Word
Når drengen spiser hvidløget, kan den onde heks ikke finde ham.
Meaning
When the boy eats the garlic, the evil witch cannot find him.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Når drengen spiser hvidløget, kan den onde heks ikke finde ham.
drengen
the boy
spise
to eat
ikke
not
finde
to find
Questions & Answers about Når drengen spiser hvidløget, kan den onde heks ikke finde ham.
Why is it kan den onde heks instead of den onde heks kan?
The first part of the sentence, Når drengen spiser hvidløget, is a subordinate clause. In Danish, when a sentence starts with a whole clause like this, it takes up position one. The V2 rule states the verb must be in position two, so the main verb kan swaps places with the subject den onde heks right after the comma.
Why is the word ikke placed after the long subject den onde heks?
In a main clause with inversion (where the verb comes before the subject), the rule for word order is: Verb (kan) then Subject (den onde heks) then Adverb (ikke). Even though the subject is three words long, ikke still has to wait until after the entire subject.
Why is it den onde heks for 'the evil witch' instead of just onde heksen?
When you describe a specific, definite noun with an adjective, Danish uses a separate front article (den, det, or de) and adds an -e to the adjective (onde). The noun itself drops its back ending, leaving just heks.
Could I use da instead of når for 'when' in this sentence?