Børnene leger ovenpå.

The children are playing upstairs.

Breakdown of Børnene leger ovenpå.

• barnet: the child
• lege: to play
• ovenpå: upstairs; on top

Questions & Answers about Børnene leger ovenpå.

Why is it børnene and not barnene?

Because the noun barn has an irregular plural.

• singular indefinite: et barn = a child
• plural indefinite: børn = children
• plural definite: børnene = the children

So -ene is the definite plural ending, but it attaches to the plural form børn, not to the singular barn.

Why doesn’t Danish use a separate word for the here?

In Danish, definiteness is often added as an ending on the noun instead of using a separate word.

So:

• børn = children
• børnene = the children

This is very common in Danish. English uses a separate article, but Danish often uses a suffix.

What form is leger?

Leger is the present tense of at lege.

• at lege = to play
• leger = play / are playing

In Danish, the present tense is often formed by adding -r to the infinitive:

• at lege → leger
• at bo → bor
• at spise → spiser

So Børnene leger ovenpå is a present-tense sentence.

Why is the verb leger and not something like spiller?