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Danish grammar is either the study of thegrammar of theDanish language, or the grammatical system itself of the Danish language. Danish is often described as having ten word classes: verbs, nouns, pronouns, numerals, adjectives, adverbs, articles, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.^[1] The grammar is mostlysuffixing. This article focuses on Standard Danish.

There are twogrammatical genders in Danish:common andneuter. All nouns are mostly arbitrarily divided into these two classes. The singular indefinite article (a/an in English) isen for common-gender nouns andet for neuter nouns. They are often informally called n-words and t-words.

En dreng. A boy.

Et fængsel. A jail.

Unlike English, definite nouns in Danish are rendered by adding a suffix (i.e. not an article) to the indefinite form (unless qualified by an adjective; see below). The definite singular ending is-en for common-gender nouns and-et for neuter nouns.

Drengen. The boy.

Fængslet. The jail.

The plural noun suffixes are more complex. The following table shows the possibleinflections of regular Danish nouns of both grammatical genders.

The most common plural ending is-er. Besides an extremely large number of other nouns, nearly all those that end with unstressed-e take it,^{[note 1]} as does the vast majority of those that end with amonophthong other than-e.^{[note 2]}

Thezero plural ending is predominantly used with neuter nouns.^{[note 3]}

The plural ending-e is used with:

• a large number of monosyllabic nouns that end with a consonant ordiphthong^{[note 4]} (and anycompound ending with one of those monosyllabic nouns)
• almost all nouns that end with unstressed-er^{[note 5]}
• eight common-gender nouns that end with unstressed-el:apostel, discipel, djævel, engel, himmel, stimmel, vrimmel, variabel^{[note 6]}
• some of the nouns denoting persons that end with-ing^{[note 7]} (all of which are common gender)
• some other common-gender plurisyllabic nouns^{[note 8]}

In the singular definite, common-gender nouns always take the ending-en, while neuter nouns always take-et. Plural definite adds-ene to the indefinite if it has no suffix^{[note 9]} or a borrowed suffix,^{[note 10]} otherwise-ne (exception:mennesker "human beings, people" →menneske(r)ne).

Nouns that end in unstressed-e lose the-e when adding an ending:kvinde, kvind-en, kvind-er, kvind-erne "woman". Nouns that end in unstressed-er,-el, or-en lose or keep thee according to the rules below. When the loss of thee leads to a double consonant coming immediately before the stem-finalr,l, orn, it is simplified (e.g.fætter, fæt_r-e "male first cousin";seddel, sed_l-en, sed_l-er "(bank)note").

• All nouns ending in unstressed-ercan keep thee before the definite singular ending:fætter-en, kammer-et, orkest(e)r-et. The common-gender nouns in this groupmust keep it, with the sole exception ofbaluster, which can also be neuter:balust(e)ren/balust(e)ret.
• Of the nouns ending in unstressed-er that take the indefinite plural ending-e, those thatkeep thee of the stem before the indefinite plural ending (e.g.banner-e) lose the plural ending-e before the definite plural ending-ne (e.g.banner-_-ne) – but seekælder below. (Those thatlose thee of the stem before the indefinite plural ending (e.g.ced_r-e) follow the main rule and keep the plural ending-e before the definite plural ending-ne (e.g.ced_r-e-ne).)
• Of the common-gender nouns ending in unstressed-er, the vast majority take the plural ending-e and keep thee of the stem in all forms:arbejder, arbejder-en, arbejder-e, arbejder-_-ne. Of the minority, those that take the plural ending-e keep thee of the stem in the definite singular form (with the sole exception mentioned above) and lose it in the plural forms:mester, mester-en, mest_r-e, mest_r-e-ne. Some inflect either likearbejder or likemester:salamander, salamander-en, salamand(e)r-e, salamander-_-ne/salamand_r-e-ne.Kælder inflects likearbejder or likemester in the indefinite plural, but only likemester in the definite plural:kælder, kælder-en, kæld(e)r-e, kæld_r-e-ne.
• With seven exceptions,^{[note 11]} all nouns ending in unstressed-elcan lose thee before all endings:cykel, cyk_l-en, cyk_l-er, cyk_l-er-ne; engel, eng_l-en, eng_l-e, eng_l-e-ne; bibel, bib(e)l-en, bib_l-er, bib_l-er-ne; himmel, him(me)len, him_l-e, him_l-e-ne. With the seven exceptions already mentioned plus another seven,^{[note 12]} all nouns in this groupmust lose thee before the plural endings. The wordpixel can't lose thee before the plural ending-s, but must lose it before the plural ending-er:pix(e)l-en, pixel-s/pix_l-er, pix_l-er(-)ne.
• All nouns ending in unstressed-encan keep thee before all endings.

