Word
Der er køer og grise på gården.
Meaning
There are cows and pigs on the farm.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Der er køer og grise på gården.
og
and
koen
the cow
grisen
the pig
på
on / at / in (a language) / of (after nouns like end or start)
Questions & Answers about Der er køer og grise på gården.
Why does the sentence use Der er for "There are"? Shouldn't the verb be plural?
In Danish, verbs don't change based on whether the subject is singular or plural. Because the verb at være (to be) is always er in the present tense, Der er translates to both "There is" and "There are".
How did the word for cow (ko) become køer?
The word ko is an irregular noun. To make it plural, the vowel changes from o to ø, and it takes the plural ending -er, resulting in køer.
Why does grise (pigs) only add an -e instead of -er like køer?
Danish has a few different plural endings. While many nouns take -er, short nouns that end in a consonant, like gris, often just take an -e in the plural to become grise.
Why do we use the preposition på here instead of i (in)?
Just like in English, Danish uses the preposition for "on" (på) when talking about being located at a farm. We say på en gård (on a farm) and på gården (on the farm).