Questions & Answers about Caféen har kun få borde.
The translation says 'a few tables', but doesn't få just mean 'few'?
Yes! In Danish, få means 'few' (a small amount, often focusing on there not being many). To say 'a few' (a positive handful), you would normally use nogle få or et par. However, in English, the most natural way to translate the specific phrase kun få is 'only a few', even though literally it is 'only few'.
Why does Caféen have an accent mark?
Danish borrowed the word café from French. The accent tells you to put the stress on the final syllable. When you add the definite ending -en to make it 'the café', the accent mark stays, so it is written as Caféen.
Why does the plural word borde end in an 'e'?
The singular word for table is et bord. In Danish, many neuter words (words that use et) of one syllable form their plural simply by adding an -e. So, et bord becomes flere borde (several tables).
Could I use bare instead of kun to mean 'only'?
You will often hear Danes use bare and kun interchangeably to mean 'only' or 'just'. However, kun is much more common and sounds more natural when you are strictly talking about a limited amount, number, or quantity, like the number of tables in this sentence.