Compound Nouns and Linking Letters
In Danish, you can create new words by joining two nouns together. The resulting compound noun always takes the gender and plural endings of the last word in the chain. While some nouns join directly, Danish often uses a linking letter (a fugebogstav) to glue them together smoothly. The two most common linking letters are -s- and -e-.
The Linking -s-
The letter -s- is the most common linking letter. You will almost always use it when the first word in the compound ends in a suffix like -ing (such as bestilling or levering) or -hed (such as sikkerhed). It is also attached to the root of many other everyday nouns, like arbejd-.
| Normally we wash the workwear ourselves. | Normalt vasker vi arbejdstøjet selv. |
| The man has to find the safety shoes. | Manden er nødt til at finde sikkerhedsskoene. |
| The customer asks about the order date and the delivery time. | Kunden spørger om bestillingsdatoen og leveringstiden. |
The Linking -e-
The letter -e- is another very common glue. It is frequently used when the first noun is a short, single-syllable word. Adding the -e- often makes the first part of the compound look like its plural form (for example, hund becomes hunde-, and barn or børn becomes børne-).
If the first word has a short vowel followed by a single consonant, that consonant doubles when adding the -e- to keep the vowel sound short (for example, nat becomes natte-).
| The night guard put the guest pass on the desk. | Nattevagten lagde gæstekortet på skrivebordet. |
| The woman with the guest pass is looking at the children's clothing. | Kvinden med gæstekortet kigger på børnetøjet. |
| Why is she putting the dog food together with the Christmas goods? | Hvorfor sætter hun hundemaden sammen med julevarerne? |
