Begge børn får lige meget juice.

to get

Breakdown of Begge børn får lige meget juice.

• barnet: the child
• juicen: the juice
• begge: both (the two of them)

Questions & Answers about Begge børn får lige meget juice.

What does begge mean here, and how is it different from både ... og ...?

Begge means both when you are talking about two people or things as one group: begge børn = both children.

Danish also has både ... og ..., but that is used to connect two separate items:

• Både Anna og Peter får juice = Both Anna and Peter get juice

In your sentence, begge is the natural choice because børn already gives you one plural noun phrase: both children.

Why is it børn? What happened to barn?

Børn is the irregular plural of barn.

The forms are:

• et barn = a child
• barnet = the child
• børn = children
• børnene = the children

So this is just a plural form you need to learn as a vocabulary item. It does not follow the most regular plural pattern.

Why is it begge børn and not begge børnene?

Begge børn is the normal, straightforward way to say both children.

You can also hear begge børnene, which is closer to both of the children and sounds a bit more specifically definite.

So:

• begge børn = both children
• begge børnene = both of the children

In simple statements like this one, begge børn is very natural.