Breakdown of På grund af inflationen er det rimelige afkast ikke pengene værd.
være
to be
ikke
not
det
the (neuter, before adjective)
pengene
the money
Questions & Answers about På grund af inflationen er det rimelige afkast ikke pengene værd.
Why is pengene placed right before værd instead of after it?
The adjective værd (worth) is the focus of this lesson: it is one of the special Danish adjectives that takes a bare object without needing a preposition. When an adjective takes a bare object in Danish, the object (pengene) usually comes right before the adjective, not after it like in English. So the Danish sentence literally says 'the money worth'.
Why does the verb er come before the subject det rimelige afkast?
This is a great refresher on the V2 (verb-second) rule. Because the sentence starts with the prepositional phrase På grund af inflationen (Because of inflation), that entire phrase occupies the first position. The verb er must take the second position, pushing the subject into the third position.
Why is the adjective rimelige spelled with an -e at the end rather than the neuter -t?
Because it is part of a definite noun phrase. Even though afkast is a neuter noun, the phrase uses the definite article det (the). Whenever an adjective comes after a definite article, it must take the definite inflection, which almost always ends in -e regardless of the noun's gender.
Why is pengene used here when the English translation says 'the money' as a singular concept?
In Danish, the word for money (penge) is a plural noun. To say 'the money', you must add the definite plural suffix -ne, resulting in pengene. English treats 'money' as a singular uncountable noun, which makes this a very common trap for English speakers.