Breakdown of Han drikker ikke længere alkohol fordi den lækre vin er en dyr last.
være
to be
han
he
en
a / an (common)
drikke
to drink
Questions & Answers about Han drikker ikke længere alkohol fordi den lækre vin er en dyr last.
Could we use ikke mere instead of ikke længere in this sentence?
Yes, but the word order would change. ikke længere acts as a central adverb placed before the object (alkohol). If you use ikke mere (meaning "not anymore"), it typically goes at the end of the clause: Han drikker ikke alkohol mere. If you wrote Han drikker ikke mere alkohol, it would mean he isn't drinking a larger quantity of alcohol, rather than stopping the habit entirely.
If we flipped the clauses and started with Fordi den lækre vin er en dyr last, how would the first half of the sentence change?
The first half would become the main clause following a fronted subordinate clause, which triggers verb-subject inversion (the V2 rule). It would change to: ... drikker han ikke længere alkohol. The verb drikker must be in the second position of the overall sentence, immediately following the entire fordi clause.
Why do we write den lækre vin instead of attaching the definite article to the noun like lækre vinen?
When a definite noun is modified by an adjective, Danish uses "double definiteness." You must use the free-standing definite article den, add the definite -e ending to the adjective (lækker becomes lækre), and leave the noun in its base form (vin). You only use the suffix form (vinen) when there is no adjective present.
I thought last meant "final" or "previous." What does it mean here?