Editing Danish language (section)

=== Nouns ===
Nouns are inflected for number (singular vs. plural) and definiteness, and are classified into two grammatical genders. Only pronouns inflect for case, and the previous genitive case has become an [[enclitic]]. A distinctive feature of the Nordic languages, including Danish, is that the definite articles, which also mark noun gender, have developed into suffixes. Typical of Germanic languages plurals are either irregular or "[[strong inflection|strong]]" stems inflected through [[Umlaut (linguistics)|umlaut]] (i.e. changing the vowel of the stem) (e.g. {{lang|da|fod/fødder}} "foot/feet", {{lang|da|mand/mænd}} "man/men") or "weak" stems inflected through affixation (e.g. {{lang|da|skib/skibe}} "ship/ships", {{lang|da|kvinde/kvinder}} "woman/women").{{sfn|Haberland|1994|pp=323–331}}

==== Gender ====
{{Main|Gender in Danish and Swedish}}
Standard Danish has two [[Grammatical gender|nominal genders]]: ''common'' and ''neuter''; the common gender arose as the historical feminine and masculine genders conflated into a single category. Some traditional dialects retain a three-way gender distinction, between masculine, feminine and neuter, and some dialects of Jutland have a masculine/feminine contrast. While the majority of Danish nouns (ca. 75%) have the ''common'' gender, and ''neuter'' is often used for inanimate objects, the genders of nouns are not generally predictable and must in most cases be memorized. The gender of a noun determines the form of adjectives that modify it, and the form of the definite suffixes.{{Sfn|Haberland|1994|p=323-324}}

==== Definiteness ====
{| class="wikitable floatright"
|-
|+ Danish regular plural patterns
|-
! colspan="3" | Class 1
! colspan="3"|Class 2
! colspan="3" | Class 3
|-
! style="font-size: smaller" | Sg.
! style="font-size: smaller" | Pl.
! style="font-size: smaller" | Pl. definite.
! style="font-size: smaller" | Sg.
! style="font-size: smaller" | Pl.
! style="font-size: smaller" | Pl. definite.
! style="font-size: smaller" | Sg.
! style="font-size: smaller" | Pl.
! style="font-size: smaller" | Pl. definite.
|-
|{{lang|da|måned}}<br />month||{{lang|da|måneder}}<br />months||{{lang|da|månederne}}<br />the months||{{lang|da|dag}}<br />day||{{lang|da|dage}}<br /> days||{{lang|da|dagene}}<br />"the days"||{{lang|da|år}} <br />year||{{lang|da|år}}<br />years ||{{lang|da|årene}} <br /> the years
|-
|{{lang|da|bil}}<br />car||{{lang|da|biler}}<br />cars||{{lang|da|bilerne}}<br />the cars||{{lang|da|hund}}<br />dog||{{lang|da|hunde}}<br />dogs||{{lang|da|hundene}}<br />the dogs||{{lang|da|fisk}}<br />fish||{{lang|da|fisk}}<br />fish (pl.)||{{lang|da|fiskene}}<br />the fishes
|-
|}
Definiteness is marked by two mutually exclusive articles: either a postposed enclitic or a preposed article which is the obligatory way to mark definiteness when nouns are modified by an adjective.{{sfn|Rischel|2012|p=813}} Neuter nouns take the clitic {{lang|da|-et}}, and common gender nouns take {{lang|da|-en}}. Indefinite nouns take the articles {{lang|da|en}} (common gender) or {{lang|da|et}} (neuter). Hence, the common gender noun {{lang|da|en mand}} "a man" (indefinite) has the definite form {{lang|da|manden}} "the man", whereas the neuter noun {{lang|da|et hus}} "a house" (indefinite) has the definite form, "the house" (definite) {{lang|da|huset}}.{{sfn|Haberland|1994|p=323-324}}{{Sfn|Lundskaer-Nielsen|Holmes|2015|p=61-68}}

Indefinite:
*''Jeg så '''et''' hus'': "I saw a house"

Definite with enclitic article:
*''Jeg så hus'''et''''': "I saw the house"

Definite with preposed demonstrative article:
*''Jeg så '''det''' store hus'':<ref group='nb'>Note here that in Swedish and Norwegian the preposed and the enclitic article occur together (e.g. {{lang|da|det store huset}}), whereas in Danish the enclitic article is replaced by the preposed demonstrative.</ref> "I saw the big house"

