Breakdown of Jeg ser ræven jage en mus.
jeg
I
en
a / an (common)
se
to see / to look at
musen
the mouse
ræven
the fox
jage
to hunt; to chase
Questions & Answers about Jeg ser ræven jage en mus.
Why is there no at before jage in this sentence?
Ser (see) is a verb of perception. Just like in English, Danish uses a bare infinitive without at after verbs that describe sensing something, such as seeing, hearing, or feeling.
In English, I could also say 'I see the fox hunting.' How would I translate that continuous form into Danish?
You would translate it exactly as this sentence is written! Danish does not have a direct equivalent to the English continuous -ing form. Using a verb of perception followed by the bare infinitive jage covers both the English forms 'hunt' and 'hunting'.
If I want to say 'I saw the fox hunt' in the past tense, do I need to change jage?
No, jage stays exactly the same. You only change the main verb to the past tense: Jeg så ræven jage en mus. The second verb remains a bare infinitive regardless of when the main action happened.
Could I phrase this using a 'that' clause instead?
Yes! You can completely rephrase the sentence as Jeg ser, at ræven jager en mus (I see that the fox is hunting a mouse). In that case, you must use the present tense jager because you are starting a new mini-sentence (a subordinate clause) where the fox is the active subject.
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