Danish Articles and Demonstratives

How to say a, an, the, this, that, these and those in Danish

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Danish Articles

There are two indefinite articles (corresponding to a and an) in Danish: en and et. En is used with most of the nouns (words denoting people almost always use en), but you will just have to learn which article goes with which noun. The definite article (the) is not a separate word like in most other languages. It is simply a form of the indefinite article attached to the end of the noun. Note that en words ending in a vowel retain that vowel and add an -n instead of adding -en, while et words ending in -e just add a -t.

En words (common)
Indefinite		Definite
en banan	a banana	bananen	the banana
en stol	a chair	stolen	the chair
en gade	a street	gaden	the street

Et words (neuter)
Indefinite		Definite
et bord	a table	bordet	the table
et køkken	a kitchen	køkkenet	the kitchen
et æble	an apple	æblet	the apple

This/that is expressed in Danish by using denne (en words) or dette (et words) and these/those is expressed by disse. The noun is always in the indefinite form after these demonstratives, except for when these / disse (plural) is used, in which case an er is added (unless the words already ends in an r) after the indefinite demonstrative.

this banana = denne banan
that table = dette bord
these streets = disse gader
these apples = disse æbler

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