Questions & Answers about Jeg fik en bog i fødselsdagsgave.
Why is it fik here, and what verb does it come from?
Fik is the past tense of få, which means to get, to receive, or sometimes to have in certain expressions.
So:
- få = infinitive
- får = present tense
- fik = past tense
- har fået = perfect tense
In this sentence, fik is used because the speaker is talking about something that happened in the past.
Examples:
- Jeg får en bog. = I am getting / get a book.
- Jeg fik en bog. = I got a book.
- Jeg har fået en bog. = I have gotten / received a book.
Why is it en bog and not et bog?
Danish nouns have grammatical gender, and bog is a common gender noun, so it takes en.
- en bog
- not et bog
This is something you usually have to learn with the noun. In Danish, it is best to memorize nouns together with their article:
- en bog
- et hus
- en bil
That also helps later when you make the definite form:
- en bog → bogen
- et hus → huset