Kortudstederen er banken.

to be

Breakdown of Kortudstederen er banken.

• banken: the bank
• kortudstederen: the card issuer

Questions & Answers about Kortudstederen er banken.

What kind of word is kortudstederen?

It is a compound noun, which is very common in Danish.

You can break it down like this:

• kort = card
• udsteder = issuer
• -en = the

So:

• kortudsteder = card issuer
• kortudstederen = the card issuer

The middle part udsteder comes from the verb udstede, which means to issue.

Why does Danish put the at the end of kortudstederen and banken?

Because Danish usually expresses the definite article as a suffix attached to the noun.

Compare:

• en bank = a bank

• banken = the bank

• en kortudsteder = a card issuer
• kortudstederen = the card issuer

For a native English speaker, this is one of the biggest structural differences:

• English: the bank
• Danish: banken

So in this sentence, both nouns are definite:

• kortudstederen = the card issuer
• banken = the bank

Why are both nouns definite here? In English, that sometimes sounds unusual.