A Taste of Danish Food - Fruit and Conjugating Nouns

Hi again, Danish learner and welcome back. This video is really great because not only will you learn some fruit, but you will also see how nouns are conjugated in Danish. That is, the definite and indefinite forms. Below I will go into a little more detail.

Let me give a simple example in English.

An Apple, The Apple, Apples, The Apples

In Danish, nouns follow a very simple pattern and are categorized as either N-Words or T-Words (Common and Neuter).

The article is either "en" or "et" and unfortunately there is no rule to follow. You just have to learn each noun as you go. A high percentage of nouns, however, are N-Words.

Et æble (An apple) = indefinite singular

To say the apple you take the article "et" and place it on the end of the noun.

Æblet (The apple) = definite singular.

There is already an e so technically we are just adding the t.

In plural we add an R.

Æbler (Apples) = indefinite plural

And in plural definite an extra -ne

Æblerne (The apples) = definite plural

PATTERN 1

This is the most basic and common pattern. Practice with the examples below.

Notice in some cases an extra consonant is added in the plural indefinite form: ven: venner.

+er, +erne nouns

En bil (A car) / Bilen (the car) / To biler (two cars) / Bilerne (The cars)

En ven (a friend) / Vennen (the friend) / To venner (two friends) / Vennerne (the friends)

En person / Personen (The person) / ...

En telefon (A telephone) / Telefonen (the telephone) / ...

En sofa (A sofa) / Sofaen (The sofa)

PATTERN 2

The second pattern you will see is +e, +ene nouns

Et hus (a house) / Huset (The house) / To huse (two houses) / Husene (the houses)

En hund (a dog) / Hunden (The dog) To hunde (two dogs) / Hundene (the dogs)

Et land (A country) / Landet (The country) / ...

En seng (a bed) / Sengen (the bed)...

En hest (a horse) / Hesten (the horse)...

Unchanged +ene

Finally, there are also nouns that are unchanged in plural. Similarly to English. These nouns add -ene in the plural definite.

Et glas (a glass) / Glasset (The glass) / To glas (two glasses) / Glassene (the glasses)

En is (an ice cream) / Isen (The ice/ice cream) / To is (two ice creams) / Isene (the ice creams)

Et dæk (A tyre) / Dækket (The tyre) / ...

Et tog (a train) / Toget (The train) / ...

Et fly (a plane) / Flyet (The plane) / ...

Irregular examples

As always, here are some irregular ones that just don't want to follow the rules.

Et barn (a child) / Barnet (The child) / To børn (two children) / Børnene (the children)

En cykel (a bike) / Cyklen (The bike) / To cykler (two bikes) / Cyklerne (the bikes)