In Danish, Norwegian and Swedish the definite article is postnominal. This means that it follows the nouns and is a suffix. The postnominal article is used for both singular and plural nouns.
The noun phrase the cat is katten in Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. The word katt means cat and the definite article is the suffix -en. However, the noun phrase the house is huset. The word hus means house and the definite article is the suffix -et. The suffix variant -en is used for common nouns and the suffix variant -et is used for neuter nouns.
The postnominal article is also used with plural nouns. The word kattene means the cats in both Danish and Norwegian. In Swedish the word is katterna. The plural cats is katte in Danish and katter in Norwegian and Swedish. Though the plural of cats is different in Danish and Norwegian, the phrase the cats is identical in the two languages.
The word husene means the houses in Norwegian and Swedish. However, it is husen in Swedish. The plural houses is huse in Danish and hus in Norwegian and Swedish. In Swedish the suffix variant -en is used with both singular common nouns and plural neuter nouns.
With adjectives before the noun, Danish drops the postnominal article, but Norwegian and Swedish do not. For example, the black cat is den sorte kat in Danish, but it is den svarte katten in Norwegian and den svarta katten in Swedish. The phrase the new house is det nye hus in Danish, but it is det nye huset in Norwegian and det nya huset in Swedish.
The postnominal definite article is used in Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. This is not the case in Germanic languages such as English, Dutch and German. In Danish the postnominal article is not used with adjectives before the noun, but it is in Norwegian and Swedish.
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