The plural definite ending is {{lang|da|-(e)ne}} (e.g. {{lang|da|drenge}} "boys > {{lang|da|drengene}} "the boys" and {{lang|da|piger}} "girls" > {{lang|da|pigerne}} "the girls"), and nouns ending in {{lang|da|-ere}} lose the last {{lang|da|-e}} before adding the -ne suffix (e.g. {{lang|da|danskere}} "Danes" > {{lang|da|danskerne}} "the Danes"). When the noun is modified by an adjective, the definiteness is marked by the definite article {{lang|da|den}} (common) or {{lang|da|det}} (neuter) and the definite/plural form of the adjective: {{lang|da|den store mand}} "the big man", {{lang|da|det store hus}} "the big house".{{sfn|Haberland|1994|p=330}}{{sfn|Lundskaer-Nielsen|Holmes|2015|p=61-68}}

{{reflist|group=nb}}

==== Number ====
{| class="wikitable floatright"
|-
|+ Danish irregular plurals
|-
! Sg.
! Pl.
! Pl. definite
|-
|{{lang|da|mand}}<br />man||{{lang|da|mænd}}<br />men||{{lang|da|mændene}}<br />the men
|-
|{{lang|da|ko}}<br />cow||{{lang|da|køer}}<br />cows||{{lang|da|køerne}}<br />the cows
|-
|{{lang|da|øje}}<br />eye||{{lang|da|øjne}}<br /> eyes || {{lang|da|øjnene}}<br /> the eyes
|-
|{{lang|da|konto}}<br />account||{{lang|da|konti}}<br /> accounts|| {{lang|da|kontiene}}<br /> the accounts
|-
|}
There are three different types of regular plurals: Class 1 forms the plural with the suffix {{lang|da|-er}} (indefinite) and {{lang|da|-erne}} (definite), Class 2 with the suffix {{lang|da|-e}} (indefinite) and {{lang|da|-ene}} (definite), and Class 3 takes no suffix for the plural indefinite form and {{lang|da|-ene}} for the plural definite.{{sfn|Haberland|1994|p=325-326}}

Most irregular nouns have an ablaut plural (i.e. with a change in the stem vowel), or combine ablaut stem-change with the suffix, and some have unique plural forms. Unique forms may be inherited (e.g. the plural of {{lang|da|øje}} "eye", which is the old dual form {{lang|da|øjne}}), or for loan words they may be borrowed from the donor language (e.g. the word {{lang|da|konto}} "account" which is borrowed from Italian and uses the Italian masculine plural form {{lang|da|konti}} "accounts").{{sfn|Haberland|1994|p=326}}{{sfn|Lundskaer-Nielsen|Holmes|2015|p=35-40}}

==== Possession ====
Possessive phrases are formed with the enclitic -''s'', for example {{lang|da|min fars hus}} "my father's house" where the noun {{lang|da|far}} carries the possessive enclitic.{{sfn|Herslund|2001}} This is however not an example of genitive case marking, because in the case of longer noun phrases the -s attaches to the last word in the phrase, which need not be the head-noun or even a noun at all. For example, the phrases {{lang|da|kongen af Danmarks bolsjefabrik}} "the king of Denmark's candy factory", where the factory is owned by the king of Denmark, or {{lang|da|det er pigen Uffe bor sammen meds datter}} "that is the daughter of the girl that Uffe lives with", where the enclitic attaches to a stranded preposition.{{sfn|Haberland|1994|p=325}}{{sfn|Lundskaer-Nielsen|Holmes|2015|p=53-60}}

==== Nominal compounds ====
Like all Germanic languages, Danish forms compound nouns. These are represented in Danish orthography as one word, as in {{lang|da|kvindehåndboldlandsholdet}}, "the female national handball team". In some cases, nouns are joined with ''s'' as a [[interfix|linking element]], originally possessive in function, like {{lang|da|landsmand}} (from {{lang|da|land}}, "country", and {{lang|da|mand}}, "man", meaning "compatriot"), but {{lang|da|landmand}} (from same roots, meaning "farmer"). Some words are joined with the linking element {{lang|da|e}} instead, like {{lang|da|gæstebog}} (from {{lang|da|gæst}} and {{lang|da|bog}}, meaning "guest book"). There are also irregular linking elements.