Word
Den er interessant dels på grund af den sproglige mangfoldighed, dels på grund af alderen.
Meaning
It is interesting partly because of the linguistic diversity, partly because of the age.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Den er interessant dels på grund af den sproglige mangfoldighed, dels på grund af alderen.
være
to be
den
the (common, before adjective)
interessant
interesting
alderen
the age
Questions & Answers about Den er interessant dels på grund af den sproglige mangfoldighed, dels på grund af alderen.
How does the structure dels ..., dels ... work in this specific sentence?
It acts as a coordinating correlative, meaning it links two phrases of equal grammatical weight. Here, it balances two identical prepositional phrases starting with på grund af to clearly separate the two reasons why the subject is interesting.
Could I drop the second på grund af and just say dels på grund af den sproglige mangfoldighed, dels alderen?
You might hear native speakers drop the second preposition in casual, fast speech, but keeping på grund af after the second dels is much better style. Correlative pairs sound most natural when the two structures they connect are perfectly parallel.
Why is there no definite suffix on mangfoldighed in the phrase den sproglige mangfoldighed?
In Danish, when a noun is preceded by an adjective, the definiteness is shown only by the front article (den or det) and the -e ending on the adjective (sproglige). The noun itself stays in its base form. This is a great reminder, as learners often mistakenly try to add an -en suffix here.
Why does the sentence use the suffix -en for alderen (the age) instead of using a front article like it did for diversity?