Det blå mærke under øjet er mindre i dag.

to be

Breakdown of Det blå mærke under øjet er mindre i dag.

• lille: small
• i dag: today
• øjet: the eye

Questions & Answers about Det blå mærke under øjet er mindre i dag.

Why does the sentence start with det?

Because det blå mærke means the blue mark / the bruise.

In Danish, when a noun is definite and has an adjective before it, you usually need:

• a definite article like den/det/de
• the adjective in its definite form
• and often the noun itself in its definite form in other contexts, though after den/det/de + adjective, Danish normally keeps the noun in its base form

So:

• et blåt mærke = a bruise / a blue mark
• det blå mærke = the bruise / the blue mark

Here mærke is a neuter noun, so the definite article is det.

Why is it blå and not blåt?

Because the adjective changes depending on the grammar.

With an indefinite neuter singular noun, you would say:

• et blåt mærke

But in the sentence you have a definite noun phrase:

• det blå mærke

In definite noun phrases, adjectives usually take -e in Danish, but some adjectives have irregular-looking forms. Here, blå is the form used before the noun in the definite phrase.

So compare:

• et blåt mærke = a bruise
• det blå mærke = the bruise