Noun Gender: en or et?
Every Danish noun belongs to one of two genders: common (en-words) or neuter (et-words). The gender affects articles, adjectives, and pronouns.
At a glance
en-words
Common gender (~75% of nouns)
en bog
en bil
en stol
en kat
en cykel
en ven
en skole
en restaurant
et-words
Neuter gender (~25% of nouns)
et hus
et barn
et bord
et æble
et museum
et køkken
et bibliotek
et hospital
There's no shortcut — learn as you go
Gender is mostly unpredictable. The best strategy is to always learn the article together with the noun: not just “hus” but “et hus”. About 75% of nouns are en-words, so when in doubt, en is the safer guess.