Breakdown of Hun skulle have lyttet til sin mavefornemmelse.
hun
she
have
to have
sin
his/her/its own (common)
til
to (preposition) / for (purpose) / at (an event or occasion) / at (good at something)
Questions & Answers about Hun skulle have lyttet til sin mavefornemmelse.
How does skulle have lyttet express an unfulfilled past action?
To express regret or something that should have happened but did not, Danish uses the past tense of a modal verb (here, skulle) plus have and the past participle (here, lyttet). This exactly mirrors the English structure of using should have listened.
Why use sin instead of hendes for 'her' in this sentence?
Because the gut feeling belongs to the subject of the sentence (Hun). Whenever a third-person subject acts on something they own, Danish requires the reflexive possessive sin (or sit or sine). If the sentence used hendes, it would mean she listened to another woman's gut feeling!
Is mavefornemmelse a direct translation of 'gut feeling'?
Yes! It is a compound noun made from mave (stomach or belly) and fornemmelse (feeling or sense). The idiom works exactly the same way in Danish as it does in English.
Do you always use til after lytte?
When you specify what or who you are listening to, you generally need the preposition til. Just like the English phrase 'listen to', you say lytte til in Danish.