It is common for nouns to change during inflection in ways that aren't reflected in spelling. They can losestød (e.g.hus[ˈhuːˀs],huset[ˈhuːˀsəð],huse[ˈhuːsə]), add stød, or lengthen the root vowel (the last two possibilities are exemplified bybad[ˈpæð],badet[ˈpæːˀðð̩]).

There are many nouns with irregular plurals. Here are some examples:

Most either have vowel change with or without a suffix, or are foreign words using their native plurals.

If a noun is preceded by a number composed of more than one distinct part, the last part determines the grammatical number.1001 Nat (literally "1001 Night") andto en halv time (literally "two and a half hour") use singular nouns, whereas English would use "nights" and "hours".

There are no case declensions in Danish nouns (unlike thepronouns). Nouns are inflected only for possession which is expressed with a possessive enclitic, for examplemin fars hus, "my father's house", where the nounfar carries the possessive enclitic.^[4] As in English, but unlike in case-inflected languages such as German, this enclitic -s is not a marker of a genitive case; a case inflection only modifies a single noun (and any adjectives in agreement with it), but in longer noun phrases the possessive enclitic attaches to the last word in the phrase, which need not be the head-noun or even a noun at all. For example, the phraseskongen af Danmark's bolsjefabrik, "the king of Denmark's candy factory", ordet er pigen Uffe bor sammen meds datter "that is the girl Uffe lives with's daughter", where the enclitic attaches to a stranded preposition.^[5][6]

When the noun can be considered part of the possessor noun physically (a part-whole relation), the possessive is often replaced by a prepositional phrase, e.g.låget på spanden "the lid on the bucket",bagsiden af huset "the back of the house" rather thanspandens låg,husets bagside, which are not incorrect but more formal, and less informative.

Older case forms exist asrelics in phrases likei live "alive" (liv = "life"),på tide "about time" (tid = "time"),på fode "on his foot" (fod = "foot"). Similarly, the genitive is used in certain fossilised prepositional phrases (withtil "to"):til fods "on foot",til vands/søs "by water/sea",gå til hånde "assist" (hånde being an old genitive plural ofhånd "hand", now replaced byhænder). (Compare "thereof" in English, the possessive case of "there", which survives only in fossilised semi-archaic or legal phrases like "or part thereof").

Danish has indefinite and definite articles (kendeord) functioning asdeterminers. The indefinite article is placed before a noun and takes the formsen (common gender) andet (neuter) depending on the noun. These forms are identical (in writing) to the numeral meaningone. Definiteness is only marked with an article placed before the noun when the noun has other preceding modifiers (e.g. adjectives), and the definite article then has the formsden (common),det (neuter) andde (plural). When lacking preceding modifiers, nouns are marked as definite with the definite suffixes-en (common),-et (neuter),-(e)ne (plural).^[1]

Personal pronouns in Danish have three cases: nominative, oblique (accusative and dative), and possessive (or genitive).^[1]: 88 The nominative form is used when the pronoun is used as an unmodified subject,^[7]: 49 while the oblique form is used anywhere else: as direct and indirect object of verbs, prepositional complement, subject predicate, part of coordinated subject,^{[6]: 162–167} or with following modifiers (such asder 'there' and prepositional phrases).^[7]: 49

