Post-nominal Article

Danish, Norwegian and Swedish are Germanic languages, but unlike English and German, they have post-nominal articles. In these languages, the definite article is placed after the noun and not before. This is relatively rare in the languages of the world.

The English definite article is placed before the noun. This can be seen in the book, the car, the house, the street and the wind. However, this is not the case in Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. Here are the phrases in these respective languages:

the book, the car, the house, the street, the wind

Danish: bogen, bilen, huset, gaden, vinden
Norwegian: boken, bilen, huset, gaten, vinden
Swedish: boken, bilen, huset, gatan, vinden

With common nouns, the suffix variant is -en, and with neuter nouns, it is -et. In these languages, the majority of nouns have common gender. However, the suffix variant is different for plural nouns. Here is a list of words for the cars, the days, the dogs, the houses and the streets.

Danish: bilerne, dagene, hundene, husene, gaderne
Norwegian: bilene, dagene, hundene, husene, gatene
Swedish: bilarna, dagarna, hundarna, husen, gatorna

Though Danish, Norwegian and Swedish are Germanic languages closely related to English and German, their use of post-nominal articles is quite rare in the languages of the world. They suffix the definite article to the noun. This suffix has three variants- one is for common nouns, one for neuter nouns, and another for plural nouns.