Questions & Answers about Jeg køber den nye sofa.
Why do we say den nye sofa instead of den nye sofaen?
This is the SWAP rule in action! Normally, "the sofa" is sofaen (the article is attached to the end). But when you add an adjective like ny (new), you have to swap that attached ending for a separate word in front. So, you use the free article den, followed by the adjective, and the noun goes back to its bare form: sofa.
Why is there an -e at the end of nye?
Whenever you use a definite article like den or det in front of an adjective, the adjective must take an -e ending. The basic word for "new" is ny, but here it becomes nye because we are talking about a specific, definite sofa.
How do we know to use den here instead of det?
The separate "free" article always has to match the gender of the noun. Because sofa is a common-gender word (en sofa), we use den. If we were talking about a neuter-gender word like et hus (a house), we would use det instead.
The translation says "I am buying", but doesn't køber just mean "buy"?
It means both! Danish doesn't have a separate "-ing" tense to show an action is happening right now. The present tense verb køber translates to both "buy" and "am buying" depending on what makes the most sense in English.