Questions & Answers about Vi har købt en elektrisk bil.
Is elektrisk bil the most common way to say "electric car" in Danish?
While grammatically correct, Danes usually prefer the shorter compound noun elbil (plural: elbiler) in everyday conversation.
Why doesn't the adjective elektrisk have an ending like -e or -t?
Adjectives change their endings to match the noun. Because bil is a singular, common-gender noun (an en word) and we are using the indefinite article en, the adjective stays in its basic dictionary form. If it were definite ("the electric car"), it would be den elektriske bil.
Why use the present perfect har købt ("have bought") instead of the simple past købte ("bought")?
Just like in English, the present perfect is used here because the exact time of the purchase isn't stated, and the focus is on the current result: you now own an electric car. If you added a specific past time, you would switch to the simple past, for example: Vi købte en elbil i går ("We bought an electric car yesterday").
How do you form the past participle købt from the infinitive at købe?
At købe (to buy) is a regular verb. To make the past participle, which is the form you use after har or er, you simply take the infinitive, drop the final -e, and add -t.