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- Topic: Danish >
- "Det hus er stort og dyrt."
14 Comments
It can't be 'the' unless an adjective comes between it and the noun, as far as I know. If we wanted to say 'the house', we'd just say 'huset', so we know it must be 'that'.
So I get why "det hus" is "that house" rather than "the house", but suppose it was "det blå hus". Is there any distinction to be made between "that blue house" and "the blue house"?
This is really confusing. . In another example ...it translates Det to It. .. "Det er mit lille område." Translation: It is my little area.
Can someone clarify when Det means It and That ?
Let's look: "It house is big and expensive." (What???) Or, on the other hand: "That house is big and expensive." (Much better) When "det" is not accompanied by a noun, it means "it", because it IS the noun you're talking about. When it precedes a noun, it is specifying something about the noun.
Sick of clicking 'My sentence should have been accepted' would someone tell the programmers that 'dear' means 'expensive' in English?!
2495
I think dear connotes an emotional value as in precious or important versus expensive which is more of a monetary value. IMO
No, dear has two different meanings, one of them literally means expensive in British English.
Thanks for the reinforcement on this. :) Danish is a strong cognate with English, and this is highly important and effective for building mnemonic ( vocab + grammar) links when folk are learning a language.
- 506
I was commenting on this to a Danish person just the other day. I very often find that when I'm trying to understand the real meaning and intent of a Danish phrase in English, it is better to set aside my American English and instead, think of 19th century British English, like something by Dickens, Austen or the Bronte sisters. And yes indeed, that dear little house could be quite dear. ;-)