¹⁾ Since the 1970s, the polite formDe (cf. GermanSie) is no longer the normal form of addressing adult strangers. It is only used in formal letters or when addressing the royal family. It is sometimes used by shop assistants and waiters to flatter their customers. As a general rule, one can usedu almost in every situation without offending anyone.^[6]

²⁾ Thereflexive pronoun is used when the object or possessive is identical to thegrammatical subject of the sentence:Han kyssede sin kone "He kissed his (own) wife" ~Han kyssede hans kone "he kissed his (somebody else's) wife". It is also used when referring to the subject of an infinite nexus, e.g. an accusative with infinitive:Rødhætte bad jægeren hilse sin kone "Little Red Riding Hood asked the hunter to greet his wife", wheresin refers to the hunter. This difference is often not observed byJutlandic speakers.

³⁾Vores is the only form normally used in current spoken language;vor,vort andvore are more archaic, and perceived as formal or solemn.

Danish also has the generic pronounman 'one, you';én is often used as its oblique form.^[1]: 95 The second person singular pronoundu 'you' can also be used with generic reference.^[8]

In contemporary Danish, the verb has up to nine distinct forms, as shown in the chart below.

Verbs do not vary according toperson ornumber:jeg venter, du venter, han, hun, den, det venter, vi venter, I venter, de venter. However, until the beginning of the twentieth century, it was normal to inflect the present tense in number in educated prose. There existed also a special plural form in the imperative. These forms are not used anymore, but can be found in older prose:

For example,Søger, saa skulle I finde "Seek, and ye shall find" (Matthew 7:7); in the 1992 translationSøg, så skal I finde.

Like in otherGermanic languages, the conjugation of verb tenses is divided into two groups: The first group, the so-calledweak verbs, indicates the past tense by adding the suffixes-ede or-te. The second, calledstrong verbs, forms the past tense with a zero ending and, in most cases, certainvowel changes.

The future tense is formed with the modal verbsvil orskal and the infinitive, e.g.tror du, det vil regne, "do you think it's going to rain",vi skal nok komme igen i morgen, "we'll come again tomorrow". Often the present tense is also used as future, only with the addition of a time specificationi morgen køber han en bil, "tomorrow he'll buy a car".

In theperfect, the wordhar ("have, has") is placed before the past participle:han har købt en bil, "he has bought a car". In certain words implying a movement, however,er ("am, are, is") is used instead: han er gået sin vej, "he has gone" (like Germaner ist gegangen or Frenchil est allé). In such caseshar is used for the activity, whileer is used if the result is what is interesting.Han har rejst meget, "he has traveled a lot".Han er rejst, "he is gone", he is not here anymore.

Similarly, thepluperfect is formed withhavde orvar:han havde købt en bil,han var gået sin vej. NB^?. The perfect is used in many cases where English would have a simplepreterite.^[when?]

In Danish, there are two finite moods,indicative andimperative. Depending on interpretation, there may also be anoptative.

1. The indicative mood is used everywhere, unless the imperative or optative is required.
2. The imperative is used in commands: "Kør langsomt!" (Drive slowly!), "Kom her!" (Come here!). (The imperative is the stem of the verb.)
3. The optative is rare and used only in archaic or poetic constructions. It's probably more correct to describe these as elliptical constructions leaving out a modal and just retaining an infinitive, e.g. "Gud være lovet!" (God be praised!), "Kongen længe leve!" (Long live the king!) – completely analogous to the English use.

In short, Danish morphology offers very little in moods. Just like English, Danish depends on tense and modals to express moods.

