Questions & Answers about Han er en dreng.
Why is it en dreng and not et dreng?
Dreng (boy) is a common gender noun. In Danish, all nouns are assigned one of two genders: common (en-words) or neuter (et-words). Since dreng is an en-word, we use the article en.
Does en change to something else if the next word starts with a vowel, like 'a' and 'an' in English?
No, Danish does not have a rule like that. You only have to think about the gender of the noun. You will use en whether the next word starts with a consonant like dreng or a vowel like in en appelsin (an orange).
Does the verb er change if I want to say 'I am' instead of 'He is'?
No, it stays exactly the same! Danish verbs do not change depending on the person doing the action. The verb er covers 'am', 'is', and 'are'. So you will say jeg er (I am), han er (he is), and vi er (we are).
Could I just say Han er dreng and leave out the en?
For this sentence, you need the article en, just like you need 'a' in English. Later on you will learn that Danish sometimes drops the article when talking about someone's profession, but for a general noun like dreng, you must keep the en.
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