Questions & Answers about Han bliver ved med at hoste, og han har feber.
How does bliver ved med at translate to "keeps" in this sentence?
The phrase blive ved med at followed by a verb in the infinitive (here, hoste) is the standard Danish way to express that someone "keeps doing" or "continues to do" an action. While English uses the verb "keep", Danish uses this fixed phrase, which literally translates to something like "stays at with to".
Why do we need both med and at right next to each other before hoste?
The word med is a fixed part of the expression blive ved med (to keep on). When you follow a preposition like med with an action, Danish requires the infinitive form of the verb, marked by at. So, while English uses the "-ing" form ("keeps on coughing"), Danish uses at + infinitive (med at hoste).
Why does the sentence say har feber without the word en ("a")?
In Danish, medical symptoms and conditions like feber (fever) are generally treated as uncountable, general states rather than individual countable things. Because of this, you drop the indefinite article and simply say har feber instead of har en feber.
Why is there a comma before og in this sentence?