Breakdown of Drengen bygger et hus og bruger hammeren.
huset
the house
og
and
drengen
the boy
et
a / an (neuter)
Questions & Answers about Drengen bygger et hus og bruger hammeren.
Why does the sentence use drengen and hammeren instead of a separate word for 'the'?
In Danish, 'the' isn't usually a separate word before the noun. Instead, it becomes an ending attached to the noun. Because dreng (boy) and hammer (hammer) are both 'en-words', you add -en to the end to get drengen (the boy) and hammeren (the hammer).
Why is it et hus instead of en hus?
Danish nouns belong to one of two gender groups: 'en-words' and 'et-words'. The word hus (house) is an 'et-word', so the word for 'a' is et. If you wanted to say 'the house', you would attach that to the end of the word to make huset.
Both verbs, bygger and bruger, end in -er. Do they change if the subject changes?
No, and that makes Danish verbs very easy! In the present tense, verbs almost always end in -r or -er. This ending stays exactly the same no matter who is doing the action. It is the same whether it is 'I build' (jeg bygger) or 'the boy builds' (drengen bygger).
Why is there no subject before the second verb, bruger?
Just like in English, when two verbs are connected by og (and) and share the same subject, you do not need to repeat the subject. Drengen (the boy) is the subject for both bygger (builds) and bruger (uses).