Breakdown of Jeg leder efter hunden overalt, men den er ikke derinde.
jeg
I
være
to be
den
it (common)
hunden
the dog
Questions & Answers about Jeg leder efter hunden overalt, men den er ikke derinde.
Why do we use derinde here instead of just der?
Derinde combines der (there) and inde (inside). While der just means "there", adding inde specifies that the location is an enclosed space ("in there"). Danish uses these combined spatial adverbs frequently for extra precision.
Would it be correct to use derind instead of derinde here?
No, you must use derinde because the dog's location is stationary—it is just being "in there" with the verb er (is). You only drop the final "e" and use derind when there is movement towards a destination, for example: hunden løb derind (the dog ran in there).
Why do we use leder efter to mean "looking for"? Can't I use the verb at se?
In Danish, at lede efter is a fixed phrase that means to search for something. You cannot translate "look for" word-for-word using at se (to see/look), as that does not carry the meaning of searching in Danish.
Why does the second part of the sentence say den er ikke rather than den ikke er?
The conjunction men (but) connects two independent main clauses. In a main clause, the verb must be the second idea in the sentence, so the verb er comes right after the subject den, followed by the negative adverb ikke.