Danish Grammar

Overview

Danish is very similar to English in terms of grammar. Of course, there are some differences, but once you have grasped its basis, the rest is just a piece of cake. The syntax form of Danish is basically the same as English with the subject placed at the beginning of the sentence, followed by the verb and object. In some cases, though, the verb is placed at the beginning of the sentence and then followed by the subject and object.

Danish Writing System

The Danish alphabet consists of Latin letters and is similar to the English one with the exceptions of the vowel letters æ, ø, and å at the very end of the alphabet. They have replaced the digraphs ae, oe, and aa, but the latter aa can still be found in some personal or geographical names today without any change in pronunciation. The most common digraph still used today is aa, which appears in the names of the larger cities Aarhus and Aalborg in Jutland.

The digraphs can also be used if æ, ø, and å are not available, for example, on computer keyboards.

Nouns

There are two genders in Danish: common and neuter. Around 75% of Danish nouns have the common gender though. The singular indefinite article for common nouns is en. For neuter nouns it is et. Depending on the gender of a given noun, en or et is placed in front of it like in English. However, a singular definite noun is rendered by placing the indefinite article as a suffix at the end of the noun. -en and -et are added to the noun.

For example:
the Danish word by (meaning “city”) becomes
en by (”a city”)
byen (”the city”)

hus (”house”) becomes
et hus (”a house”)
huset (”the house”)

Note when the noun carries an attributed adjective, the prepositive articles den and det are used instead and placed in front of the adjective followed by the noun.

For example:
den store by (”the big city”)
det lille hus (”the small/little house”)

When it comes to plural nouns in Danish, things get a little more complicated. The plural form based on the gender and the number of syllables in a word can be predicted to some extent, but even among regular nouns, it is not obvious whether -er or -e should be added to make the plural form of common gender nouns in Monosyllables.

Additionally, there are also many irregular nouns with irregular plurals in Danish, but to keep it simple here at first, remember that the suffixes -er and -e for plural indefinite and -ne and -ene for plural definite is most important.

For example:
byer (”cities”)
byerne (”the cities”)

Note that the noun is already in its plural indefinite form when -ne is added to make it plural definite.

For example:
huse (”houses”)
husene (”the houses”)

Verbs

Danish verbs have nine distinct forms and do not vary according to person or number. The present tense is made by adding -r to the infinitive form of a given verb.

For example:
(at) svømme (”to swim”)
jeg svømmer (”I swim/am swimming”)
du svømmer (”you swim/are swimming”)
han/hun svømmer (”he/she swims/is swimming”)
vi svømmer (”we swim/are swimming”)
I svømmer (”you (you all) swim/are swimming”)
de svømmer (”they swim/are swimming”)

Verb tense conjugations are divided into two groups: weak verbs and strong verbs. The former group indicates the past tense by adding the suffixes -ede or -te and the latter group forms the past tense with a zero ending - the vowel before the suffix often changes in these cases.

For example:
(at) svømme (”to swim”)
svømmede (”swam”)

(at) købe (”to buy”)
købte (”bought”)
And: (at) gå (”to walk, to leave”)
gik (”walked, left”)

In Danish, the future tense is formed with the modal verbs vil or skal and the infinitive form of a given verb.

Transitive and Intransitive verbs: Be careful when using transitive and intransitive verbs.
Problems with verbs that belong in pairs occur when choosing which one is correct for actually saying what you want to say. Here are the verbs that usually cause the most trouble:

To overcome this, make sure that you know which verbs are transitive and which are intransitive, but do not worry too much about them when using them in present tense in spoken language, because many of them are actually very similar in their pronunciation. In fact, many Danes cannot always tell them apart either.

Adjectives

In Danish, there are three forms of the adjective: the basic or common form, t-form or neuter form, and the e-form or plural/definite form. The first, basic form is used with singular words of the common gender, the second form is used with singular words of the neuter gender and as an adverb, and the third form is used in the plural and with a definite article, a pronoun, or a genitive.

For example:
god (”good”)
en god by (”a good city”)
et godt hus (”a good house”)
han bor godt (”he lives well (lit. he lives good)”)
gode byer, gode huse (”good cities, good houses”)
den gode by (”the good city”)
hans gode hus (”his good house”)

Personal pronouns

Danish pronouns are very similar to English pronouns but with a few exceptions, of course.
The lists and usage of common personal pronouns are as follows:

Possessive pronouns

Even some Danes have trouble with the use of possessive pronouns. The problems occur when it comes to knowing whether to use hans (”his”), hendes (”her”), or sin (”one’s”) in a sentence. The main rule is as follows: use the reflexive pronoun “sin” when what you are referring to is the subject of the sentence; use hans or hendes when you are referring to something other than the subject.

For example:
Peter vasker sin bil. (”Peter is washing his (own) car.”)
Peter vasker hans bil. (”Peter is washing his (another man’s) car.”)

Remember this main rule and you can’t go far wrong.