Breakdown of Hans nye jakke er meget dyr, men han bruger ikke mange penge på andet tøj.
Questions & Answers about Hans nye jakke er meget dyr, men han bruger ikke mange penge på andet tøj.
In Danish, adjectives in front of a noun (attributive adjectives) change form depending on whether the noun is definite / has a determiner.
- Indefinite, no determiner: en ny jakke – a new jacket
- With a possessive or definite article: hans nye jakke, min nye jakke, den nye jakke
So when you have a possessive like hans, min, vores, etc., the adjective usually takes -e:
- min nye jakke
- hans gamle bil
- vores store hus
That’s why it is nye jakke here, not ny jakke.
Because nye and dyr play different grammatical roles:
- nye is in front of the noun (hans nye jakke), so it’s an attributive adjective. Those get -e in definite / possessive forms.
- dyr comes after the verb (jakken er meget dyr), so it’s a predicative adjective. Predicative adjectives usually take the base form in the common-gender singular.
Patterns for predicative adjectives:
- En jakke er dyr. – common gender, singular → dyr
- Et hus er dyrt. – neuter, singular → dyrt
- Jakkerne er dyre. – plural → dyre
So jakke(n) er dyr, but den dyre jakke in front of the noun.
From this single sentence, you technically can’t tell for sure, because:
- A name: Hans nye jakke = Hans’s new jacket
- The possessive pronoun: hans nye jakke = his new jacket
Sentence-initial words are always capitalized, so Hans at the start could be either.
You would normally rely on context:
- If the text is about a man called Hans, then Hans nye jakke is probably Hans’s new jacket.
- If the previous sentence mentioned some male person (e.g. Peter), then hans nye jakke would likely mean his new jacket (Peter’s).
So: you need surrounding context to decide whether it’s a name or the pronoun here.
Danish main clauses typically follow this pattern:
Subject – finite verb – (small adverbs like ikke) – objects / other elements
So you get:
- Han bruger ikke mange penge …
Putting ikke at the end, like han bruger mange penge ikke, is ungrammatical in standard Danish.
More examples:
- Jeg spiser ikke kød. – not Jeg spiser kød ikke.
- Vi har ikke tid. – not Vi har tid ikke.
So ikke comes directly after the conjugated verb (unless there is another short adverb there too), and before the objects.
Brug(e) does basically mean to use, but in some fixed combinations it is translated as to spend in English.
With penge (money) and tid (time), bruge is usually understood as spend:
- at bruge penge på noget – to spend money on something
- at bruge tid på noget – to spend time on something
So:
- han bruger ikke mange penge på andet tøj
literally: he uses not many money on other clothes
idiomatically: he doesn’t spend much money on other clothes
Two separate points:
mange vs meget
- mange is used with countable plural nouns:
mange venner, mange bøger, mange penge - meget is used with uncountable / mass nouns:
meget vand, meget tid, meget sukker
Even though money feels mass-like in English, penge is grammatically plural in Danish, so you say mange penge, not meget penge.
- mange is used with countable plural nouns:
ikke mange
- ikke mange penge = not many money → not much money
It means there is some, but not a lot.
- ikke mange penge = not many money → not much money
So ikke mange penge is the correct way to say not much money, and you need mange (not meget) because penge is a plural noun.
Here meget is an adverb meaning very, modifying the adjective dyr:
- meget dyr = very expensive
As explained earlier, dyr here is predicative (after er) and refers to a singular common-gender noun (jakke). So the correct form is:
- jakken er dyr
- jakken er meget dyr
You only get dyre in plural or in definite attributive form:
- de dyre jakker – the expensive jackets
- dyre jakker – expensive jackets (plural)
- jakkerne er dyre – the jackets are expensive
The adjective anden means other / another and has these forms:
- anden – common gender singular
- andet – neuter singular
- andre – plural (both genders)
The noun tøj (clothes) is neuter in Danish, so the matching form is andet:
- andet tøj = other clothes / other clothing
Some contrasts:
- en anden jakke – another / a different jacket (common gender)
- et andet hus – another / a different house (neuter)
- andre jakker – other jackets (plural)
- andet tøj – other clothes (neuter, mass noun)
Tøj is usually treated as an uncountable / mass noun in Danish when you mean clothing in general. In that use:
- You normally don’t use an indefinite article:
- andet tøj – other clothes
- varmt tøj – warm clothes
- pænt tøj – nice clothes
Andet tøjet is not correct in this general meaning. With the definite form tøjet, you would need something like:
- det andet af tøjet – the other of the clothes / the other part of the clothes
But that’s a different, more specific meaning.
You can say:
- noget andet tøj – some other clothes
This emphasizes some amount of other clothing, rather than clothes in general. Both andet tøj and noget andet tøj are possible; the sentence here just keeps it general.
In Danish, you normally put a comma before coordinating conjunctions like men, og, for, så, etc. when they link two main clauses (each with its own subject and finite verb).
Here we have:
- Hans nye jakke er meget dyr – main clause
- han bruger ikke mange penge på andet tøj – main clause
They are joined by men, so you write:
- Hans nye jakke er meget dyr, men han bruger ikke mange penge på andet tøj.
That comma marks the boundary between the two clauses.
The usual construction in Danish is:
- bruge penge på noget – to spend money on something
So the natural phrasing is:
- han bruger ikke mange penge på andet tøj
Using til instead of på here sounds odd or non‑idiomatic in standard Danish. And you cannot just drop the preposition; bruge penge noget is incorrect.
Other common patterns with bruge:
- bruge penge på mad – spend money on food
- bruge mange penge på at rejse – spend a lot of money on travelling
So in this sentence, på is required.