Example: Where a language with an explicit subjunctive mood (such as German, Spanish, or Icelandic) would use that mood in hypothetical statements, Danish uses a strategy similar to that of English. Compare:

a. Real, or at least possibly real, situation in present time:Hvis Peterkøber kage,laver Anne kaffe. "If Peterbuys [some] cake, Annemakes coffee." Here, thepresent indicative is used.

b. Real, or at least possibly real, situation in past time:Hvis Peterkøbte kage,lavede Anne kaffe. "If Peterbought [some] cake, Annemade coffee." Here, thepast indicative is used.

c. Unreal situation in present time:Hvis Peterkøbte kage,lavede Anne kaffe. "If Peterbought [some] cake, Annemade (i.e. would make) coffee." (Implying: But Peter doesn't actually buy any cake, so Anne doesn't make coffee—making the whole statement hypothetical.) Here, thepast indicative is used.

d1. Unreal situation in past time:Hvis Peterhavde købt kage,havde Annelavet kaffe. "If Peterhad bought [some] cake, Annehad made (i.e., would have made) coffee." (Implying that Peter didn't actually buy any cake and so Anne didn't make coffee—making the whole statement hypothetical.) Here, thepluperfect indicative is used.

In the hypothetical cases (c. and d.), Danish creates distance from reality by "moving the tense one step back". Although these sentences are possible, it would be normal in Danish, as in English, to further stress the irreality by adding a modal. So that, instead of either example c. or d1, Danish can addville (would) in the main sentence, creating a periphrastic subjunctive:

d2. Unreal situation in past time:Hvis Peterhavde købt kage,ville Annehave lavet kaffe. "If Peterhad bought [some] cake, Annewould have made coffee."

(As can be seen from the examples, Danish, unlike English, places the auxiliary verb before the subject when a main clause follows a subordinate clause, but this word order is unconnected with the mood of the sentence. SeeV2 word order.)

Like the otherScandinavian languages, Danish has two ways of making the passivevoice. One is a special inflection using the suffix-s, which is historically a reducedenclitic form of thereflexive pronounsig ("himself, herself, itself, themselves"), e.g.han kalder sig "he calls himself" >han kaldes "he is called". The second is aperiphrastic form made with the verbblive ("to remain, to become").

In addition to the normal passive usage, the passive also denotes:

1. areciprocal meaning (only with thes-passive):Hans og Jørgen mødtes på gaden "John and George met on the street",vi ses på onsdag "we'll see each other on Wednesday",I må ikke slås "you must not fight" (literally "beat each other").
2. anintransitive meaning (a lexicaliseds-passive):der findes / fandtes mange grunde til at komme "there are / were many reasons why one should come" (literally: "are / were found").
3. animpersonal meaning:der kæmpes / bliver kæmpet om pladserne "there is a struggle for the seats".

In the preterite, the periphrastic form is preferred in non-formal speech except in reciprocal and impersonal passives:de sås ofte "they often saw each other",der fandtes en lov imod det "there was a law against it" (but real passive:de blev set af politiet "they were seen by the police",der blev fundet en bombe "a bomb was found").

The s-form of the verb can also imply habitual or repetitive action, e.g.bilen vaskes "the car is washed" (regularly) vs.bilen bliver vasket "the car is (being) washed" (right now, soon, next week, etc.)

In Swedish, thes-passive of the perfect participle is regular both in the real passive and in other functions, e.g.vårt företag har funnits sedan 1955 "our company has existed since 1955";bilen har setts ute på Stockholms gator "the car has been seen in the streets of S." In Danish, however, the real passive has only periphrastic forms in the perfect:bilen er blevet set ude på Stockholms gader. In the lexicalised and reciprocal passives, on the other hand, we find a combination of the verbhave and thes-passive preterite: e.g.mødtes "have met",har fandtes "have existed" etc. (but the irregularhar set(e)s "have seen each other" is much more common thanhar sås, which is considered substandard).

The present participle is used to a much lesser extent than in English. Where English often usesnon-finite clauses, Danish instead uses subordinate or coordinate clauses with a finite verb, e.g.eftersom han var konge, var det ham, der måtte bestemme, "Being the king, he had the last word". The present participle is used in two circumstances:

1. as an attributive adjective:en dræbende tavshed, "a boring (lit. killing) silence",en galoperende inflation, "a runaway inflation",hendes rødmende kinder, "her blushing cheeks".
2. adverbially with verbs of movement:han gik syngende ned ad gaden, "he walked down the street singing"

If the present participle carries an object or an adverb, the two words are normally treated as a compoundorthographically andprosodically:et menneskeædende uhyre, "a man-eating monster",en hurtig(t)løbende bold, "a fast(-going) ball",fodbold- og kvindeelskende mænd, "men loving football and women".

