Breakdown of Han synes at suppen er værre end fisken.
være
to be
han
he
fisken
the fish
at
that
synes
to think
end
than
suppen
the soup
værre
worse
Questions & Answers about Han synes at suppen er værre end fisken.
Why is værre used for "worse" instead of adding a comparative ending to dårlig?
This is an irregular adjective that completely changes its stem. The basic word for "bad" is dårlig (or sometimes slem), but its comparative form "worse" is værre, and the superlative "worst" is værst. This is very similar to how English uses completely different words for "bad" and "worse"!
Why does the sentence use synes for "thinks" instead of tror or tænker?
You use synes when expressing a personal, subjective opinion based on your own experience. Because he has presumably tasted both dishes and is giving his personal rating, synes is the right choice. If he were guessing a fact (like "He thinks it is raining"), you would use tror.
What word do we use for "than" when comparing two things?
When comparing things in Danish, "than" is translated as end. You will see it a lot with comparative adjectives, like værre end (worse than) or bedre end (better than).
Why do the words for soup and fish end in -en here?
In Danish, the definite article (the word for "the") is attached to the end of the noun instead of being a separate word in front. Both suppe and fisk are common-gender nouns (en-words), so they take the -en ending to become suppen (the soup) and fisken (the fish).
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