Swedish and Danish

Comparisons

Swedish keeps the verb together with a conjoined adverbial particle, where Danish separates them.

(sv) Vill du köra in bilen

(da) Vil du køre bilen ind

Swedish moves the reflexive pronoun sig along with the verb to V2 position, where Danish leaves it behind:

(sv) I går tvättade sig Peter äntligen

(da) I går vaskede Peter sig endelig

Danish and Swedish have different NP patterns.

(sv) Vita huset

(da) Det hvide hus

(nb) Det hvite hus(et)

(nn) Det kvite huset

In most NPs, Swedish has both the determiner den and the definite form of the noun. Danish, as always, cannot have both. Here, nn patterns with sv and nb with both sv and da (beware of non-idiomatic da, sv word choices, but the patterns are correct).

(sv) Den stora utmaningen är att göra det rätta. Utmaningen er svår.

(da) Den store udfordring er at gøre det rætte. Udfordringen er vanskelig.

Swedish can use "det" as an equivalent to the English "there", where Danish prefers "der",

(sv) Det kommer en bil

(da) Der kommer en bil

Further reading

• LUNDIN AKESSON Katarina (2003) "Constructions with låta, LET, reflexives and passive-s: a comment on some differences, similarities and related phenomena". Working papers in Scandinavian syntax ISSN 1100-097X