The past participle is used primarily in the periphrastic constructions of the passive (withblive) and the perfect (withvære). It is often used in non-finite constructions in so-called "free predicatives":^[9]: 109Således oplyst(e) kan vi skride til afstemning, "Now being informed, we can take a vote",han tog, opfyldt af had til tyrannen, ivrig del i forberedelserne til revolutionen, "filled with hatred of the tyrant, he participated eagerly in the preparations for the revolution".

The past participle of theweak verbs has the ending-et or-t. The past participle of thestrong verbs originally had the ending-en, neuter-et, but the common form is now restricted to the use as an adjective (e.g.en bunden opgave), and it has not been preserved in all verbs. When it is combined wither andhar to form passive and perfect constructions, the neuter form, which happens to be identical to the ending of the weak verbs, is used. In theJutlandic dialects,-en is frequently used in such constructions.

As to thevoice of the past participle, it is passive if the verb istransitive, and active if it isintransitive.

The infinitive may be defined as a verb form that is equivalent to a noun syntactically. The Danish infinitive may be used as the subject or object of a verb like in English:at rejse erat leve "to travel isto live",jeg elskerat spise kartofler "I loveto eat potatoes". Furthermore, the Danish infinitive may also be governed by a preposition (where English normally has thegerund):han tog livet af sigved at springe ud af et vindue "he killed himselfby jumping out of a window".

The infinitive normally has the markerat, pronouncedɑd̥ or in normal speechʌ, thereby being homonymous with the conjunctionog "and", with which it is sometimes confused in spelling. The bare infinitive is used after themodal verbskunne, ville, skulle, måtte, turde, burde.

A rarer form is the verbal noun with the ending-en (not to be confused with the definite article) which is used when the infinitive carries a pronoun, an indefinite article or an adjective:hans evindeligeskrigen var enerverende, "his never-endingcrying was tedious",der var en løben og råben på gangene, "people ran and cried in the hall". This use has a connotation of something habitual and is often used in a negative sense. It is used in formal information likeHenstillen af cykler forbudt, "It is prohibited to leave your bike here." Whereas the infinitive is accompanied with adjectives in the neuter (det er svært at flyve, "it is difficult to fly"), the verbal noun governs the common gender. Due to the rarity of this form, Danes often mistakenly writeHenstilling af cykler forbudt (lit. "Recommendation of bikes prohibited") instead, using a more familiar word form.

Verbal nouns likeviden "knowledge" (literally: "knowing") orkunnen "ability" (literally: "being able") have become lexicalised due to the influence of German (Wissen,Können). Like the proper verbal noun, these forms have no plural, and they cannot carry the definite article; so, when English hasthe knowledge, Danish must use a pronoun or a circumlocution: e.g.hans viden,denne viden,den viden man havde.

Danish has various suffixes for turning a verb into a real noun:

• the suffix-(n)ing:hængning "hanging" (:hænge),samling "collection" (:samle). The suffix, which is stillproductive, is related to the German-(n)ung and the English-ing. Words with this suffix belong to the common (originally feminine) gender. The variant without-n- is used after stems ending inn, nd,r and consonant +l.
• the suffix-else:bekræftelse "confirmation" (:bekræfte). The suffix, which is stillproductive, takes the common gender.
• the suffix-sel:fængsel "jail" (:fange),fødsel "birth" (: føde"). The suffix is used to form both concrete nouns (in the neuter) and abstract nouns (in the common).
• the verbal stem with no ending:fald "fall" (:falde),tab "loss" (:tabe),kast "throw" (:kaste),håb "hope" (:håbe), normally as a neuter noun.
• the verbal stem with some change of vowel or consonant:gang "walk(ing)" (:gå),stand "state" (:stå),sang "song" (:synge),dåb "baptism" (:døbe). They normally have the common gender.
• the suffix-(e)st:fangst "catching" (:fange),ankomst "arrival" (:ankomme),hyldest "ovation" (:hylde). The type takes the common gender.
• the suffix-tion, -sion:funktion "function" (:fungere),korrektion "correction" (:korrigere),eksplosion "explosion" (:eksplodere). This type is restricted to stems of Latin origin (which normally have the suffix-ere in the verbal forms, cf. German-ieren). They take the common gender.
• the suffix "-n": "råben" "shouting" (: "råbe"), "løben" "running" (: "løbe"). Takes the common gender.

