Questions & Answers about Knægten er kun ti år.
What is the difference between knægten and drengen?
Both mean the boy or the kid, but en knægt is more informal and often used affectionately, similar to kid or lad in English. En dreng is the standard, neutral word for a boy.
Why doesn't the sentence include a word for old at the end, like in English?
In Danish, it is perfectly natural to state someone's age just by saying they are a certain number of years (er ti år) without adding the word for old (gammel). You can say er ti år gammel, but leaving the adjective out is extremely common in everyday speech.
Why does the plural word for years just look like the singular år?
År is a neuter noun (an et word). In Danish, many one-syllable neuter nouns do not take a plural suffix, so they look identical in the singular and indefinite plural. One year is et år, and ten years is ti år.
Could I use bare instead of kun in this sentence?
Yes, bare and kun can both mean only here. Kun is more objective and emphasizes the absolute limit (strictly ten, not eleven), while bare can carry a slightly more subjective tone (merely ten), but they are completely interchangeable in this context.