MINI-DICTIONARY

Word order

A sentence consists of a certain number of elements.

Jeg kom til Danmark sammen med min mand. I came to Denmark together with my husband.

In the following, we will look at the different elements.

Verbs

As a rule, a sentence always contains a verb. When we want to identify the different elements in a sentence, we must therefore find the sentence verb first. The verb phrase may consist of one or more verbs (Chapter 1). The verb expresses an action and an indication of time.

By putting I in front of the different words we can hear which is the sentence verb.

(jeg jeg) (jeg kom) (jeg til) osv. (I I) (I came) (I to) etc.
Answer: kom came is the verb

The symbol for the sentence verb is: o.

Subject

A sentence almost always contains a subject. The subject is a person or thing that carries out the action described by the verb. A subject may consist of a name or a noun (Chapter 2), a pronoun (Chapter 3), an adjective (Chapter 4) or a whole sentence.
We identify the subject by forming a question with who or what and by using the sentence verb.

Hvem kom? Who came?
Answer: jeg I

I is the subject. The symbol for subject is: x.

Direct object

A direct object is a noun or a noun-equivalent which is being manipulated within a sentence. The direct object may well consist of several words (Chapter 8).

When we want to identify the direct object in a sentence, we form a question with who or what plus the verb and the subject.

Hvem kom jeg til Danmark med? Who did I come to Denmark with?
Answer: min mand my husband

Indication of time/place and prepositional phrases

In many sentences there are also often indications of time or place.

Jeg kom til Danmark sammen med min mand.

I came to Denmark together with my husband.

Til Danmark is a place indication. Time/place indications are also called prepositional phrases, because the phrase begins with a preposition (Chapter 6). Sammen med is also a prepositional phrase.

Subjective complement

A subjective complement describes a subject more specifically.

Jeg hedder Maria. I am Maria.

After the verbs være, blive, hedde and kaldes the phrase that follows is a subjective complement. The symbol for the subjective complement is:Ä.

Indirect object

An indirect object is the element in the sentence for whom something is being done. There is, however, only an indirect object in the sentence if this also contains a direct object.

Han gav hende en blomst. He gave her a flower.

You find the indirect object by forming questions with who or what and the verb, the subject and the direct object.

Hvem gav han en blomst? To whom did he give a flower?
Answer: hende her

An indirect object often takes the place of a prepositional phrase.

Han gav en blomst til hende. He gave a flower to her.

Auxiliary verbs

A few verbs have an extra function in addition to describing an action. These are called auxiliary verbs. They are: have, være, blive, ville, skulle and få. Together with another verb auxiliary verbs form another tense.

Vi har sovet. We have slept.
Vi skal rejse i morgen. We will travel tomorrow.

They are described more explicitly in sections 1.5, 1.6, 1.7 and 1.8 of Chapter 1.