The Danish numbers are:

Counting above forty is in part based on a base 20 number system, calledvigesimal:halvtred-s(inds-tyve) = 21⁄2 x 20,tre-s(inds-tyve) = 3 x 20,halvfjerd-s(inds-tyve) = 31⁄2 x 20,fir-s(inds-tyve) = 4 x 20,halvfem-s(inds-tyve) = 41⁄2 x 20 (halvtredje,halvfjerde andhalvfemte [lit. "halfthird", "halffourth" and halffifth"] being old words for 21⁄2, 31⁄2 and 41⁄2). This is unlike Swedish and Norwegian, both of which use adecimal system.

The wordfyrre /fyrretyve = "40" does not belong to the vigesimal system. The optional second part of the word is not the numbertyve, "20", but an old plural ofti, "ten" (like in Englishforty, Germanvierzig); the first part is a variant of the numberfire, "four". Similarly,tredive is a compound oftre, "three", and a weakened form of the old plural ofti, "ten".

Vigesimal systems are known in several European languages:French,Breton,Welsh,Albanian, andBasque. Some^[who?] scholars speculate that the system belongs to an "Old European" (i.e. pre-Indo-European) substratum, whereas others argue that the system is a recent innovation of the Middle Ages. SeeVigesimal.

The units are placedbefore the tens with an interveningog ("and"):toogfyrre (42),seksoghalvfjers (76). The units and the tens are placedafter the hundreds with an optionalog:to hundred (og) femoghalvfjers. This system is similar to that of German and Dutch (zweiundvierzig,zweihundertfünfundsiebzig), but unlike that of Swedish (fyrtiotvå,tvåhundrasjuttiofem).

There are three forms of the adjective in Danish:

1. basic form orcommon, used with singular words of the common gender ("n-words").

   en billig bog, "a cheap book";en stor dreng, "a big boy"

2. t-form orneuter, used with singular words of the neuter gender ("t-words") and as an adverb.

   et billigt tæppe, "a cheap carpet";et stort hus, "a big house"

   han bor billigt, "he has a low rent (lit. lives cheaply)"

3. e-form orplural /definite, used in the plural and with a definite article, a pronoun or a genitive.

   den billige bog, "the cheap book";hans store hus, "his big house"

   billige bøger, "cheap books";store huse, "big houses"

Only words ending in a consonant take -e. Only words ending in a consonant or the vowels -i or -å take -t. Others are unchanged.

The adjective must agree with the word that it qualifies in bothgender andnumber. This rule also applies when the adjective is used predicatively:huset er stort, "the house is big", orbøgerne er billige, "the books are cheap".

An exception to the rule of agreement are thesuperlative and, in regular prose, thepast participle when used in the verbal meaning (e.g.børnene er sluppet løs, "the children have been let out", butbørnene er løsslupne, "the children are unrestrained").

