Breakdown of De erfarne læger er ankommet.
være
to be
lægen
the doctor
de
the (plural, before adjective)
ankomme
to arrive
erfaren
experienced
Questions & Answers about De erfarne læger er ankommet.
Why is it erfarne instead of erfarene?
The base form of the adjective is erfaren (experienced). Because it ends in -en, it drops the -e- in the last syllable when we add the plural or definite -e ending. Therefore, the word shrinks and erfaren becomes erfarne.
Why do we use the indefinite læger when the translation is "the doctors"?
In Danish, when a definite noun is modified by an adjective, the noun itself loses its definite suffix. Instead, we use the standalone definite article de, followed by the definite adjective erfarne, and leave the noun in its indefinite plural form læger.
Why does the sentence use er instead of har to say "have arrived"?
Verbs that describe a movement or a change of state, like ankomme (to arrive), build their perfect tense using at være (to be) instead of at have. So in Danish, you literally say that someone "is arrived" (er ankommet).
Because there are multiple doctors, shouldn't ankommet take a plural ending?
Not here! When a past participle is part of a compound verb like the present perfect tense (er ankommet), it never takes a plural ending. It would only change to ankomne if it were used purely as a descriptive adjective, such as in de ankomne læger (the arrived doctors).
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