Word
Hver tilskuer heppede på sit hold.
Meaning
Each spectator cheered for their team.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Hver tilskuer heppede på sit hold.
sit
his/her/its own (neuter)
holdet
the team
på
on / at / in (a language) / of (after nouns like end or start)
hver
each, every
Questions & Answers about Hver tilskuer heppede på sit hold.
Why is sit used here instead of hans, hendes, or deres?
Hver tilskuer is the subject of the sentence, and they are cheering for their own team. In Danish, when a third-person singular subject interacts with its own possession, you must use the reflexive possessive pronouns (sin, sit, or sine). If you used hans or hendes, it would mean they were cheering for someone else's team! Because English often uses 'their' here, it is tempting to use deres, but hver tilskuer is grammatically singular.
Why is it sit hold and not sin hold?
The choice between sin, sit, and sine depends on the gender and number of the thing being owned, not the owner. The word for team is neuter (et hold), so it takes the neuter form sit.
Why do we use på here? Doesn't English say 'cheered for'?
Prepositions rarely translate perfectly between languages. The Danish expression for 'to cheer for' or 'to root for' is at heppe på. You just have to memorize that the verb at heppe goes with the preposition på.
Why does the sentence use hver instead of ethvert?