Breakdown of Den stærke kvinde har store muskler.
kvinden
the woman
have
to have
stor
big
den
the (common, before adjective)
stærk
strong / spicy (hot)
musklen
the muscle
Questions & Answers about Den stærke kvinde har store muskler.
Why does kvinde not have the definite ending -n (as in kvinden) since the English translation is "the woman"?
When a noun has an adjective in front of it, Danish uses a separate definite article (den, det, or de) instead of attaching the ending to the noun. So it becomes Den stærke kvinde rather than Stærke kvinden.
Why do we use den instead of det at the beginning of the sentence?
Den is the freestanding definite article for singular common-gender nouns (words that take en). Since "woman" is en kvinde, we use den. If the noun were a neuter word (taking et), like et barn (a child), we would use det, making it det stærke barn.
Why do both stærke and store end in -e here? Are they following the same rule?
They both end in -e, but for different reasons. Stærke gets the -e because it is in the definite form (following the definite article den). Store gets the -e because it describes a plural noun (muskler).
The singular word for muscle is en muskel. Why is the plural muskler and not muskeler?
Danish nouns ending in -el, -en, or -er usually drop their final -e- before adding the plural suffix. This makes the word flow better when spoken. So muskel drops the e and takes the plural ending -er, becoming muskler.
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