Breakdown of Priserne steg med fem procent sidste år.
fem
five
året
the year
med
with; by (bus, train) / of, to (the meaning or point of something)
sidste
last
prisen
the price
procenten
the percent
stige
to rise
Questions & Answers about Priserne steg med fem procent sidste år.
Why do we use med here to mean "by"?
When talking about an amount of increase or decrease, Danish uses the preposition med. So "rose by five percent" translates directly to steg med fem procent. Using words like af or ved here would sound completely unnatural.
steg means "rose". Could I use øgede instead to say the prices increased?
No, because at stige (past tense: steg) is intransitive, meaning the subject does the rising itself. at øge (to increase or raise) is transitive, meaning an outside agent has to do it to something else. If you wanted to say a store raised its prices, you could say De øgede priserne, but since the prices themselves are the subject here, you must use steg.
Since it is "five percent", shouldn't procent be in the plural form procenter?
When paired with a specific number, the word procent remains unchanged in the plural. You say en procent and fem procent. The form procenter is mostly reserved for general or abstract usage without a specific number, such as talking about strong alcohol having high percentages (høje procenter).
Why isn't there a preposition like i before sidste år?
Just like in English, Danish time phrases using sidste (last) or næste (next) typically do not take a preposition. You simply say sidste år (last year), sidste uge (last week), or næste måned (next month).
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