Questions & Answers about Kaninen er tre år gammel.
Why does the sentence use er to talk about age?
Just like in English, Danish uses the verb for "to be" (er) to express age. This is easy for English speakers, but important to note if you have studied languages like Spanish or French that use the verb "to have" for age.
Why doesn't år have a plural ending to mean "years"?
The word år (year) is a neuter noun in Danish that looks exactly the same in both singular and plural. So, one year is et år, and three years is tre år without needing an extra ending.
Do I always need to add gammel at the end when stating an age?
No, it is completely optional, just like in English! You can say Kaninen er tre år gammel (The rabbit is three years old) or simply drop the last word and say Kaninen er tre år (The rabbit is three).
Is gammel describing the rabbit or the years?
It describes the rabbit! Because there is only one rabbit (kaninen), we use the singular form gammel. If we were talking about multiple rabbits, we would have to use the plural form gamle.
How does kaninen translate to "the rabbit"?
In Danish, you don't usually put a separate word for "the" in front of a noun. Instead, you attach it to the end. The word for "a rabbit" is en kanin. By moving that -en to the end, it becomes kaninen, which means "the rabbit".
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