Breakdown of Drengen vasker sit ansigt.
drengen
the boy
vaske
to wash
sit
his/her/its own (neuter)
ansigtet
the face
Questions & Answers about Drengen vasker sit ansigt.
Why does the sentence use sit for "his" instead of hans?
In Danish, there is a special word for "his", "hers", or "its" when the subject of the sentence is doing something to their own thing. If the sentence was Drengen vasker hans ansigt, it would mean the boy is washing another boy's face! Because he is washing his own face, we use the reflexive pronoun sit.
I've also seen sin used for "his own". Why is it sit here?
You have to match the pronoun to the gender of the noun being owned. The word for "face" is a neuter noun, or a "t-word" (et ansigt). Therefore, you use sit. If he was washing a common gender noun ("n-word") like a car (en bil), you would say sin bil.
Where is the word for "the" in drengen?
In Danish, "the" is usually attached to the end of the noun. The word for "a boy" is en dreng. To say "the boy", you move the -en to the end of the word, making it drengen.
Does vasker mean "washes" or "is washing"?
It can mean both! Danish doesn't have a separate continuous tense like the English "-ing" form. So vasker translates to both "washes" and "is washing" depending on what makes the most sense in English.
Learn Drengen vasker sit ansigt 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