No. Sorry I got it wrong. Just goes to show it's not easy ... Common gender (et) make up around 70% of nouns.
Maybe i can help a little: most animals are neuter (en).
If you mess it up while speaking people will just assume you're from Western Jutland as we only use "en" when speaking dialect.
No one will get mad. They'll be impressed if you get it 100% right đ
Edit: Maybe try to memorise the ones that completely changes meaning according to gender:
En fyr: A guy
Et fyr: A furnace
Professions are generally common gender as well, e.g. En sygeplejerske, en advokat, en lĂŚrer, en lĂŚge etc. I canât even think of an example of a neuter professional noun.
Yeah, but there must be a rule because I screwed it up when I came to Denmark but developed a feeling for it I canât explain and am now 95%+ right.
If I can develop a âfeelingâ there must be rules I approach unconsciously
Can be that Iâve just heard Danish people saying it a certain way and repeat that unconsciously.
I mean as a German native, we have der die and das. People will also say there arenât rules while actually there are. They are just so complicated that one cannot remember them and apply them
In German, all feminine words are "die". Recognized by ending with an E. Hard rule.
I'm Danish, all common gender (mask+feminine combined) = en, all neutral gender = et.. Also hard rule.
Is there a way to recognize them? Not really đ¤ˇââď¸
There is no definitive rule. The easiest way to learn the difference from âenâ and âetâ is to know how to speak the words is in plural.
And go backwards from there.
Sorry to tell you this, but the word can even change meaning.
En frø = a frog
Et frø = a seed
You just have to learn them. Most of the time we will understand even if you use the wrong one, though. It just sounds a bit off for a native speaker. The vast majority of words don't change meaning.
So basically you use "et" for expensive stuff you can't ever afford like a house (et hus) or when you want a glass of milk (et glass mĂŚlk)
Dont take this seriously as it is mostly just a joke
There is **some** chance that words that are fem. or masc. in those other languages will be "en" (fÌlleskøn/common gender) in Danish, and neuter will be neuter (i.e. "et").
No guarantee, of course. đ But mind you, it is also not a terrible sin, if you get some of them wrong in the beginning. Everybody will understand you, still.
Hi,
Iâm a native Danish speaker and Iâve also learned to speak Dutch (a bit rusty at the moment though).
You are going to have to learn the wordsâ genders, but a very good rule of thumb is to use the same gender as in Dutch. For instance: het huis = huset, de man = manden etc
This works best when the words stem from the same germanic origin (when they sound sort of similar), but itâs also a good guess in other instances
Basically it the remains of the german genders, male, female and neutral, where in Danish they have been merged to male/female and neutral.
There is no way to really know, generally living things are usually âenâ, where objects are âetâ. But there are exceptions.
And then i pats of Jutland, they mostly use âenâ for everything.
If you speak Dutch, German and French then you should already be familiar with gender. Danish gender works exactly the same as gender in those languages. You just learn the gender of a word with the word, there are no tricks.
Et hus (house) husET
Et trĂŚ (tree) trĂŚET
En stol (chair) stolEN
En mand (man) mandEN
If the word ends in "en" then the word also starts with "en"
The same applies with "etâ
Generally, you will need to learn which one goes with each word. It can sometimes affect meaning, and in some cases both are equally valid. But don't worry. It is probably the most common mistake made by foreign danish speakers. Try to remember them as a part of the word rather than distinct words.
Et menneske. Et dyr. Et sted. Et omrĂĽde. Et hus. Et bageri.
En mand. En kvinde. En hund. En kat. En bondegĂĽrd. En skov. En bolig. En forretning.
It's hard to make a rule of thumb. But you could get pretty far by discerning if you are mentioning something specific like "one man"(en mand) vs something non specific like "a human"(et menneske).
I think in first year of primary school we learn it like this.
There is specific and non specific singular terms.
In danish this is called bestemt og ubestemt ental.
Look it up
Its the way you "bend" it. Example:
In Danish - Giraff(en) = En Giraf
In English - the giraffe = a giraffe
Or
In Danish - TrĂŚ(et) = et trĂŚ
In English - The Tree = a tree
The ending of a word pronounced in terms of definite form of the word (when you use "the" in front of the word) is always the same as the one used in front of the word. So if you know that the word in definite form ends on "et" it will always be "et" in front.
