Jeg anmelder vandskaden til forsikringsselskabet.

Anmelde is the verb commonly used for reporting something officially, especially to an authority, the police, or an insurance company. In this sentence, it means something like filing/reporting the water damage.

So Jeg anmelder ... is not just a general I tell or I mention. It has a more formal sense: you are officially reporting a case.

Form-wise, anmelder is the present tense of anmelde:

• at anmelde = to report / file
• jeg anmelder = I report / I am reporting

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

So:

• vand = water
• skade = damage

Together they form:

• vandskade = water damage

And in the sentence you have:

• vandskaden = the water damage

This is very common in Danish. English often uses separate words where Danish uses one compound word.

The ending -en is the definite article attached to the noun. Danish usually puts the at the end of the noun instead of using a separate word.

So:

• en vandskade = a water damage case / water damage
• vandskaden = the water damage

The noun vandskade is a common gender noun, so its definite singular ending is -en.

A useful pattern:

• en bil → bilen
• en skade → skaden
• en vandskade → vandskaden

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

In Danish:

• common gender nouns usually take -en in the definite singular
• neuter nouns usually take -et in the definite singular

So:

• et forsikringsselskab = an insurance company
• forsikringsselskabet = the insurance company

Compare:

• en skade → skaden
• et selskab → selskabet

Because the verb pattern here is:

anmelde noget til nogen / til en institution

So you:

• report something
• to someone or some organization

In the sentence:

• vandskaden = the thing being reported
• til forsikringsselskabet = to the insurance company

So til works like English to here.

The sentence follows the normal Danish main-clause pattern:

Subject + Verb + Object + Prepositional phrase

So:

• Jeg = subject
• anmelder = verb
• vandskaden = direct object
• til forsikringsselskabet = prepositional phrase

This is a very standard Danish sentence structure.

Also remember that Danish is a V2 language, which means the finite verb usually comes in the second position in main clauses. Here, since the subject comes first, the order looks very similar to English:

• Jeg anmelder vandskaden ...

But if another element came first, the verb would still stay in second position:

• I dag anmelder jeg vandskaden til forsikringsselskabet.

It can mean either, depending on context.

Danish present tense often covers both:

• I report
• I am reporting

So Jeg anmelder vandskaden til forsikringsselskabet could mean:

• I report the water damage to the insurance company.
• I am reporting the water damage to the insurance company.

Context tells you which is more natural.

Because in Danish, the definite article is usually attached to the end of the noun.

So instead of a separate word like English the, Danish often uses endings:

• -en
• -et

Examples from this sentence:

• vandskaden = the water damage
• forsikringsselskabet = the insurance company

This is one of the biggest differences from English noun structure.

However, Danish can also use a separate definite word in some cases, especially with adjectives:

• det store forsikringsselskab = the big insurance company

So both systems exist, but in simple noun phrases without adjectives, the ending is the normal choice.

It is a compound noun made of smaller parts:

• forsikring = insurance
• selskab = company

Together:

• forsikringsselskab = insurance company

Then the definite ending is added:

• forsikringsselskabet = the insurance company

You may also notice the extra -s- in the middle:

• forsikring + s + selskab

That linking s is very common in Danish compounds. It does not usually need to be translated; it just helps form the compound.

No, but it is a very natural and idiomatic choice for an official report like this.

Danish has other verbs that can sometimes be translated as report, such as:

• rapportere
• melde
• indberette

But they are not always interchangeable.

For an insurance case, anmelde is especially common because it suggests an official notification or claim. So for this situation, anmelde is probably the best everyday choice.

Yes. That would mean to my insurance company.

Compare:

• til forsikringsselskabet = to the insurance company
• til mit forsikringsselskab = to my insurance company

Notice something important: after a possessive like mit, the noun is normally not in the suffixed definite form.

So you say:

• mit forsikringsselskab not
• mit forsikringsselskabet

That is a very useful rule in Danish:

• huset = the house
• mit hus = my house

A learner-friendly way to think about them is to break them into parts:

• vandskaden → vand + skaden
• forsikringsselskabet → forsikring + s + selskabet

A few pronunciation tips:

• Danish d is often softer than English d
• unstressed endings like -en and -et are often pronounced quite lightly
• long compounds are usually pronounced with the main stress earlier in the word, not equally on every part

You do not need to pronounce every written letter very strongly. In natural Danish speech, some sounds are reduced. For learners, it is often best to learn the pronunciation of the whole word as a chunk rather than trying to say every part exactly as written.