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- Topic: Danish >
- "A cat and a dog."
"A cat and a dog."
Translation:En kat og en hund.
11 Comments
The cat: katten A cat: kat The crab: krabben A crab: krabbe
Why does the singular crab keep the 'be' on the end, yet the singular cat discards the 'te'?
Because that's the word. Krabbe becomes krabben. And kat becomes katten. That's just how it is.. I made the same mistake
I think it's easier to see it the other way around. Cat = kat. So when you add "the" it becomes "katten". Crab = krabbe. But when you add "the", there already is an "e" at the end of the word, so it becomes "krabben"
I've seen it from doulingo 'tips' page, and that's because 'kat' has a short vowel sound. (Danish mark the short vowel by doubling the consonant that follows the vowel. However, they don't do it when nothing follows it.) So here, 'a' from 'kat' is a short vowel, but they did not double the consonant 't' because there is nothing following it. However, when 'kat' is made plural, there is 'en' at the end so the 't' can be doubled. I'm not exactly sure if this is an accurate explanation, but you can always read about it in the 'tips' section. So I hope you will look at that. It is in the 'Animals' lesson.
It's the same word in English, an/a. Although in Danish words have genders. There are no specific rules for them you'll have to learn them out of your head.
