Breakdown of Hvorfor græder barnet? — Fordi det er træt.
være
to be
det
it (neuter)
barnet
the child
træt
tired
fordi
because
græde
to cry
hvorfor
why?
Questions & Answers about Hvorfor græder barnet? — Fordi det er træt.
Why does the sentence use just græder for 'is crying'?
Danish does not have an 'is doing' continuous tense. The simple present tense græder translates to both 'cries' and 'is crying' depending on the context.
Where is the word for 'the' in barnet?
In Danish, 'the' is attached to the end of the noun. Because barn (child) is a neuter noun (an 'et' word), the ending -et is added to make barnet (the child).
Why use det (it) instead of 'han' (he) or 'hun' (she) for the child?
In Danish, pronouns must match the grammatical gender of the noun they replace. Since barn is a neuter noun, it is referred to as det, regardless of the child's actual gender.
Why is the verb before the subject in græder barnet?
Danish is a 'verb-second' language, meaning the verb usually takes the second spot in a sentence. Since the question word Hvorfor takes the first position, the verb græder must come next, pushing the subject barnet after it.
Since det is a neuter word, why doesn't the adjective træt get an extra 't' added to it?
Usually, adjectives get a '-t' ending when describing a neuter ('et') word. However, because træt already ends in a 't', it does not take an extra one and stays exactly the same.
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