Word
Den kørende stopper idet den gående krydser gaden.
Meaning
The motorist stops as the pedestrian crosses the street.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Den kørende stopper idet den gående krydser gaden.
gaden
the street
stoppe
to stop
krydse
to cross
idet
as / since / in that (at the same time)
Questions & Answers about Den kørende stopper idet den gående krydser gaden.
Why do we use den kørende and den gående instead of regular nouns for 'motorist' and 'pedestrian'?
These are present participles (verbs ending in -nde, similar to the English '-ing' form) that are being used as nouns. While Danish has words like bilist (motorist) and fodgænger (pedestrian), using den kørende (the driving one) and den gående (the walking one) is extremely common in official language or traffic contexts to define people purely by their current action.
Why is the definite article den placed in front of kørende and gående instead of attaching to the end like a normal noun?
Because kørende and gående are verb forms functioning as adjectives here, they follow the rules for definite adjectives. Instead of taking a noun suffix (like -en or -et), they require the free-standing definite article den (for singular common gender).
How would this sentence change if we were talking about multiple motorists and pedestrians?
You would only change the front article to the plural de: De kørende stopper idet de gående krydser gaden. Present participles used as nouns are invariant, meaning their spelling never changes regardless of gender or number.
Could I use når or da instead of idet for 'as'?