Udtørringen begynder efter nødreparationen.

Because both nouns are in the definite singular form.

In Danish, instead of usually putting the in front of a noun, you often add the definite ending directly to the noun:

• en udtørring = a drying / the process of drying out
• udtørringen = the drying out
• en nødreparation = an emergency repair
• nødreparationen = the emergency repair

So the -en here works like English the.

That is normal in Danish. Danish usually expresses definiteness with a suffix attached to the noun.

Compare:

• en reparation = a repair
• reparationen = the repair

A separate definite word can appear in some situations, especially when there is an adjective:

• reparationen = the repair
• den hurtige reparation = the quick repair

But in your sentence, there is no adjective before the nouns, so the attached definite ending is enough.

It is built from the noun udtørring plus the definite ending -en.

You can think of it like this:

• tør = dry
• tørre = to dry
• udtørre = to dry out
• udtørring = drying out / desiccation
• udtørringen = the drying out

The prefix ud- often adds the idea of out or completely out, so udtørring is stronger and more specific than just a general drying.

Yes. Begynder is the present tense of begynde (to begin).

Forms:

• at begynde = to begin
• begynder = begins / is beginning
• begyndte = began
• har begyndt = has begun

So in this sentence, begynder means that the action starts after the repair.

That is a basic Danish rule called V2 word order: in a main clause, the finite verb normally comes in the second position.

In this sentence:

• Udtørringen = first element
• begynder = verb in second position
• efter nødreparationen = the rest of the sentence

This is one of the most important sentence patterns in Danish.

Yes, absolutely. That is a normal Danish sentence too.

If you move efter nødreparationen to the front, the verb still stays in second position:

• Efter nødreparationen begynder udtørringen.

That is because of the same V2 rule. The first position can be filled by different elements, but the finite verb still comes second.

So both are correct:

• Udtørringen begynder efter nødreparationen.
• Efter nødreparationen begynder udtørringen.

The difference is mainly one of emphasis or what you want to highlight first.

Efter is a preposition meaning after.

Here it introduces a time phrase:

• efter nødreparationen = after the emergency repair

Unlike in some languages, English speakers do not need to worry about noun case endings after prepositions in Danish. The noun simply appears in its normal form, here with the definite ending:

• efter reparationen
• efter mødet
• efter pausen

So efter is quite straightforward to use.

Danish uses compound nouns very freely, just like German and more than English often does.

Nødreparationen is:

• nød = emergency
• reparation = repair
• nødreparation = emergency repair
• nødreparationen = the emergency repair

A useful rule: in Danish compounds, the last part is the main noun, and it determines the gender and the definite ending.

Since reparation is a common-gender noun with en, the full compound is also:

• en nødreparation
• nødreparationen

Because udtørring is a common-gender noun, not a neuter noun.

Danish singular nouns usually belong to one of two genders:

• common gender: takes en in the indefinite form and -en in the definite form
• neuter: takes et in the indefinite form and -et in the definite form

So:

• en udtørring → udtørringen
• en nødreparation → nødreparationen

If a noun were neuter, you would get -et instead.

A careful approximate pronunciation would be something like:

Udtørringen begynder efter nødreparationen
≈ OOth-TUR-ing-en beh-GYN-er EF-ter NUR-rai-pah-rah-tsyo-nen

A few helpful points:

• ø is a front rounded vowel that English does not really have
• y in begynder is also a front rounded vowel
• d is often softer than English d in many Danish words
• unstressed endings like -en are often reduced in natural speech

You do not need perfect pronunciation immediately, but the hardest parts for English speakers are usually ø, y, and the soft consonants.

It most naturally refers to a process.

The noun udtørring is a verbal noun, so it names the event or process of something drying out. Danish often uses nouns like this in technical, formal, or descriptive language.

That means the sentence sounds a bit like formal or procedural language, similar to English phrases such as:

• The drying-out begins after the emergency repair
• Desiccation begins after the emergency repair

So yes, it is grammatically a noun phrase, but semantically it describes a process starting.