Questions & Answers about Er denne bygning højest?
Why does this sentence use højest instead of højeste?
In Danish, when a superlative adjective comes after a verb like er to describe the subject, it stands alone in the predicative position and takes the indefinite -est ending. If it came directly before the noun to say the tallest building, it would use the definite -este ending instead: den højeste bygning.
How is the superlative formed for the word høj in this sentence?
It simply adds the regular superlative suffix -est to the base adjective høj (which means high or tall), making it højest.
Does højest mean tallest or highest?
It means both! Unlike English, which often distinguishes between tall for buildings or people and high for mountains, Danish uses høj and its superlative højest for all of these.
Why do we use denne instead of dette?
Because the word for building, bygning, is a common gender noun that takes en. For common gender nouns, the word for this is denne. If it were a neuter noun that takes et, we would use dette.