Questions & Answers about Jeg har ingen penge med i dag.
What does ingen mean here, and how is it different from ikke?
Ingen means no / none / not any.
In this sentence, ingen penge means no money or not any money.
That is different from ikke, which is the ordinary word for not.
Compare:
- Jeg har ingen penge med. = I have no money with me.
- Jeg har ikke penge med. = this sounds unnatural in Danish
If you want to use ikke, you normally say:
- Jeg har ikke nogen penge med. = I don’t have any money with me.
So with nouns, Danish often uses ingen / intet / ingen instead of just ikke by itself.
Why is it penge and not en penge?
Penge is the normal Danish word for money, and it behaves a lot like a plural-only noun in everyday use.
So you say:
- penge = money
- ingen penge = no money
- mange penge = a lot of money
You do not normally say en penge to mean a money.
This is similar to how English treats money as something you usually do not count as individual units in normal conversation.
Why is there no definite ending, like pengene?
Because the sentence is talking about money in a general, indefinite sense, not about some specific money already known in the conversation.
- ingen penge = no money
- pengene = the money
So:
- Jeg har ingen penge med i dag. = I don’t have any money with me today.
- Jeg har ikke pengene med i dag. = I don’t have the money with me today.
The second sentence would suggest some specific money that both speaker and listener know about.
What is med doing in this sentence?
Here med means something like with me / on me / along with me.
So Jeg har ingen penge med literally feels like:
- I have no money with [me]
Danish often leaves mig unstated here because it is understood from the context.
This is very common. For example:
- Har du pas med? = Do you have your passport with you?
- Jeg har ikke nøglerne med. = I don’t have the keys with me.
So med is an important part of the meaning. Without it, the sentence becomes more general.
Could I say Jeg har ingen penge i dag without med?
Yes, but the meaning changes slightly.
- Jeg har ingen penge i dag. = I have no money today.
- Jeg har ingen penge med i dag. = I have no money with me today.
Without med, it can sound broader, as if you simply do not have any money available at all today.
With med, the focus is more specifically on what you have on your person or brought along.
Why is med placed after penge?
Because have + object + med is a very common Danish pattern.
So the structure is:
- Jeg = I
- har = have
- ingen penge = no money
- med = with me / along
- i dag = today
This word order is natural in Danish. You will see the same pattern in many sentences:
- Jeg har min computer med. = I have my computer with me.
- Hun har børnene med. = She has the children with her.
- Vi har ingen mad med. = We don’t have any food with us.
Can I also say Jeg har ikke nogen penge med i dag?
Yes. That is also correct and natural.
Compare:
- Jeg har ingen penge med i dag.
- Jeg har ikke nogen penge med i dag.
They mean almost the same thing.
The version with ingen is a bit more compact and direct.
The version with ikke nogen is also very common in speech.
For a learner, both are worth knowing.
Why is it har and not something else?
Because Danish uses have for possession, just like English does.
- Jeg har penge. = I have money.
- Jeg har ingen penge. = I have no money.
So in that respect, the sentence is very similar to English.
The only thing that may feel different is the extra med, which adds the idea of with me / on me.
Can i dag go somewhere else in the sentence?
Yes. Danish allows some movement of time expressions like i dag.
These are all natural:
- Jeg har ingen penge med i dag.
- I dag har jeg ingen penge med.
- Jeg har i dag ingen penge med. — more formal or marked
The most neutral everyday version is probably:
- Jeg har ingen penge med i dag.
Putting i dag first often gives it a little more emphasis:
- I dag har jeg ingen penge med. = Today I don’t have any money with me.
Is ingen always the same form?
No. It changes depending on the noun.
The basic forms are:
- ingen with common gender singular nouns and with plurals
- intet with neuter singular nouns
Examples:
- ingen bil = no car
- intet problem = no problem
- ingen penge = no money / no money at all
In your sentence, penge behaves like a plural noun, so ingen is the correct form.
Is this sentence mainly about cash?
Usually, yes.
Penge most naturally suggests money in the general practical sense, often especially cash in a situation like paying for something.
So if someone says:
- Jeg har ingen penge med i dag.
it often implies something like:
- I didn’t bring any cash
- I don’t have any money on me right now
If you want to be more specific, you could say:
- Jeg har ingen kontanter med i dag. = I don’t have any cash with me today.
Would Danish also say something like på mig instead of med?
Yes, sometimes.
You may hear:
- Jeg har ingen penge på mig i dag. = I don’t have any money on me today.
This is very close in meaning to:
- Jeg har ingen penge med i dag.
A small difference:
- med focuses on what you brought with you
- på mig focuses on what is physically on your person
In many everyday situations, they overlap a lot.
What is the literal word-for-word structure of the sentence?
Very roughly:
- Jeg = I
- har = have
- ingen = no / not any
- penge = money
- med = with
- i dag = today
So a literal version would be something like:
- I have no money with today
But natural English needs with me:
- I have no money with me today
So the main thing to notice is that Danish uses med where English would usually say with me or on me.
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