Learn Hardcore Danish: Tanten drikker kaffe i køkkenet. - The aunt drinks coffee in the kitchen.

En tante drikker kaffe i køkkenet. = An aunt drinks coffee in the kitchen.
Tanten drikker kaffe i køkkenet. = The aunt drinks coffee in the kitchen.

What gender is tante, and how does that affect the form tanten?

Tante is common gender (also called n-words), so:

Indefinite singular: en tante
Definite singular: tanten (tante + -n)

For common-gender nouns, the definite singular suffix is usually -en (or just -n if the word already ends in e), which is exactly what you see in tanten.

Why is there no separate word for “the” before tanten and køkkenet?

Danish usually attaches “the” to the end of the noun instead of putting it in front, like English:

et køkken = a kitchen
køkkenet = the kitchen
en tante = an aunt
tanten = the aunt

So:

Tanten = the aunt
i køkkenet = in the kitchen

You don’t say den tante, det køkken in this case; you use the suffixed form (tanten, køkkenet). (There are cases with den/det + definite form, but those express other nuances, like emphasis or demonstrative meanings.)

Why isn’t there a word like “is” in drikker? In English we say “is drinking”.

Danish normally does not use a separate auxiliary like “is” to form a present continuous tense. Instead, the simple present covers both:

Tanten drikker kaffe.
- The aunt drinks coffee. (general habit)
- The aunt is drinking coffee. (right now)

Context decides whether it means a general habit or a current action.

There is a more explicit progressive form with er ved at (literally is by at):

Tanten er ved at drikke kaffe. = The aunt is in the process of drinking coffee.

But in everyday Danish, Tanten drikker kaffe is perfectly natural for “The aunt is drinking coffee.”

Why is the verb drikker in the second position?

Danish main clauses usually follow the V2 rule: the finite verb (here drikker) must come in second position in the sentence.

In your example:

Tanten – first element (subject)
drikker – finite verb (must be second)
kaffe – object
i køkkenet – adverbial phrase (place)

If you move something else to the front for emphasis, the verb still stays in second place:

I køkkenet drikker tanten kaffe.
(In the kitchen, the aunt drinks coffee.)

Here, I køkkenet is first, drikker is still second.

Can I move i køkkenet to a different place in the sentence?

Yes, Danish word order is relatively flexible with adverbials like i køkkenet. All of these are grammatical, but have slightly different emphasis:

Tanten drikker kaffe i køkkenet. (neutral; place at the end)
I køkkenet drikker tanten kaffe. (emphasis on where)
Tanten drikker i køkkenet kaffe. (possible, but sounds a bit odd / poetic in most contexts)

The most natural everyday word order is the original one:
Tanten drikker kaffe i køkkenet.

Why is it kaffe and not kaffen?

Kaffe is often treated as a mass noun in Danish, just like English uses bare coffee.

Tanten drikker kaffe.
→ The aunt drinks coffee / some coffee / coffee in general.

If you say:

Tanten drikker kaffen.

then you’re referring to some specific coffee, already known from the context:

The aunt is drinking *the coffee (that we talked about / that is on the table).*

So:

kaffe = coffee in general, or some coffee (indefinite)
kaffen = the (particular) coffee (definite)

What does i køkkenet literally mean, and why do we use i here?

I køkkenet literally means in the kitchen.

i = in (used when you are inside a space or room)
køkkenet = the kitchen (et køkken → køkkenet)

Danish often uses i for being inside something (rooms, buildings, countries, cities):

i køkkenet – in the kitchen
i stuen – in the living room
i Danmark – in Denmark

You would not normally say på køkkenet; på is more like on / at (e.g. på bordet = on the table, på kontoret = at the office, depending on context). For a physical room that you are inside, i is standard.

What is the base form of køkkenet, and what gender is it?

The base (indefinite) form is:

et køkken = a kitchen (neuter gender, t-word)

For neuter nouns, the definite singular is formed with -et:

køkkenet = the kitchen (køkken + -et)

So:

et køkken → køkkenet
et hus → huset (the house)
et glas → glasset (the glass)

How is Tanten drikker kaffe i køkkenet pronounced, roughly?

Very roughly in an English-friendly way (this is approximate):

Tanten ≈ “TAN-ten” (short a like in “cat” but a bit more open; final -en is quite weak)
drikker ≈ “DRI-kker” where drik- sounds like “drick” and the r is uvular (back-of-the-throat) in many accents
kaffe ≈ “KAF-fe” (first syllable like “café” without the é, second syllable very weak)
i ≈ “ee”
køkkenet ≈ something like “KØ-kke-net”:
- ø is a rounded vowel, a bit like the vowel in British “bird” but with rounded lips
- double kk is pronounced as a short, strong k
- -et at the end is often very weak (almost like a soft “ut”)

Danish pronunciation is notoriously tricky; listening to native audio will help a lot more than written approximations.

Why isn’t tanten capitalized like in German?

In Danish, only proper nouns (names of people, places, etc.) and the first word of a sentence are capitalized. Common nouns are not capitalized:

tanten – the aunt
kaffe – coffee
køkkenet – the kitchen

This is like English and unlike German, where all nouns are capitalized.

Does tante always mean “aunt”? What about moster and faster?

Tante is a more general or sometimes slightly informal word for an aunt or aunt-like older woman.

Danish has more specific words for biological aunts:

moster – your mother’s sister
faster – your father’s sister

So, depending on context:

Min moster drikker kaffe i køkkenet. – My mother’s sister drinks coffee in the kitchen.
Min faster drikker kaffe i køkkenet. – My father’s sister drinks coffee in the kitchen.
Min tante could be either, or even a non-relative called “aunt”.

Is Tanten drikker kaffe i køkkenet talking about a habit or something happening right now?

On its own, it can mean either, just like The aunt drinks coffee in the kitchen vs The aunt is drinking coffee in the kitchen in English.

Context usually makes it clear:

If you’re describing her daily routine:
Hver morgen drikker tanten kaffe i køkkenet.
→ Every morning the aunt drinks coffee in the kitchen. (habit)
If you’re describing what she’s doing at the moment:
Lige nu drikker tanten kaffe i køkkenet.
→ Right now the aunt is drinking coffee in the kitchen. (current action)

Danish uses the same present tense form drikker for both.