Questions & Answers about Hunden sover i sengen.
Both hunden and sengen end in -en. Does that mean they are plural?
No, the -en ending here means the word 'the' is attached to a singular word (hunden is the dog, sengen is the bed). In this lesson on plurals, you are learning to add -e to the end of base nouns. For these words, the plural forms would be hunde (dogs) and senge (beds).
Why does the verb sover end in an -r?
In Danish, you add an -r to the dictionary form of almost all verbs to show they are happening right now in the present tense. The dictionary form is sove (to sleep), so adding -r makes it sover, which translates to either sleeps or is sleeping.
Why is it sengen instead of just seng after the word i?
The sentence specifically means in THE bed. In Danish, 'the' is shown by adding an ending to the noun. Because seng (bed) is an en word, you add -en to make it sengen. If the sentence were just i seng, it would mean in bed as a general concept.
Does Danish have a different word for 'is sleeping' versus 'sleeps'?
No, Danish does not use a separate 'is doing' form like English does. The single word sover covers both sleeps and is sleeping, so you just rely on the context to know which one sounds better in English.