Word
Inspektøren er her, ikke også?
Meaning
The inspector is here, isn't she?
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Inspektøren er her, ikke også?
Why do we use "ikke også" here instead of "vel"?
The main statement (Inspektøren er her) is positive. When you want to say "right?" or ask for confirmation after a positive statement, you use ikke også. If the statement were negative, like Inspektøren er her ikke (The inspector is not here), you would use vel instead.
The English translation says "isn't she", but where is the word for "she" in the Danish sentence?
Danish makes tag questions much easier than English! Instead of changing the tag to match the subject like we do in English ("isn't he?", "aren't they?", "didn't we?"), Danish just uses the fixed phrase ikke også? (literally "not also?") for any positive statement. The English translation uses "she" simply to provide a natural-sounding English equivalent for this specific context.
How is ikke også usually pronounced in casual spoken Danish?
In everyday speech, these two words are almost always squished together and shortened. Instead of clearly saying every letter, you will usually hear something that sounds like "ik-os".
Just as a quick refresher, how is the word "the" formed in Inspektøren?
In Danish, "the" is attached to the end of the noun rather than being a separate word in front. Because inspektør is a common gender noun (an "en" word), you add -en to the end to get inspektøren (the inspector).