Kongen læser brevet.

Because Danish usually puts the definite article onto the end of the noun.

• konge = king
• kongen = the king

and

• brev = letter
• brevet = the letter

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

• common gender noun: -en
• neuter noun: -et

That is one of the first big differences English speakers notice.

In a simple noun phrase, Danish normally uses the postfixed definite article instead of a separate word.

So Danish prefers:

• kongen
• brevet

rather than a separate the word.

A separate definite word such as den or det is usually used when there is an adjective or other modifier:

• brevet = the letter
• det gamle brev = the old letter

So in Kongen læser brevet, there is no adjective, so the suffixed form is the natural one.

It depends on the noun’s grammatical gender.

Danish has two genders:

• common gender
• neuter

In this sentence:

• konge is a common gender noun, so the definite form is kongen
• brev is a neuter noun, so the definite form is brevet

Unfortunately, gender is something you often have to learn together with each noun. A good habit is to learn nouns with their article or definite form, not by themselves.

For example:

• en konge / kongen
• et brev / brevet

læser is the present tense of the verb at læse (to read).

So:

• at læse = infinitive, to read
• læser = present tense, read / reads / am reading / is reading / are reading depending on context

A useful point for English speakers: Danish verbs do not change according to the subject the way English does.

So you get:

• jeg læser = I read / am reading
• du læser = you read / are reading
• han læser = he reads / is reading
• kongen læser = the king reads / is reading

The verb form stays the same.

Yes. In many contexts, the Danish present tense can cover both meanings.

So Kongen læser brevet could mean:

• The king reads the letter
• The king is reading the letter

Context usually tells you whether it is a general/habitual action or something happening right now.

If Danish speakers want to be extra explicit about an ongoing action, they can use other constructions, but the simple present is very common.

Yes, in this sentence it is basically the same:

• Kongen = subject
• læser = verb
• brevet = object

So the structure is:

Subject + Verb + Object

That is why this sentence feels quite familiar to an English speaker.

However, Danish main clauses follow the verb-second rule, so if something else comes first, the verb still has to stay in second position:

• Kongen læser brevet.
• I dag læser kongen brevet. = Today, the king is reading the letter.

Notice that after I dag, the verb læser comes before kongen.

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

Unlike German, Danish does not capitalize all nouns.

So in the middle of a sentence, you would write:

• Jeg ser kongen.
• Han læser brevet.

with kongen and brevet in lowercase.

A helpful approximate guide is:

• kon- with ng like the sound in English sing
• -gen with a weak final -en

Very roughly, English speakers can think of it as something like KONG-en, but with a softer, more Danish vowel quality.

One important thing:

• the ng is a single nasal sound, not a hard g as in go

So try not to pronounce it like kon-gen with a clear g sound in the middle.

The biggest challenge is usually æ.

The letter æ is a front vowel that does not match English perfectly. A rough approximation is the vowel in cat, but Danish æ can sound different depending on speaker and region.

So læser is roughly like:

• LEH-ser or LAE-ser

but with a distinctly Danish vowel.

Also, the r at the end of læser is not usually pronounced like a strong English r. Danish r is much softer and more back in the mouth.

Not much. Danish has very little case marking compared with many European languages.

In this sentence:

• kongen is the subject
• brevet is the object

but the nouns themselves do not change form because of subject/object role in the way they would in languages with a fuller case system.

Word order does most of the work.

The main extra noun ending learners often meet is the possessive -s:

• kongens brev = the king’s letter

Yes, but it changes the emphasis and sounds marked rather than neutral.

Because Danish is a verb-second language, you can move an element to the front for focus:

• Brevet læser kongen.

This can suggest something like:

• It is the letter that the king is reading or
• The letter, the king is reading

The neutral, ordinary word order is still:

• Kongen læser brevet.

So as a beginner, that is the safest version to use.