Breakdown of Nomaden elsker sin egen autocamper.
elske
to love
sin
his/her/its own (common)
egen
own
autocamperen
the camper van
Questions & Answers about Nomaden elsker sin egen autocamper.
Why is the word for 'own' here egen instead of eget or egne?
The word egen acts like an adjective and must agree with the noun it modifies. Because autocamper is a singular common-gender noun (en autocamper), we use the base form egen. If it were a neuter noun, you would use eget, and for plurals, you would use egne.
Why do we use sin instead of hendes here?
sin is the reflexive possessive pronoun, used because the camper van belongs to the subject of the sentence (Nomaden). If you used hendes here, it would mean the nomad loves some other woman's camper van.
Do you always have to use egen together with sin?
No, egen is not required. Just like in English, it is used for extra emphasis. Nomaden elsker sin autocamper simply means 'The nomad loves her camper van.' Adding egen heavily emphasizes that it is her very own.
Is autocamper treated as a normal Danish word even though it looks English?
Yes! Danish has adopted many English words. It acts as a regular common-gender noun (en autocamper) and takes standard Danish endings, making the definite form autocamperen and the plural autocampere.