Breakdown of Den saftige taco, den er både sprød og smagfuld.
være
to be
den
it (common)
både … og
both … and
smagfuld
flavorful
saftig
juicy
tacoen
the taco
sprød
crispy
Questions & Answers about Den saftige taco, den er både sprød og smagfuld.
Why do we use den twice in this sentence, separated by a comma?
The first Den is the definite article meaning 'the' (Den saftige taco). The second den is a pronoun meaning 'it'. This structure is called left dislocation. We pull the main topic to the absolute front of the sentence for emphasis, and then use a pronoun as the actual subject. It is highly common in spoken Danish.
Does left dislocation break the V2 (verb-second) rule, since er seems to appear late in the sentence?
It does not break the rule! The dislocated phrase (Den saftige taco) sits completely outside the main clause as a kind of introductory tag. The actual main clause starts with the pronoun den in position 1, which is immediately followed by the verb er in position 2.
Why does saftige get an -e ending, but sprød and smagfuld do not?
saftige is an attributive adjective sitting directly in front of the noun in a definite phrase, so it must take the definite -e ending. However, sprød and smagfuld are predicative adjectives coming after the verb (er). Since taco is a singular common-gender (en) word, these predicative adjectives stay in their basic dictionary form.
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