Word
Kirurgen hjælper de sårede nu.
Meaning
The surgeon is helping the injured now.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Kirurgen hjælper de sårede nu.
nu
now
hjælpe
to help
de
the (plural, before adjective)
kirurgen
the surgeon
Questions & Answers about Kirurgen hjælper de sårede nu.
Why do we use de sårede instead of a regular noun for "the injured"?
Just like in English, you can take a past participle like såret (injured) and use it as a noun to describe people in that state. By using the plural definite article de and adding an -e to the participle, de sårede becomes a noun phrase meaning "the injured people".
Why does sårede end in -e here if the normal past participle is såret?
When you use a past participle as an adjective or a noun, it must agree with the number and definiteness of what it describes. Just like regular adjectives, past participles ending in -t usually change to -ede in the plural or definite forms. So the singular såret becomes the plural sårede.
Why does kirurgen have the definite article attached to the end, while de sårede uses a separate word for "the"?
Because kirurg is a standard noun, it takes the standard definite suffix -en. However, sårede is technically a participle acting as a noun. When an adjective or participle acts as a noun, it follows adjective rules and uses the freestanding definite articles den, det, or de instead of a suffix.
If the sentence means "is helping", why is the Danish verb just hjælper?