Questions & Answers about Vi har ikke haft nogen opvaskebørste i et år.
Why is it ikke ... nogen instead of ingen here?
This sentence uses a compound verb, har haft (have had). In Danish, when a verb has two parts (an auxiliary verb and a main verb), you cannot use ingen as the object after the main verb. Instead, you must split the negation by putting ikke after the first verb and nogen after the second verb. You cannot say vi har ingen haft opvaskebørste, it must be vi har ikke haft nogen opvaskebørste.
Why do we use i to mean for in i et år?
When you talk about the duration of an action or a state (how long something has lasted), Danish uses the preposition i. Although English uses the word for, you cannot translate that directly here. i et år is the standard way to express for a year when talking about duration.
Why is it nogen and not noget?
The word for any must match the gender of the noun it modifies. opvaskebørste is a common gender noun (an en-word: en opvaskebørste). Therefore, we use nogen. If the noun were a neuter gender noun (an et-word), we would use noget.
How is the word opvaskebørste formed?
It is a compound noun made from opvask (dishwashing) and børste (brush). They are joined together by a linking e in the middle to make the word easier to pronounce.