Questions & Answers about Gæsten giver vi skaldyret.
Why does this sentence start with Gæsten instead of the subject vi?
This sentence uses topicalization, which is the focus of this lesson. By putting the indirect object (Gæsten) at the very beginning, we emphasize who is receiving the food. Because Danish is a V2 language (the verb must be the second idea in the sentence), the verb giver comes right after it, pushing the subject vi into the third position.
The English translation adds the word 'to', but there is no til in the Danish sentence. Why is that?
Just like in English where you can say 'We give the guest the shellfish', Danish often uses a double-object structure without a preposition. Gæsten is the indirect object and skaldyret is the direct object. Moving Gæsten to the front for emphasis doesn't change this grammatical relationship, so we do not need to add til.
If both Gæsten and skaldyret are nouns, how do we know who is receiving the action?
First, the subject pronoun vi (we) shows who is doing the giving. If the guest were giving us the shellfish, the pronoun would be the object form os (us). Second, context tells us that a guest receives a meal, rather than a shellfish receiving a guest!
Is skaldyret singular or plural here?
It is singular. Et skaldyr (a shellfish) is a neuter noun, so its definite singular form gets the -et ending to become skaldyret (the shellfish). The plural definite form would be skaldyrene.
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