Learn Danish: Prøver du at sove? - Are you trying to sleep?

at is the Danish infinitive marker, matching the word "to" in English. When you link two verbs together like this—the action you are doing (prøver) and the action you intend to do (sove)—the second verb stays in its dictionary form and usually gets at put in front of it.

How do I pronounce at here? Is the "t" silent?

Yes! When at is used as an infinitive marker meaning "to", the "t" is totally silent in everyday speech. It sounds like a short, soft "ah". So at sove sounds closer to "ah so-veh".

Why does the sentence start with Prøver instead of a word for "Are"?

Danish doesn't use helping verbs like "are" or "do" to ask questions. Instead, to ask a yes/no question, you simply swap the verb (prøver) and the subject (du). So literally, this sentence asks "Try you to sleep?".

How do we know this means "Are you trying" and not "Do you try"?

You rely on the context! Danish doesn't have an "-ing" tense for things happening right now. The simple present tense verb prøver does double duty, meaning both "try" and "am/is/are trying".