Singular Indefinite - ‘A/an’ in Danish

In Danish there are two versions for ‘a/an’. Namely, ‘en’ and ‘et’. Nouns using ‘en’ are said to have the gender ‘fælleskøn’ (literal translation: common gender) and nouns using ‘et’ to have the gender ‘intetkøn’ (literal translation: non gender). I will refer to nouns using ‘en’ as ‘en-nouns’ and nouns using ‘et’ as et-nouns.

Here are some examples for nouns using ‘en’ (fælleskøn):

En abe = a monkey

En hund = a dog

En bil = a car

En bog = a book

Examples for nouns using ‘et’ (intetkøn):

Et skib = a ship

Et æble = an apple

Et tæppe = a blanket

Et fjernsyn = a television

Unfortunately, there are no rules for when to use ‘en’ or ‘et’. This is something that you will have to memorize. However, about 75% of the nouns are en-nouns. If you mess this up it will sound unnatural but Danes will understand what you are talking about. When you are learning a new noun try your best to memorize whether it uses ‘en’ or ‘et’.

Fun fact: Sometimes even Danes can mess up when to use ‘en’ and ‘et’. Especially with the word ‘hamster’ (meaning hamster). You will hear some Danes say “en hamster” and some say “et hamster”. The correct version is: en hamster.

Singular Definite - ‘The’ in Danish (definite)

In English you put ‘the’ in front of a noun when talking about a specific “something” (e.g. the cat). In Danish it’s a little different. In Danish you add an ending to the noun. The ending is dependent on whether the noun is an en-noun (fælleskøn) or an et-noun (intetkøn).

If it is an en-noun (fælleskøn) you add -en as an ending. Example:

En hund (a dog) becomes hunden (the dog)

En bil (a car) becomes bilen (the car)

If it is an ‘et’-noun (intetkøn) you add -et as an ending.

Et skib (a ship) becomes skibet (the ship)

Et fjernsyn (a television) becomes fjernsynet (the television)

In other words: you just move ‘en’ or ‘et’ behind the noun!

Some exceptions:

If a noun is ending on -e such as in the nouns ‘abe’ (translation: monkey) and ‘tæppe’ (translation: blanket or rug) you just omit the ‘e’ from ‘en’ and ‘et’ and add -n or -t instead (depending on whether it’s an en-noun or et-noun). In other words, you omit the double ‘e’. Example:

En abe   becomes aben (not abeen!)

Et tæppe becomes tæppet (not tæppeet!)

Some nouns gets an extra consonant when conjugated. Let’s look at the noun ‘kat’, which means ‘cat’ in English:

En kat becomes katten

Here is an example of an et-noun ‘glas’ which means ‘glass’ in English:

Et glas becomes glasset