Breakdown of Den nye vaskemaskine sparer meget strøm.
den
the (common, before adjective)
ny
new
meget
very; much, a lot
strømmen
the power (electricity)
vaskemaskinen
the washing machine
spare
to save (money, time)
Questions & Answers about Den nye vaskemaskine sparer meget strøm.
Why is it Den nye vaskemaskine and not Den nye vaskemaskinen?
In Danish, when a definite noun is modified by an adjective, you use the separate definite article (den, det, or de) and leave the noun in its basic, indefinite form (vaskemaskine). Unlike in Norwegian or Swedish, Danish doesn't use "double definiteness", so you don't add the -n or -en suffix to the noun here.
Why does the adjective ny get an -e at the end if the washing machine is singular?
When an adjective comes after a definite article like den, it must be in its definite form. For almost all Danish adjectives, the definite form is made by adding an -e to the end, which makes it look identical to the plural form. That is why ny becomes nye here.
Could I use the verb sparer to mean saving a life or saving a computer file?
No, at spare specifically means to save or conserve resources like money, time, or in this case, electricity (strøm). If you want to say you saved a person from danger, you use at redde. If you want to say you saved a file or kept something for later, you use at gemme.
Why do we use meget instead of mange for 'a lot of' in this sentence?
You use meget (much) for uncountable mass nouns, and strøm (electricity/power) is uncountable. If you were talking about things you can count individually, you would use mange (many), as in mange vaskemaskiner.
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