Learn about the genitive case in Danish
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Intro |
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| Antoni: How important is the genitive case in Danish? |
| Anna Juul: And are there any remnants of it in the language? |
| Antoni: At DanishClass101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Karen Lee is practicing how to talk about objects that belong to others with Sebastian Skou. She says, "the student's book:" |
| Karen: Den studerendes bog. |
| Dialogue |
| Karen: Den studerendes bog. |
| Sebastian: Skibets kaptajn. |
| Antoni: Once more with the English translation. |
| Karen: Den studerendes bog. |
| Antoni: "the student's book." |
| Sebastian: Skibets kaptajn. |
| Antoni: "the ship's captain." |
Lesson focus |
| Antoni: In this lesson, we will learn about the genitive case, or, in Danish, |
| Anna Juul: genitiv |
| Antoni: In English grammar, the genitive case is predominantly used to show possession, and it is expressed by either adding an apostrophe and an "S" to the noun or by preceding the word with "of." The expressions "the dog’s bone" and "the bone of the dog" are examples of the genitive case. |
| Antoni: Modern Danish has gradually stopped using the genitive case, and only a few remnants of it can be observed in some expressions. To express possession, an "S" is also added to the name, but, unlike in English, no apostrophe is used for separation. For instance, "John’s mother" would be |
| Anna Juul: Johns mor. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Antoni: Let’s take a closer look at the dialogue. |
| Do you remember how Karen says "the student's book?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Anna Juul: Den studerendes bog. |
| Antoni: Here, Karen expresses that the book is in the student’s possession. She used the genitive by attaching an |
| Anna Juul: -s |
| Antoni: to the word |
| Anna Juul: studerende |
| Antoni: meaning "student" |
| Anna Juul: (SLOW) Den studerendes bog. |
| [Recall 2] |
| Antoni: Now, let’s take a look at our second sentence. |
| Do you remember how Sebastian says "the ship's captain?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Anna Juul: Skibets kaptajn. |
| Antoni: This time, Sebastian wants to express that the ship has a captain. You can understand this, if you look closer at the word |
| Anna Juul: Skibet |
| Antoni: meaning "ship." The genitive is also indicated here by an |
| Anna Juul: -s |
| Antoni: at the end of the word. Let's listen to the sentence again, |
| Anna Juul: (SLOW) Skibets kaptajn. |
| Antoni: Aside from simply adding an "S" at the end of the noun, another way to express possession in Danish is with the help of the preposition |
| Anna Juul: på, |
| Antoni: which could mean several things depending on how it’s used in a sentence. For instance, "the ship’s captain" could be also translated as |
| Anna Juul: Kaptajnen på skibet. |
| Antoni: In this case, it functions similarly to the English "on" and takes the genitive case. You could also say that |
| Anna Juul: Kaptajnen på skibet |
| Antoni: translates to "the captain on the ship." |
| [Summary] |
| Antoni: We have learned that, while modern Danish doesn’t use the true genitive case that much anymore, it still has a way of expressing possession as we have learned in this lesson. We have also learned that there are different ways we can express possession in Danish, one of which is by adding an -s after the name of the possessor. For example, "John’s house" in Danish is |
| Anna Juul: Johns hus |
| Antoni: Another way to express possession is by using the preposition |
| Anna Juul: på, |
| Antoni: which helps us express possession in Danish, such as in the case of |
| Anna Juul: Pelsen på kaninen |
| Antoni: or "Rabbit’s fur." |
| Expansion |
| Antoni: We’ve learned that a common way of expressing the genitive or possessive case in Danish is by adding an "s" at the end of the noun, but, what if the word already ends in "s?" In English, we add the apostrophe plus the "s" even if the word ends in an "s," but only if it’s in singular form. For plural words ending in "s," we only add the apostrophe. In Danish, the second rule applies to words ending in "s." Here’s an example: |
| Anna Juul: Anders’ bil |
| Antoni: or "Anders’ car." The same is true for words ending in -z and -x. For instance, "Max’s chicken" is |
| Anna Juul: Max’ kylling |
| Antoni: and "Jazz’s cup" is |
| Anna Juul: Jazz’ kop |
Outro |
| Antoni: Do you have any more questions? We’re here to answer them! |
| Anna Juul: Farvel! |
| Antoni: See you soon! |
| Credits: Anna Maria Juul (Danish, Denmark), Antoni (English, synthetic voice) |
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