Breakdown of Landets næststørste dæmning er kæmpestor.
være
to be
landet
the country
kæmpestor
giant
næststørst
second largest
Questions & Answers about Landets næststørste dæmning er kæmpestor.
How do we form ordinal rankings like næststørste?
In Danish, you create these rankings by attaching an ordinal word directly to the superlative adjective. Here, næst (next) attaches to største (largest) to form the single compound word næststørste. For 'third largest', you would use tredjestørste, and so on.
Why is dæmning in the indefinite form if the English translation says 'the ... dam'?
This is triggered by the genitive (possessive) word Landets. In Danish, when a noun phrase is possessed by someone or something, the noun itself drops the definite suffix. So we write Landets næststørste dæmning rather than adding -en to the end of the noun.
Why does næststørste end in -e while kæmpestor does not, since they describe the same dam?
Næststørste is an attributive adjective sitting right before the noun in a possessive phrase, which forces it into the definite -e form. However, kæmpestor comes after the verb er. Adjectives in this position only agree with the gender and number of the noun. Because dæmning is a singular, common-gender word, kæmpestor takes no ending.
Can I write kæmpe stor as two separate words?