[ARCHIVE] Rules about "en" and "et"

[Fnirk1]

Originally posted by tbarasmussen https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/4288076

en or et
Introduction
en is common and et is neuter. But how can I know which gender a word is? The only way is to look it up in a dictionary (you can find a Danish one here: dsn.dk), but, well, there are some rules, but they have exceptions – many exceptions. The list of rules here is from Dansk Sprognævn and kindly translated to English by the Duolingo user tbarasmussen who, by the way, will be glad to help you with any further questions.
The mnemonic rules
Common (en)

• Used with the majority of all Danish nouns (75%)

• Typically used with words describing animals and human being; for example:

  • en dreng (a boy)

  • en far (a dad)

  • en lærer (a teacher)

  • en kone (a wife)

  • en udlænding (a foreigner)

  • en tysker (a German)

  • en hund (a dog)

  • en kat (a cat)

  • en ko (a cow)

  • en laks (a salmon)

  • en hest (a horse)

  • en mus (a mouse)

  • EXCEPTION et barn (a child)

  • EXCEPTION et menneske (a human)

  • EXCEPTION et postbud (a letter carrier)

  • EXCEPTION et dyr (an animal)

  • EXCEPTION et egern (a squirrel)

  • EXCEPTION et svin (a pig; a swine)

• Typically used with words describing plants, trees, and fruits; for example:

  • en birk (a birch)

  • en blomst (a flower)

  • en bøg (a beech)

  • en nød (a nut)

  • en pære (a pear)

  • en banan (a banana)

  • en eg (an oak tree)

  • en rose (a rose)

  • en tulipan (a tulip)

  • EXCEPTION et bær (a berry)

  • EXCEPTION et frø (seed)

  • EXCEPTION et løg (an onion)

  • EXCEPTION et træ (a tree)

  • EXCEPTION et æble (an apple)

• Typically used with words describing streams; for example:

  • en å (a stream; a small river)

  • en flod (a river)

  • en strøm (a stream)

  • en bæk (a brook)

• Typically used with words ending on -else, -ance, -dom, -ence, -er, -hed, -ing, -isme, -sion, -ør; for example:

  • en bevægelse (a move)

  • en forsinkelse (a delay)

  • en overraskelse (a surprise)

  • en skuffelse (a disappointment)

  • en tilladelse (a permission)

  • en ambulance (an ambulance)

  • en chance (a chance)

  • en debutant (a debutant)

  • en variant (a variant)

  • en ejendom (a property)

  • en sygdom (an illness)

  • en kompetence (a competence)

  • en konference (a conference)

  • en bager (a baker)

  • en hastighed (a speed)

  • en lejlighed (a flat)

  • en parkering (a parking)

  • en stilling (a job)

  • fascismen (the fascism)

  • kommunismen (the communism)

  • en diskussion (a discussion)

  • en direktør (a business manager)

  • en frisør (a hairdresser; a barber)

  • EXCEPTION et spøgelse (a ghost)

  • EXCEPTION et værelse (a room)

Neuter (et)

• Typically used with words describing substances or masses, for example:

  • brødet (the bread)

  • glasset (the glass)

  • guldet (the gold)

  • jernet (the iron)

  • kødet (the meat)

  • papiret (the paper)

  • sølvet (the silver)

  • vandet (the water)

  • EXCEPTION jorden (the earth; the ground)

  • EXCEPTION luften (the air)

  • EXCEPTION regnen (the rain)

• Typically used with words describing areas and locations

  • et amt (a county)

  • et distrikt (a district)

  • et kontinent (a continent)

  • et land (a country)

  • et sogn (a parish)

  • et torv (a square)

  • EXCEPTION en by (a city)

  • EXCEPTION en gård (a farm)

  • EXCEPTION en ø (an island)

• Typically used with words ending –dømme, -ri, -ed, -um; for example:

  • et herredømme (a supremacy)

  • et omdømme (a reputation)

  • et bageri (a bakery)

  • et hoved (a head)

  • et marked (a market)

  • et gymnasium (a high school)

  • et museum (a museum)

[mahlerrd]

Is this very vague rule of thumb I came up with in Swedish a terrible crutch for remembering ett/et vs. en in both Swedish and Danish?

(I'm about halfway through Swedish and a dozen or two lessons into Danish, I came up with the crutch in Swedish but so far its seems to apply reasonably well to Danish as well).

I've always thought of many et/ett words as being "intrinsically plural" or "continuous and ongoing". For instance, Grass - it's a group of blades of grass and it's an ett word. Hus - a collection of rooms or "a group of walls and a roof", and is also an ett word.

The Rule of Thumb seems supported by the words in this description here of "Items of substance or mass".

I doubt it's much more accurate than just memorizing, but I've found it handy to help me memorize et/ett vs. en because I feel remembering if it's a collection of things or not (and the exceptions to that specific rule) is easier to remember than the raw "ett" vs. "en" in Swedish, or "et" vs. "en" in Danish.

It's amusing, even. Why is is it et egern instead of en egern? I dunno, have you ever seen a single squirrel? Which one did you see? I think there are always four of them at least and that they're interchangeable. Ditto children though of course they're not interchangeable in quite the same way, but when there's one there's likely many and they're all underfoot at once.

So anyway, I am still waiting for enough exceptions to show up that makes this so inaccurate that the exceptions become the rule, but it hasn't happened yet so I'm using it as a crutch until then.

Thoughts?