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• an (before a vowel sound): an orange, an old farmer, an interesting
idea, an hour’s delay (!)
The Danish article system is considerably more complicated than the English
system. When en and et are separate words, they behave like the English
indefinite article, a(n), while den and det behave like the English definite
article, the:
• Konen: Jeg skal købe en ny kjole til Birgits fest i morgen.
• Manden: Hvad er der galt med den sorte kjole, du havde på til
middagen i går?
However, when en and et lose their status as separate words and become
suffixes – that is, when they are attached to the end of the noun with which
they are affiliated – then they too behave like the English definite article, the:
• Konen: Jeg er nødt til at købe en ny kjole til Birgits fest i morgen.
• Manden: Hvad er der galt med kjolen, du havde på til middagen i går?
or
• Manden: Hvad er der galt med den kjole, du havde på til middagen i
går?
Observe that suffixation can take place only when the noun has no
premodifiers – that is, only if no descriptive words precede the noun.
Another significant difference between Danish and English is that the Danish
articles are sensitive to the gender of the noun: en and den are used with
nouns of so-called common gender (“fælleskøn”), whereas et and det are used
with nouns of neuter gender (“intetkøn”):
• en/den + kjole, ske, arm, næse, mand, kvinde, banan, dør, seng, kat,
hund, so, hest, kanin
• et/det + hus, glas, ben, ansigt, barn, æble, vindue, egern, firben, får,
svin, føl, næsehorn
As the above lists suggest, there do not appear to be any clear rules for
determining the gender of Danish nouns. The classification seems to be
basically unpredictable – which is rather unfortunate for foreign learners of
Danish. One small consolation is the fact that common gender nouns
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John M. Dienhart