Breakdown of Hans datter og hans søn er her.
være
to be
her
here
og
and
hans
his
datteren
the daughter
sønnen
the son
Questions & Answers about Hans datter og hans søn er her.
Does hans change depending on the gender of the noun?
No! This is a nice thing about 3rd-person words like hans (his) and hendes (her). While words for "my" or "your" change depending on whether the noun is an en-word, et-word, or plural, hans always stays exactly the same no matter what is being owned.
Could Hans at the beginning of the sentence be a person's name?
Hans is indeed a very common Danish name! However, here it just means "his" and is capitalized because it is the first word of the sentence. If it were the name, it would need an apostrophe to show possession, like Hans' datter (Hans's daughter).
Do I have to say hans twice, or could I just say "hans datter og søn"?
It is much more natural in Danish to repeat the possessive word before each noun. So saying hans datter og hans søn is the best way to phrase this, even though in English we often drop the second "his".
The subject is plural (daughter and son). Why is the verb just er?
This is a quick reminder that Danish verbs are delightfully simple: they never change depending on the person or the number of people. The word er covers "am", "is", and "are", so it is perfectly correct here even though multiple people are present.
Learn Hans datter og hans søn er her and more in Danish
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free