Breakdown of Jeg vil gerne have den kop derovre.
jeg
I
have
to have
ville
want to / will
gerne
gladly / would like to
Questions & Answers about Jeg vil gerne have den kop derovre.
Why is it den kop and not det kop?
Kop is a common-gender noun (an en word, so en kop). The word for "that" must match the noun's gender, so we use den for en words and det for et words.
Does den kop mean "the cup" or "that cup" here?
In this sentence, it means "that cup". The word den can mean both "the" and "that". When you want to say "that cup", you use den followed by the basic form of the noun (kop). Because this sentence adds derovre (over there), it is very clear that you are pointing to "that" specific cup.
Why are we using three words (vil gerne have) just to say "would like"?
Danish doesn't have a single verb for "would like". Instead, it uses vil (want) plus the adverb gerne (gladly) to make the request polite. Because you are asking for a physical object, you must also add the verb have (to have). Literally, you are saying: I want gladly to have.
Why use derovre instead of just der?
While der means "there", derovre specifically means "over there". It emphasizes that the cup is at a distance from you. It is very common in Danish to pair a pointing word like den with a location word like derovre to be extra clear about which object you mean.