Learn Hardcore Danish: Museet i byen er billigt, men udstillingen er meget spændende. - The museum in the city is cheap, but the exhibition is very exciting.

So museet i byen literally means “the museum in the town/city.”
You almost never put a separate word for “the” in front of a basic noun in Danish; instead, you add a suffix like -en or -et.

What does i byen mean exactly, and why is it definite?

i byen literally means “in the town/city.”

en by = a town / a city
byen = the town / the city

Danish often uses the definite form when you talk about a place that is understood or typical in context, like:

i byen = in town / downtown / in the city (the one we both have in mind)

Saying i by (with no ending) is wrong; after a preposition like i (“in”), the noun still has to be either definite or indefinite. Here, the natural choice is definite: i byen.

Why is the adjective billigt ending in -t?

The -t on billigt shows that the adjective agrees with a neuter singular noun:

et museum (neuter) → Museet er billigt.
en bil (common gender) → Bilen er billig.

General rule for adjectives in predicative position (after er, bliver, etc.):

With a common gender singular noun: billig
With a neuter singular noun: billigt
With a plural noun: billige

So because museum is et (neuter), you get billigt.

Would “Museet i byen er billig” be wrong?

In standard Danish, yes, that’s considered incorrect.

Because museet is neuter, the adjective in this position should be billigt, not billig. Some speakers might be sloppy in casual speech and not always add -t, but if you’re learning the language, you should stick to Museet i byen er billigt.

Can billigt also mean “cheaply,” like an adverb?

Yes. Billigt can be:

An adjective agreeing with a neuter noun:
- Museet er billigt. = The museum is cheap.
An adverb meaning “cheaply”:
- Vi spiser billigt. = We eat cheaply.
- Man kan rejse billigt i januar. = You can travel cheaply in January.

So context tells you whether billigt is describing a noun (adjective) or describing how something is done (adverb).

What does men do in this sentence, and do you always put a comma before it?

Men means “but” and connects two main clauses:

Museet i byen er billigt (first clause)
udstillingen er meget spændende (second clause)

Traditionally in Danish, you do put a comma before men when it links two full clauses:

Museet i byen er billigt, men udstillingen er meget spændende.

Modern “comma reform” allows a bit of flexibility, but most people and most teaching materials still use the comma here.

Why is it udstillingen and not just udstilling?

Udstillingen is the definite form of en udstilling:

en udstilling = an exhibition
udstillingen = the exhibition

The English sentence has “the exhibition”, so Danish also uses the definite form.
If you said udstilling with no ending, it would sound like an incomplete phrase (you would normally need something like en udstilling, en ny udstilling, etc.).

What is the difference between meget spændende and just spændende?

spændende = exciting / interesting
meget spændende = very exciting / very interesting

Meget works as an intensifier (“very”, “much”).
Without meget, you’re just stating that the exhibition is exciting. With meget, you’re saying it is very exciting.

Can I say “udstillingen er spændende meget” instead of “meget spændende”?

No. In Danish, intensifiers like meget normally come before the adjective:

meget spændende (correct)
spændende meget (wrong in normal speech)

So you say:

Udstillingen er meget spændende. = The exhibition is very exciting.

How does word order work in “Museet i byen er billigt”?

The main structure is:

Subject: Museet i byen (a full noun phrase, “the museum in the town”)
Verb: er (“is”)
Complement: billigt (“cheap”)

Danish is usually verb-second (V2) in main clauses: the finite verb (here er) comes in the second position (second slot), after the first full constituent.
Here, the first constituent is the whole subject phrase Museet i byen, so the verb er comes right after it.

Why is it by (common gender) but museum is neuter? How do I know the gender?

Danish has two grammatical genders:

Common gender (n-words), like en by (a town), byen (the town)
Neuter gender (t-words), like et museum (a museum), museet (the museum)

Unfortunately, gender is mostly lexical: you just have to learn the gender of each word as you learn the word itself. Dictionaries mark this:

by (en)
museum (et)

The gender then affects things like:

the definite ending: byen vs museet
adjective endings: byen er billig vs museet er billigt

What exactly does spændende mean here—“exciting” or “interesting”?

Spændende literally leans toward “exciting” (from spænding = tension), but in practice it often overlaps with English “interesting”, especially for cultural things like exhibitions, books, films.

So:

meget spændende udstilling can be translated naturally as either
- “a very exciting exhibition” or
- “a very interesting exhibition”

Both are fine; context decides which sounds more natural in English.

Are there any tricky pronunciation points in “Museet i byen er billigt, men udstillingen er meget spændende”?

Some tips (approximate):

Museet: [mu-SEE-eth] – the t is there but often quite soft; final -et is one syllable.
byen: [BYU-en] with a very front y vowel (like German ü).
billigt: [BILL-it] – the g is not clearly pronounced as in English; the final -gt is reduced.
udstillingen: [OOTH-stil-ling-en] – ud- has a long u sound; -en is a separate syllable.
meget: often pronounced more like [MA-ð] or [MY-ð], with a soft d that can almost disappear.
spændende: [SPEN-neh-ne] – the d is very soft, almost not heard.

Exact phonetics depend on dialect, but these guides help you get closer to typical spoken Danish.