Breakdown of Vi spiser en pølse i byen.
en
a / an (common)
spise
to eat
vi
we
i
in
byen
the city
pølsen
the sausage
Questions & Answers about Vi spiser en pølse i byen.
Since the English translation says 'We eat', could this also mean 'We are eating'?
Yes! Danish does not have a separate continuous tense like English does. The verb spiser covers both 'eat' and 'are eating' depending on what makes sense in the moment.
Why does the sentence use byen instead of just by?
The word byen is the definite form of by (town or city). The -en suffix works like the English word 'the', so i byen means 'in the town' or just 'in town'.
I have heard the phrase i byen used for going to bars. Does it mean that here?
It depends on the context. The phrase at gå i byen is the standard Danish idiom for going out clubbing or drinking. However, in this sentence, i byen likely just means physically being out in the city center.
If we wanted to eat more than one, what is the plural of pølse?
The plural is pølser. To say 'We eat sausages', you would just drop the en and say Vi spiser pølser.
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