Breakdown of Hvilken kasse ligger mikrofonen i?
i
in
kassen
the box
ligge
to lie (be lying down) / to be located
hvilken
which?
Questions & Answers about Hvilken kasse ligger mikrofonen i?
Why is the preposition i at the very end of the sentence instead of at the beginning?
Just like in English, Danish naturally places the preposition at the end of a question when asking about the object of that preposition. This is called preposition stranding. You could say I hvilken kasse ligger mikrofonen?, but putting the preposition first sounds very formal and stiff in everyday spoken Danish.
Why does the sentence use ligger instead of just er (is)?
Danish loves to be specific about physical placement. While you can sometimes use er, position verbs like ligger (lies) and står (stands) are heavily preferred when describing where objects are located. Since a microphone usually lies flat in a box, ligger is the most natural choice.
Why is it Hvilken and not Hvilket?
The word for 'which' has to match the gender of the noun it describes. Because kasse is an en word (common gender), we use Hvilken. If you were asking about an et word, like hus (house), it would be Hvilket hus.
Why does the verb ligger come before the subject mikrofonen?
This happens because of the V2 (verb-second) rule. The entire question phrase Hvilken kasse takes up the first position in the sentence. To keep the verb in the strict second position, ligger must come next, which pushes the subject mikrofonen into the third position.