Word
Han er en glimrende bager.
Meaning
He is an excellent baker.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Han er en glimrende bager.
være
to be
han
he
en
a / an (common)
bageren
the baker / the bakery (the baker's shop)
Questions & Answers about Han er en glimrende bager.
If we changed the sentence to plural ('They are excellent bakers'), would glimrende change?
No, it stays exactly the same: De er glimrende bagere. Glimrende is a present participle (a verb form ending in -ende acting like an adjective). These words follow a zero-agreement rule, meaning they never add an -e for plural or a -t for neuter nouns.
Where does the word glimrende come from?
It is the present participle of the verb at glimre, which means 'to shine' or 'to glitter'. By adding -ende (the Danish equivalent of '-ing' in English), it literally means 'shining', which is used figuratively to mean 'excellent' or 'brilliant'.
Bager is also the present tense of 'to bake' (at bage). Is it common for Danish nouns and verbs to look identical?
Yes, it happens often with professions or doers of an action! En bager (a baker) shares its form with the present tense of at bage (to bake). You can easily tell it is a noun here because it follows the article en and an adjective.
How is the -ende ending in glimrende pronounced?
The d is silent, which is a strict rule for the -ende ending in Danish. You pronounce it almost like 'glim-ruh-nuh', softly swallowing the end of the word.