Learn Danish: ”Jeg vinder altid,” griner hensynsløse Venus. - ”I always win,” laughs ruthless Venus.

This is a special rule for proper nouns, like names of people, gods, or planets. Normally, a definite adjective needs the free article (den or det), as in den hensynsløse kvinde (the ruthless woman). But before a proper noun, we drop den entirely.

If there is no definite article, why does hensynsløse still end in -e?

Even though the article den is omitted before the name Venus, the phrase is still treated as grammatically definite. Therefore, the adjective must take the definite -e ending. It is always hensynsløse Venus, never hensynsløs Venus.

Why is the word order griner hensynsløse Venus instead of the subject coming first?

Danish enforces the V2 (verb-second) rule. The entire spoken quote counts as the first position in the main sentence. To keep the main verb in the second position, griner comes immediately after the quote, forcing the subject to follow it.

How does the word hensynsløse get its meaning?

It is built from the noun hensyn, which means consideration or regard, combined with the suffix -løs, meaning -less. So hensynsløs literally translates to consideration-less, which means ruthless, reckless, or inconsiderate.