Word
Drengen hoster fordi han er syg.
Meaning
The boy coughs because he is sick.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Drengen hoster fordi han er syg.
How would I apply this lesson's grammar to say 'The boy keeps coughing because he is sick'?
You would use bliver ved med at before the infinitive of the verb. The sentence becomes: Drengen bliver ved med at hoste fordi han er syg.
Why is the adjective syg not written with a -t or -e at the end here?
Adjectives in Danish must agree with the noun they describe. Because drengen (and therefore the pronoun han) is a singular, common gender word (an en word), the adjective syg stays in its base form. If the subject were neuter, it would be sygt, and if plural, syge.
Does the word order change in the second clause if we add an adverb like altid (always) or ikke (not)?
Yes! Because fordi starts a subordinate clause (a dependent sentence part), any central adverbs like altid or ikke must come before the verb. So 'because he is always sick' would be fordi han altid er syg (subject - adverb - verb).
Does Danish have a direct equivalent to the English '-ing' form if we wanted to say 'is coughing'?
No, Danish doesn't have a direct equivalent to the English present continuous ('is coughing'). The simple present tense hoster translates to both 'coughs' and 'is coughing'. To emphasize that the action is relentlessly ongoing, you use the structure from this lesson: bliver ved med at hoste (keeps coughing).