Skadesomfanget er stort.

to be

Breakdown of Skadesomfanget er stort.

• stor: large
• skadesomfanget: the extent of the damage

Questions & Answers about Skadesomfanget er stort.

Is skadesomfanget really one word, and how is it built?

Yes. Danish normally writes compound nouns as one word.

skadesomfanget can be broken down like this:

• skade = damage
• -s- = a linking sound/letter often used in compounds
• omfang = extent, scope
• -et = the definite ending for a neuter noun

So the whole word means something like the damage-extent, i.e. the extent of the damage.

The most important part is the last noun, omfang. That is the head of the compound, and it determines the gender and basic meaning of the whole word.

Why is there an -s- in the middle: skade-s-omfang?

That -s- is a linking element used in many Danish compounds.

It does not mean possession in the same way as English 's. It is just part of how certain compound words are formed. Some compounds have it, and some do not, so it often has to be learned together with the word.

Here it is simply:

• skade
• skadesomfang

So you should think of skadesomfang as the normal compound form.

Why is there no separate word for the?