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Questions & Answers about Pigen spiser brødet.
How do we know spiser is in the present tense?
In Danish, regular verbs form the present tense by simply adding an -r to the infinitive (the dictionary form) of the verb. Since the base word is spise (to eat), adding -r gives us spiser (eats).
Does the word order here work exactly like English?
Yes, this sentence follows the standard Subject-Verb-Object order. Pigen is the subject doing the action, spiser is the verb, and brødet is the object receiving the action. Danish uses this same basic pattern as English for simple statements.
Where is the word for "the" in this sentence?
Danish attaches "the" to the end of the noun! Instead of using a separate word before the noun, pige (girl) gets an -n added to become pigen (the girl), and brød (bread) gets an -et added to become brødet (the bread).
Why does pigen end in -n but brødet ends in -et if they both mean "the"?
Danish nouns belong to one of two groups: common or neuter. Pige is a common noun, which means it uses en for "a" and adds -n for "the". Brød is a neuter noun, which means it uses et for "a" and adds -et for "the".
How would I say "The girl is eating the bread"?