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Does it ever feel like choosing between "en" and "et" is just a random coin flip?
It is easily the biggest headache for anyone starting out with the Danish language.
If you only speak English, this concept feels completely alien because every object is just "the" or "a."
But for my Brazilian friends, you actually have a massive head start.
You already know that objects can have a specific category or a gender.
In Portuguese, you deal with "o" and "a" every single day.
In Danish, we just call them Common and Neuter.
Let's look at how your brain can use what it already knows to win this game!

The Two Families: Common and Neuter

Danish doesn't use "Masculine" or "Feminine" labels.
Instead, we have two groups.
The first group is Common (Fælleskøn) and it uses the word "En."
The second group is Neuter (Intetkøn) and it uses the word "Et."
The best part for a Portuguese speaker is that you don't have to learn the concept of gendered nouns, you just have to learn which family the word belongs to!

Comparing the Three Languages

Notice how the objects change from neutral in English to specific categories in Danish and Portuguese:

The "Definite" Trick

Danish has a very cool way of saying "The."
Instead of putting a word in front, we glue the article to the end of the noun.
If it is an "en" word, the ending is -en (Bil → Bilen).
If it is an "et" word, the ending is -et (Hus → Huset).
This is why knowing the gender is so important—it changes the whole word!

Time to Practice! ✍

1. The Quick Guess: You see a word for the first time.
You don't have a dictionary.
Which one do you pick?
2. The Suffix Test: If en kop means "a cup," how do you say "the cup?"
If et barn means "a child," how do you say "the child?"

Mastering the genders takes time, so don't be hard on yourself.
Keep listening for those endings.
Start practicing today!