Breakdown of Læreren ser sytten træer i parken.
se
to see / to look at
i
in
læreren
the teacher
parken
the park
Questions & Answers about Læreren ser sytten træer i parken.
How do you pronounce sytten? It sounds like it has a "d" instead of a "t".
In Danish, the double tt in sytten is pronounced like a soft "d". The y also changes to sound more like the Danish ø (similar to the vowel in the English word "her"). So it sounds closer to "sø-den". You will hear this same soft "d" pronunciation in other numbers like tretten (thirteen) and atten (eighteen).
Why do læreren and parken both end in -en?
The -en attached to the end of these nouns is the definite article, which means "the". En lærer means "a teacher", so adding the ending makes it læreren ("the teacher"). Similarly, en park becomes parken for "the park".
How does the word for tree change when there are sytten of them?
The singular form is et træ (a tree). To make it plural, you add -er to the end, resulting in træer (trees). Because the sentence states a specific quantity (sytten), we simply use this standard plural form.
If the subject was "I" instead of læreren, would the verb ser change?
No, Danish verbs are wonderfully simple because they do not change based on who is doing the action. Whether it is jeg ser (I see) or læreren ser (the teacher sees), the present tense verb always keeps its -r ending.