Breakdown of Diagrammet viser antallet af biler i byen.
bilen
the car
i
in
byen
the city
af
of
vise
to show
antallet
the number (quantity, count)
diagrammet
the chart
Questions & Answers about Diagrammet viser antallet af biler i byen.
Why are the final consonants doubled in diagrammet and antallet?
In Danish, when you add a suffix starting with a vowel (like the definite article -et) to a noun ending in a single consonant preceded by a short, stressed vowel, you double that consonant. This spelling rule ensures that the short vowel sound is preserved. If you just wrote "diagramet", the "a" would technically be pronounced as a long vowel.
Could I use nummeret instead of antallet to say "the number"?
No, because they have different meanings. You use antal when referring to a quantity, a count, or an amount (how many cars there are). You use nummer when referring to an identification figure or label, like a phone number (telefonnummer) or a seat number (pladsnummer).
Why do we need the preposition af in antallet af biler?
When expressing "the number of [something]" in Danish, you always use antallet af followed by the noun. This is an important detail because Danish often drops the equivalent of "of" in other measurement or quantity phrases (for example, en kop kaffe for "a cup of coffee" or et glas vand for "a glass of water"). However, antal always requires af.
Why is biler in the indefinite plural form here?
The chart is counting cars as a general category, not a specific, previously identified group of cars. While the number itself (antallet) and the town (byen) are specific to this context and thus take the definite form, the cars are just the general item being counted, so biler remains indefinite.
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