Breakdown of Jeg drømmer om et hus ved havet.
jeg
I
huset
the house
et
a / an (neuter)
havet
the sea
ved
by, next to
om
about (concerning)
drømme
to dream
Questions & Answers about Jeg drømmer om et hus ved havet.
Why does it say drømmer om when the English translation is 'dream of'?
Prepositions rarely translate word-for-word. In English you can dream 'of' or 'about' something, but in Danish, the set phrase is always at drømme om. You cannot use af (of) here.
How do we know to use et for hus?
hus is a neuter noun in Danish, so it takes the indefinite article et instead of en. Grammatical gender is unpredictable in Danish, so it is always best to memorize the article when you learn a new noun: et hus.
Why use the preposition ved here?
When talking about being physically close to or right next to a location, Danish uses ved. It perfectly matches the English 'by' or 'at' in contexts like ved havet (by the sea) or ved vinduet (by the window).
How does havet translate to 'the sea'?
In Danish, 'the' is usually added to the end of the word rather than being a separate word in front. Because 'sea' is a neuter noun (et hav), you add the -et suffix to the end to get havet (the sea).
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