Breakdown of Vi har cykler og gamle kedler i begge kældre.
og
and
vi
we
i
in
have
to have
cyklen
the bicycle
gammel
old
kælderen
the basement
begge
both
kedlen
the kettle
Questions & Answers about Vi har cykler og gamle kedler i begge kældre.
Why are the plurals of cykel and kedel spelled cykler and kedler instead of adding -er to the full word?
When a Danish noun ends in an unstressed -el, the final e is dropped (syncopated) before adding the plural ending -er. This reflects how the words are naturally pronounced. So, cykel becomes cykler and kedel becomes kedler.
The singular of kældre is kælder. Why is the plural ending just -e instead of -er?
Nouns ending in unstressed -er also drop that e in the plural. However, because they already have an r, adding the standard -er ending would create an awkward -rer sound. To fix this, they take an -e as the plural suffix instead. Therefore, kælder loses its internal e and adds one at the end, becoming kældre.
Does the adjective gamle follow the same syncopation rule as the nouns here?
Yes, it does! The singular form is gammel. When made plural to match kedler, it must take the plural -e ending. Because it ends in -el, it drops the unstressed e and also simplifies its double consonant, resulting in gamle rather than gammelle.
Why do we use i begge kældre instead of på begge kældre?
In Danish, kælder (basement) is treated as an enclosed three-dimensional room or container, which requires the preposition i (in). While you often use på for floors or levels (like på loftet for the attic or på første sal for the first floor), basements strictly take i.
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