The definitee-form is historically identical to the so-calledweakdeclension of the Germanic adjective, cf.Germanein großes Haus, "a big house" ~das große Haus, "the big house". But whereas the German definite form is not used after a genitive (Peters großes Haus), or following the bare forms of the possessive and indefinite pronouns (mein, kein großes Haus) – but converselyis used after theindefinite pronoun in the forms that have an ending (meinem, keinem großen Haus =dem großen Haus) – the Danish definite form is used in all instances after anydeterminer save the indefinitearticle:

The Danish adjectives and adverbs are inflected according tothree degrees of comparison. Thecomparative has the ending-ere (sometimes-re) and thesuperlative has the ending-st (sometimes-est): e.g.hurtig, hurtigere, hurtigst, "quick, -er, -est";fræk, frækkere, frækkest, "impertinent/audacious/kinky, -er, -est";lang, længere, længst (withumlaut), "long, -er, -est". The choice between-st and-est is determined by the syllable structure (to avoid uncomfortable consonant clusters), whereas the variant-re is used only in a few frequent comparatives.

In many cases, especially in longer words and words of a Latin or Greek origin, thecomparative andsuperlative are formed with the adverbsmere andmest instead: e.g.intelligent, mere intelligent, mest intelligent.

The comparative is inflexible, and it is not used with the definite article (in which case Danish uses the superlative instead). The conjunction of comparison isend, "than".

The superlative is inflected like the positive (thet-form being identical to then-form);længst, længste. When used as a predicate, the basic form is used instead of thee-form:hans ben er længst "his legs are the longest". And since a superlative used attributively must necessarily modify something definite, thee-form is always used there:den vredeste killing er vredest "the angriest kitty is angriest".

The inflection of some adjectives is irregular:

• Ny (new) and fri (free) take -t and optionally -e, even though they end in vowels.
• Several common adjectives with the suffix-s (historically the ending of the genitive) are inflexible, e.g.fælles, "common" (:fælle, "fellow");ens, "identical" (:en "one");træls, "annoying" (:træl, "slave") (one also hearstrælst, trælse).
• Adjectives with the very common -sk ending are special. If they are polysyllabic or refer to a country, geographic area or ethnic group, they never take -t. Etklassisk stykke (a classical piece),et svensk hus (a Swedish house). Otherwise the -t is optional. Etfriskt pust, oret frisk pust (a breath of fresh air).
• Some words never take thet-ending: stems ending in another-t (e.g.mat, "weak";sort, "black") stems ending in-et (-ed)[-əð̞] (e.g.tobenet, "biped";elsket, "loved";fremmed, "foreign"). This is also the case with the wordglad[ɡ̊lað̞] "happy".
• Thet-form sometimes undergoesphonetical changes that are not reflected orthographically, especially shortening of the preceding vowel or assimilation of a preceding consonant: e.g.god[ɡ̊oːˀ(ð̞)] :godt[ɡ̊ʌd̥];ny[nyːˀ] :nyt[nyd̥];syg[syːˀ(j)] :sygt[syɡ̊d̥] (alternatively[syːˀd̥]). The adjectives ending in-en (originally past participles of thestrong verbs) have either-ent[-ənd̥] or-et[-əð̪] in thet-form: e.g.et sunke(n)t skib, "a sunken ship";et give(n)t antal, "a given number" (the choice is often a matter of style or tradition).
• Adjectives in-vis have an optional-t in thet-form:et gradvis(t) salg, "a phased sale".
• Some adverbs may be formed with the basic form instead of thet-form, especially those ending in-ig,-lig and-vis:det forstår han selvfølgelig ikke, "that, of course, he does not understand"; thet-less form of such adverbs is obligatory when the adverb is isolated (i.e. with no corresponding adjective) or the meaning of the adverb is essentially different from that of the adjective (e.g.endelig, "finally, at last" ~endeligt, "definitively"). In other cases, thet-less form is preferred when the adverb qualifies an adjective (e.g.væsentlig(t) større, considerably larger").
• The comparative andsuperlative of some frequent adjectives haveumlaut: e.g.lang, længere, længst, "long, longer, longest";ung, yngre, yngst, "young, younger, youngest";stor, større, størst, "big, bigger, biggest".
• One adjective issuppletive:lille, "little, small" (n- andt-form and definitee-form) ~små (plurale-form),småt (adverbt-form). Six adjectives are suppletive in thethree degrees of comparison:god, bedre, bedst, "good, better, best";dårlig, værre, værst, "bad, worse, worst";gammel, ældre, ældst, "old, older, oldest",mange, flere, flest; "many, more, most";megen/-et, mere, mest, "much, more, most";lille / lidt, mindre, mindst "little, less / smaller, least / smallest". Irregular, but not suppletive arefå, færre, færrest, "few, fewer, fewest" andnær, nærmere, nærmest, "close, closer, closest".

