Learn Danish: Manden læser sin avis indtil mødet begynder. - The man reads his newspaper until the meeting begins.

Manden læser sin avis indtil mødet begynder.

The man reads his newspaper until the meeting begins.

Breakdown of Manden læser sin avis indtil mødet begynder.

Questions & Answers about Manden læser sin avis indtil mødet begynder.

How does the word indtil affect the sentence structure here?

indtil means "until" and is a subordinating conjunction, which means it introduces a dependent clause. Just like in English, the subject of this new clause (mødet) comes directly after indtil, followed by the verb (begynder).

What happens if I want to put the indtil clause at the beginning of the sentence?

If you start with Indtil mødet begynder, that entire clause counts as the first position in the main sentence. Because Danish main clauses require the verb in the second position (the V2 rule), the main subject and verb must swap places: Indtil mødet begynder, læser manden sin avis.

Why do we use sin instead of hans for "his"?

sin is a reflexive pronoun that means "his own". Since "the man" is the subject of the sentence and he is reading his own newspaper, we must use sin. If the sentence used hans avis, it would mean he was reading some other man's newspaper!

Why does møde have a -t at the end?

møde (meeting) is a neuter noun, so it goes with the article et. In Danish, to say "the meeting", you attach that -et to the end of the noun. Since møde already ends in an e, you just add the -t to make mødet.