Breakdown of Min farfar blev født i nitten hundrede og fyrre.
og
and
i
in
nitten
nineteen
fyrre
forty
hundrede
hundred
min
my
blive
to stay / to become
farfaren
the grandfather (father's father)
født
born
Questions & Answers about Min farfar blev født i nitten hundrede og fyrre.
Why does the sentence use blev (became) instead of var (was) for "was born"?
In Danish, the event of being born is expressed using a passive structure built with the verb at blive (to become). Blev is the past tense. So, blev født literally means "became born". If you said var født, it would sound more like a continuous state rather than the actual event of birth.
Why is it farfar instead of a general word for grandfather?
Danish uses specific words for grandparents depending on which side of the family they are from. Farfar literally means "father-father" (paternal grandfather). If it were your mother's father, you would say morfar.
Why is the year read as nitten hundrede og fyrre?
Unlike English, where we usually just say "nineteen forty", Danish reads out the full number: "nineteen hundred and forty". You must include hundrede (hundred) and the conjunction og (and) before the tens when speaking.
Do Danes actually write years out with words like this?
Usually no. In everyday writing, you would almost always just use digits, like 1940. The sentence spells it out here entirely to help you practice how to construct and pronounce the year out loud.
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