Breakdown of Manden griner fordi hunden er sjov.
være
to be
manden
the man
hunden
the dog
sjov
funny / fun, enjoyable
Questions & Answers about Manden griner fordi hunden er sjov.
What happens to the word order after the word fordi?
fordi (because) is a subordinating conjunction, which means it links a secondary thought to the main sentence. In an affirmative clause like this one, the word order is very straightforward for an English speaker: it just goes subject (hunden) then verb (er).
Why is "is laughing" translated as just griner?
Danish doesn't have an "is doing" form (the present continuous tense). The simple present tense verb griner can mean both "laughs" and "is laughing" depending on the context. You only need the one verb!
Why do the words for "man" and "dog" both end in -en?
That -en at the end of manden and hunden is how Danish says "the". Because mand and hund are both common gender nouns (you would say en mand and en hund for "a man" and "a dog"), they take the -en suffix to become definite.
Why is the adjective sjov (funny) in this specific form without any endings?
Adjectives have to match the gender and number of the noun they describe. Because it is describing hunden, which is a singular, common gender word, sjov stays in its basic dictionary form. If you were describing a neuter noun like barnet (the child), you would add a -t and say barnet er sjovt.