Singular Definite |
|---|---|
et hus | huset |
| a house | the house |
et bord | bordet |
| a table | the table |
et træ | træet |
| a tree | the tree |