Er der et apotek i nærheden?

Because Danish forms this kind of yes/no question by putting the verb first.

• Statement: Der er et apotek i nærheden. = There is a pharmacy nearby.
• Question: Er der et apotek i nærheden? = Is there a pharmacy nearby?

So der er becomes er der in the question.

Here, der means there in the existential sense, like in English there is or there are.

It does not mean a specific physical place in this sentence. It is just part of the structure used to say that something exists.

So:

• Der er et apotek = There is a pharmacy

This is very common in Danish.

Because apotek is a neuter noun in Danish, and neuter nouns take et in the indefinite singular.

• et apotek = a pharmacy
• definite form: apoteket = the pharmacy

In Danish, nouns are either common gender (usually with en) or neuter (with et). You usually have to learn the gender with each noun.

I nærheden means nearby or in the vicinity.

Literally, it is something like in the nearness/vicinity, but in natural English you would usually translate it as:

• nearby
• close by
• in the area

So Er der et apotek i nærheden? is a very natural way to ask whether a pharmacy is nearby.

Because i nærheden is a very common fixed expression in Danish for nearby.

You can use nær in some contexts, but i nærheden is often more idiomatic when you mean that something is close to where you are.

Also, if you want to say near something, Danish often uses:

• i nærheden af = near / in the vicinity of

For example:

• et apotek i nærheden af stationen = a pharmacy near the station

Without a following object, i nærheden by itself works well.

Yes, you can, and it means roughly the same thing: Is there a pharmacy nearby?

But there is a slight difference in tone:

• Er der et apotek i nærheden? = most common, natural, everyday
• Findes der et apotek i nærheden? = a bit more formal or bookish in many situations

For normal spoken Danish, Er der ...? is usually the safest choice.

Because that is not the normal Danish structure for an existential question.

When you want to say Is there ...?, Danish uses the pattern:

• Er der + noun + place?

So:

• Er der et apotek i nærheden?

The der is an important part of this structure. Without it, the sentence would not sound natural for this meaning.

Yes, in this sentence you normally do.

Apotek is a singular countable noun, so Danish needs an article or some other determiner:

• et apotek = a pharmacy
• et bestemt apotek = a certain pharmacy
• noget apotek would not work here in the same way

So Er der apotek i nærheden? would usually sound incomplete or unnatural in standard Danish if you mean a pharmacy.

Common answers include:

• Ja, der er et apotek i nærheden. = Yes, there is a pharmacy nearby.
• Nej, der er ikke noget apotek i nærheden. = No, there isn’t a pharmacy nearby.
• Ja, lige om hjørnet. = Yes, just around the corner.
• Ja, på hovedgaden. = Yes, on the main street.

Notice that the answer usually goes back to the statement word order:

• der er, not er der

Yes. It is completely natural and polite in everyday Danish.

It is a simple, direct question, and it is not rude.

If you want to sound a little softer or more polite, you could add something like:

• Undskyld, er der et apotek i nærheden? = Excuse me, is there a pharmacy nearby?
• Ved du, om der er et apotek i nærheden? = Do you know if there is a pharmacy nearby?

But the original sentence is already perfectly normal.

A careful pronunciation is approximately:

• [ɛɐ̯ d̥æɐ̯ e̝d̥ apotʰe̝ːg̊ i ˈnɛɐ̯ˌheˀðn̩]

A rough English-style guide could be:

• air thair ed ah-po-TEHG ee NAIR-hay-then

A few useful pronunciation notes:

• er often sounds a bit like air
• der here is unstressed and lighter than English there
• et is often pronounced very weakly, almost like ed
• apotek has stress on the last syllable: apoTEK
• nærheden has the main stress at the start: NÆRheden

As in a lot of Danish, the real spoken form is usually smoother and less clearly separated than the spelling suggests.

Not always.

Apotek corresponds most closely to pharmacy. It is the place where you get medicine and prescriptions.

In English, drugstore can sometimes mean a larger shop that also sells many everyday items. Danish apotek is usually more specifically a pharmacy.

So pharmacy is usually the best translation.