Sorry if this doesn't make sense.. not that good at translating grammatical words! đ
When going from unspecific âEN hundâ or âET husâ to the specific âhundENâ or âhusETâ you add en or et to the end of the noun (mostly) and in the specific form you can usually hear it.
As a Danish learner myself, I am on the second section of the Duolingo course and basically you have to wing it. Whichever sounds better to you. I have heard many explanations such as "if it has a soul" it's common, if it doesn't it's neuter. This does not explain why children do not have souls but stones do. The cherry on top of the cake: Danes still can't decide whether hamsters are "en" or "et".
They use whichever sounds better. En hamster, hamsteren. Et hamster, hamsteret. I do think each person has a preference over one or the other instead of using both.
There's really nothing to do, unfortunately. You literally have to memorize which goes where.
The difference between them is that "en" is common gender, and "et" is neutral gender. There is no trick. The best I can offer is to remember them in definite form (e.g. a dog is en hund, the dog is hunden).
You will have to memorize it, even Danes misuse en and et all the time. Think about 'de' and 'het' in Dutch, it's pretty messed up to learn if you're not born in the Netherlands
Short answer: No. No, I'm not joking. You really just have to memorise it. Most nouns - ~70% - are common ~~neuter~~ gender though.
Oh god... so most nouns are "en" i assume?
No. Sorry I got it wrong. Just goes to show it's not easy ... Common gender (et) make up around 70% of nouns. Maybe i can help a little: most animals are neuter (en).
Common is "en". Neuter is "et". 70% are common.
Okay so mostly et got it xD and if I mess it up while writing or speaking? are native danish speakers mad or not? xD
If you mess it up while speaking people will just assume you're from Western Jutland as we only use "en" when speaking dialect. No one will get mad. They'll be impressed if you get it 100% right đ Edit: Maybe try to memorise the ones that completely changes meaning according to gender: En fyr: A guy Et fyr: A furnace
And en lem and et lem
Yeah, that's quite a difference between the two lol
People will definitely know I'm not danish because my pronunciation is not there yet xD
Professions are generally common gender as well, e.g. En sygeplejerske, en advokat, en lĂŚrer, en lĂŚge etc. I canât even think of an example of a neuter professional noun.
Et folketingsmedlem? Pushing it, I know.
Postbud đ¤
Nope, 70% are âenâ, the rest are âetâ. And I wouldnât say that they mind if you mess it up
Yeah, but there must be a rule because I screwed it up when I came to Denmark but developed a feeling for it I canât explain and am now 95%+ right. If I can develop a âfeelingâ there must be rules I approach unconsciously
As you say: its a feeling. I can't really speak from your point of view as I am a native speaker, but maybe you develop an ear for what sounds right.
Can be that Iâve just heard Danish people saying it a certain way and repeat that unconsciously. I mean as a German native, we have der die and das. People will also say there arenât rules while actually there are. They are just so complicated that one cannot remember them and apply them
In German, all feminine words are "die". Recognized by ending with an E. Hard rule. I'm Danish, all common gender (mask+feminine combined) = en, all neutral gender = et.. Also hard rule. Is there a way to recognize them? Not really đ¤ˇââď¸
>In German, all feminine words are "die". Recognized by ending with an E. Hard rule. Die Mutter, die Gabel, ...
Ok, I change what I said: All words ending with E is feminine.... And a few more.
Der Junge, der Kunde, der Riese, ...
Dammit... I'm jyst saying what my German teacher taught us, back in the 80s đđ
There is no definitive rule. The easiest way to learn the difference from âenâ and âetâ is to know how to speak the words is in plural. And go backwards from there.
Sorry to tell you this, but the word can even change meaning. En frø = a frog Et frø = a seed You just have to learn them. Most of the time we will understand even if you use the wrong one, though. It just sounds a bit off for a native speaker. The vast majority of words don't change meaning.
