Breakdown of Hun opdagede planeten for fyrre år siden.
hun
she
fyrre
forty
året
the year
opdage
to discover
for
for (preposition)
siden
ago
planeten
the planet
Questions & Answers about Hun opdagede planeten for fyrre år siden.
How does the phrase 'for fyrre år siden' translate to 'forty years ago'?
In Danish, 'ago' isn't a single word at the end of the phrase like in English. Instead, you wrap the amount of time in between for and siden. Literally, it looks like 'for forty years since', which is the standard Danish way to say 'forty years ago'.
Why does år look like a singular word even though it means 'years' here?
År (year) is a neuter noun (an et word) with only one syllable. In Danish, these short neuter nouns usually have the exact same form in the plural as they do in the singular. So, et år is 'one year', and fyrre år is 'forty years'.
What tells us that opdagede is in the past tense?
The ending -ede shows that this action happened in the past. The dictionary form of the verb is at opdage (to discover). Because it is a regular verb, it simply takes the standard -ede past tense ending to mean 'discovered'.
Why does the sentence use planeten instead of just planet?
Planeten has the definite ending -en attached to it, making it 'the planet'. Because planet is a common gender noun (an en word), we add -en directly to the end of the word to specify exactly which planet she discovered.
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