Danish has a number of interjections. Emotive interjections includeav 'ow'^[6]: 503 among others. Response tokens includeja andnej'yes' and 'no', andnå (approx. 'oh'),okay andmm.^[10] When responding to polar questions,ja andnej are sensitive to the presence of a negation (ikke 'not',ingen 'nobody' oraldrig 'never') in the question, so thatnej confirms a negated statement, andjo, an alternate form ofja is used to disconfirm a negated statement.^[11] They can be used in various combinations with other words (including other response tokens).^[6]: 507

Danish is aV2-language, meaning that thefinite verb can usually be found in second position in amain clause.^[12][13]

The basic sentence structure isSubject-Verb-Object.^[13]Paul Diderichsen developed a model of the Danish sentences with different slots to be filled.

According to Diderichsen's model, main clauses have the following structure:

Not every slot of the model needs to be filled in order to form a grammatical main clause. The model shows relative positions ofconstituents, especially in relation to the finite verb. So a sentence like

is fully grammatical even though not every slot of the clause model is filled. The only position that is obligatory to form a clause is the v-position of the finite verb.

Every slot of the model can be filled by specific constituents.

The F-position can be filled by a nominal assubject orobject,adverbials ornon-finite verbs, i.e. by most phrases that can form constituents.^[6]

As Danish is a V2-language, the second position (v) is always filled with the finite verb.

If the subject is not in the F-position, it can be found in the n-position; other nominals are also possible.^[6]

The a-position contains clausal adverbials, e.g.negation and may contain more than one element.^[6]

Non-finite verbs orparticles or both can be found in the V-position.^[6]

The N-position is filled by nominals which can function as objects, in case ofditransitive verbs there can be two objects here, complements or the real subject if there is adummy subject der in F-position.^[6]

The A-position contains other adverbials, which are called content adverbials.^[12]

The N-position and A-position can also be seen as sequences of positions as they can be filled by more than one constituent and because there is an internal order to these constituents, e.g. that direct objects usually follow indirect objects in the N-position.^[12]

The F-position of main clauses can be filled by a variety of constituents. When this happens, the subject is moved to the n-position. Most frequently, adverbial expressions of time and place are moved to the F-position.^[6]

This movement is performed to mark the fronted constituent pragmatically; constituents with either high or low pragmatic prominence can be fronted.^[12] Consequently information already known from the pretext can be found in this position as well as new information.^[13] To express contrast, the element in F-position is stressed.^[12]Focused elements are not usually found in the F-position except forwh-words inwh-questions.^[12]

Below you can see the model for the structure of subordinate clauses:

Different to main clauses, the first position k is for thesubordinate conjunction. This position is usually filled, but the conjunctionat and therelative pronounsom can sometimes be omitted.^[6]

The subject of the clause follows in the n-position. This position needs to be filled in every subordinate clause.^[6]

In difference to main clauses, clausal adverbials precede the finite verb in subordinate clauses.

Danish has a number of question types. Polar interrogatives have interrogative word order (i.e. an unfilled foundation field), while content questions have a question word (HV-ord 'wh-word') in the foundation field. Declarative questions and in situ questions also exist.

Besides using the imperative form of the verb, the imperative sentence type is characterized by not having a subject. However, it is possible to have it, always placed after the verb.

• Haberland, Hartmut (1994). "Danish". In König, Ekkehard; van der Auwera, Johan (eds.).The Germanic Languages. Routledge Language Family Descriptions. Routledge. pp. 313–349.ISBN 978-0-415-28079-2.

• Danish grammar

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