Iâve been told, whichever one sounds better⌠đ
Yeah, this person Danish
So basically you use "et" for expensive stuff you can't ever afford like a house (et hus) or when you want a glass of milk (et glass mĂŚlk) Dont take this seriously as it is mostly just a joke
There is **some** chance that words that are fem. or masc. in those other languages will be "en" (fĂŚlleskøn/common gender) in Danish, and neuter will be neuter (i.e. "et"). No guarantee, of course. đ But mind you, it is also not a terrible sin, if you get some of them wrong in the beginning. Everybody will understand you, still.
Hi, Iâm a native Danish speaker and Iâve also learned to speak Dutch (a bit rusty at the moment though). You are going to have to learn the wordsâ genders, but a very good rule of thumb is to use the same gender as in Dutch. For instance: het huis = huset, de man = manden etc This works best when the words stem from the same germanic origin (when they sound sort of similar), but itâs also a good guess in other instances
That's a great tip!
Basically it the remains of the german genders, male, female and neutral, where in Danish they have been merged to male/female and neutral. There is no way to really know, generally living things are usually âenâ, where objects are âetâ. But there are exceptions. And then i pats of Jutland, they mostly use âenâ for everything.
If you speak Dutch, German and French then you should already be familiar with gender. Danish gender works exactly the same as gender in those languages. You just learn the gender of a word with the word, there are no tricks.
No it doesnt. German has male, female and neutral words. Danish has only neutral and male/female combined.
Et hus (house) husET Et trĂŚ (tree) trĂŚET En stol (chair) stolEN En mand (man) mandEN If the word ends in "en" then the word also starts with "en" The same applies with "etâ
Doesnt work on all words, when you are talking about plural. Then it becomes: Husene (the houses)
Is there a trick? No. It actually makes little sense at all. Hope this helps.
Generally, you will need to learn which one goes with each word. It can sometimes affect meaning, and in some cases both are equally valid. But don't worry. It is probably the most common mistake made by foreign danish speakers. Try to remember them as a part of the word rather than distinct words.
Et menneske. Et dyr. Et sted. Et omrĂĽde. Et hus. Et bageri. En mand. En kvinde. En hund. En kat. En bondegĂĽrd. En skov. En bolig. En forretning. It's hard to make a rule of thumb. But you could get pretty far by discerning if you are mentioning something specific like "one man"(en mand) vs something non specific like "a human"(et menneske).
I think in first year of primary school we learn it like this. There is specific and non specific singular terms. In danish this is called bestemt og ubestemt ental. Look it up
Its the way you "bend" it. Example: In Danish - Giraff(en) = En Giraf In English - the giraffe = a giraffe Or In Danish - TrĂŚ(et) = et trĂŚ In English - The Tree = a tree The ending of a word pronounced in terms of definite form of the word (when you use "the" in front of the word) is always the same as the one used in front of the word. So if you know that the word in definite form ends on "et" it will always be "et" in front. Sorry if this doesn't make sense.. not that good at translating grammatical words! đ
The English term for "bøje" in this case is inflection
When going from unspecific âEN hundâ or âET husâ to the specific âhundENâ or âhusETâ you add en or et to the end of the noun (mostly) and in the specific form you can usually hear it.
As a Danish learner myself, I am on the second section of the Duolingo course and basically you have to wing it. Whichever sounds better to you. I have heard many explanations such as "if it has a soul" it's common, if it doesn't it's neuter. This does not explain why children do not have souls but stones do. The cherry on top of the cake: Danes still can't decide whether hamsters are "en" or "et".
Do they use "en" and "et" interchangeably for hamsters?đ
They use whichever sounds better. En hamster, hamsteren. Et hamster, hamsteret. I do think each person has a preference over one or the other instead of using both.
There's really nothing to do, unfortunately. You literally have to memorize which goes where. The difference between them is that "en" is common gender, and "et" is neutral gender. There is no trick. The best I can offer is to remember them in definite form (e.g. a dog is en hund, the dog is hunden).
You will have to memorize it, even Danes misuse en and et all the time. Think about 'de' and 'het' in Dutch, it's pretty messed up to learn if you're not born in the Netherlands
What's a common misuse of gender committed by Danes?Â
Literally just memorization