Personal Hygiene

Dental Care and Noun Genders

To build your everyday vocabulary, let's look at items used for personal hygiene. Most bathroom items in Danish are common (en) nouns. This includes:

• En tandbørste (a toothbrush)
• En tandpasta (a toothpaste)

When talking about things that belong to you or someone else, use the common possessive pronouns min (my) and din (your).

Remember that common nouns form their definite "the" state by adding the suffix -en, and adjectives modifying them simply use their base forms.

Soap and Towels

Not all bathroom items are common nouns. While en sæbe (a soap) takes the common -en suffix, et håndklæde (a towel) is a neuter noun, so its definite form ends in -et.

Because håndklæde is neuter, possessive pronouns must also match its gender. Notice how "my towel" uses the neuter possessive mit instead of min.

Hair Care and Reflexives

For your hair, you will use en kam (a comb), en børste (a brush), or en shampoo (a shampoo). All of these are common nouns.

If a third-person subject is interacting with their own item, you must use the reflexive possessive sin (his/her/its own) because the nouns are common gender.

If the items belong to someone else, you switch back to standard possessives.

The Shower Routine

Finally, you will often refer to the shower itself: en bruser. You can seamlessly combine these new vocabulary words with location phrases and action verbs you already know, like washing, finding, and even singing.