Questions & Answers about Hun er bekymret for sin søn.
Why does the sentence use sin instead of hendes for the word her?
In Danish, sin is a reflexive pronoun used to mean her own (or his own / its own). Because the subject of the sentence (hun) is the mother, we use sin to show she is worried about her own son. If we used hendes, it would mean she is worried about some other woman's son!
Why is it sin rather than sit or sine?
Why is the preposition for used here instead of a word meaning about?
Prepositions often do not translate directly between languages. While English speakers say worried about, the set phrase in Danish is at være bekymret for (to be worried for). You just have to memorize for as the natural partner to bekymret.
Does the word bekymret change if the subject is plural?
Yes! Bekymret acts as an adjective here. If the subject were plural, like the word they (de), you would add an -e to the end. The sentence would become: De er bekymrede for deres søn.