"The blue animal is eating the black strawberry."
Translation:Det blå dyr spiser det sorte jordbær.
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Why sorte and not sort? I thought I was getting a hang of this but it is getting more and more confusing
All adjectives go to the plural form when it's a definite article ("the"). So "a black strawberry" is "et sort jordbær", but "the black strawberry" is "det sorte jordbær".
That says "the blue animal is eating the black strawberries". "De" makes the strawberries plural.
How I agree with you!! Wasn't doing too bad until these colours tripped in.
I suspect it's really just that we're adding in adjectives describing the nouns. That makes things complicated. And I guess one of the rules is that adjectives take their plural form (if they have one) when the object is a specific object. I'd love to know why that came to be, I'm sure there's a reason.
I don't understand why we are using "det blaa dyr" instead of blaa dyret.. Thus far any time we had THE we just put the article at the back. Same with the last part of the sentence. Hope that makes sense and thank you :)
Blå dyret = blue the animal Doesn't make sense in English, and also the same in Danish:) Correct is: The blue animal = det blå dyr
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Anytime there is an adjective between article and noun, you use den/det. The blue strawberry is therefore det blå jordbær. If it was only "the strawberry", it had to be "jordbærret", you're right.
Sometimes I wonder why Duolingo doesn't just teach us common phrases instead of nonsense sentences...
For me, it's the difference between memorizing a multiplication table from 1x1 up to 12x12 and actually learning multiplication. Nonsense makes you really think about the grammar. It is harder though. Maybe it should start with simple and move toward nonsense.
Blå (or blaa if you don't have a Danish keyboard, bla is translates to the English "Blah") doesn't take the neuter (t-form) here because of the definite article. After the definite article or a possessive, the adjective takes the "e-form", however, the word blå is irregular and doesn't change in the e-form. For example:
Dyret er blåt = The animal is blue
Det blå dyr = The blue animal
Mit/Dit/Deres/Sørens blå dyr = My/Your/Their/Søren's blue animal.
And to demonstrate with another, more regular adjective:
Hunden er stor = The dog is big
Den store hund = The big dog
Min/Din/Deres/Mathildes store hund = My/Your/Their/Mathilde's big dog
So people lied and told me English is the hardest language to learn when not native to it. Look at all these intricacies we have to learn.
What gets me is remembering that dyr takes the neuter "t" form even though I get confused because the specific plural is dyrene. I'll get it right eventually!!
How about the word spise. I was absolutely sure that is used when humans, people, eat. When animals eat, it should be the word ede. Am i wrong? Or oldfashioned? Just ckecked on Google Translate. Maybe it should be spelled "æde". But indeed it sounds the same, at least to me. Thanks very much in advance for answer!
Thats correkt. Im danish and doing the test for the fun of it. But you say "spise" when its people and "æde" or "æder" when its animals
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Why are we suddenly putting the articles in front of the word instead of just attaching a proper ending, so the noun would become a definite noun?
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The 'blue' between 'the' and 'animal' is why 'the' is not attached at the end of 'animal' in this sentence. (Correct?)
If you scroll up then you'll find Xneb's explanation to the same question from six years ago.
"Why" is often a tricky question with languages. But the rule seems to be that when you have an adjective involved, you can't use the simple "dyret" form any more. Think of that form as a shortcut that can only be used in simple cases. When there's an adjective, you need "det/den (plural form of adjective) (noun)". Why? I doubt there's a simple answer to why. Sorry! :)
There are two genders of danish nouns, called "common" and "neutral". One set of nouns (neutral) takes "det" and one set (common) takes "den". (Also "et" and "en", same mapping).
Dyr (animal) is one of the nouns that takes the "-et" form, (et dyr, det blå dyr, dyret, and so on)