Ekstraforbruget koster penge.

It is made of three parts:

• ekstra = extra
• forbrug = consumption, use, usage
• -et = the definite ending for a neuter noun

So:

• et forbrug = a consumption / a usage
• forbruget = the consumption / the usage
• ekstraforbruget = the extra consumption / the extra usage

Danish often builds long compound nouns this way.

Because Danish, like German, normally writes compound nouns as a single word.

So English might write something like extra consumption, but Danish prefers:

• ekstraforbrug

Then when you make it definite, you add the ending to the whole compound:

• ekstraforbruget = the extra consumption

This is very normal in Danish.

Because forbrug is a neuter noun in Danish.

You learn it as:

• et forbrug = a consumption / a usage

Neuter nouns usually take -et in the definite singular:

• et forbrug → forbruget

If it were a common-gender noun, you would usually get -en instead.

So ekstraforbruget is definite because of the -et ending, and that ending matches the gender of forbrug.

Koster is the present tense of at koste = to cost.

So:

• at koste = to cost
• koster = costs / is costing

In this sentence, koster means costs.

A useful point for English speakers: Danish verbs do not change for person the way English does. So you use the same present-tense form with all subjects:

• jeg koster would be wrong semantically, but grammatically the verb form itself does not change
• det koster
• de koster
• ekstraforbruget koster

So unlike English I cost / he costs, Danish just keeps koster.

Because penge here means money in general, not the money or some specific coins/bills.

In Danish, when talking about money as a general concept, you simply say:

• koster penge = costs money

That works very much like English.

You would only add something else if you wanted a different meaning, for example:

• koster mange penge = costs a lot of money
• koster pengene = costs the money / costs that money

So in your sentence, no article is needed.

Grammatically, penge is treated like a plural-only noun in many situations. It is the normal Danish word for money.

That can feel strange to an English speaker, because English money is singular in form. But Danish uses penge as the standard everyday word.

So just learn:

• penge = money

You do not normally use a regular singular form for this meaning in everyday Danish.

Because this is a normal Danish main clause with the basic pattern:

• subject + verb + object/complement

So:

• Ekstraforbruget = subject
• koster = verb
• penge = object-like complement

This is the most straightforward word order in Danish.

A useful broader rule is that Danish is a V2 language, which means the finite verb normally comes in the second position in main clauses. In this sentence, the subject is first, so the verb naturally comes second:

• Ekstraforbruget | koster | penge

Yes, but it changes the feel slightly.

• Ekstraforbruget koster penge = the extra consumption / the extra usage costs money
• Ekstraforbrug koster penge = extra consumption costs money

Without -et, it sounds more general, more like a statement about the concept in general. With -et, it sounds more definite, as if we are talking about a specific extra amount of use or consumption already known from the context.

So both can work, but they do not mean exactly the same thing.

It is capitalized because it is the first word of the sentence, not because it is a noun.

In modern Danish, nouns are not capitalized the way they are in German.

So:

• At the start of a sentence: Ekstraforbruget koster penge.
• In the middle of a sentence: Jeg tror, at ekstraforbruget koster penge.

Only the first word of the sentence and proper names are normally capitalized.