Breakdown of Borgmesteren overrækker pokalen til vinderen.
til
to (preposition) / for (purpose) / at (an event or occasion) / at (good at something)
borgmesteren
the mayor
vinderen
the winner
overrække
to present (hand over, award)
pokalen
the trophy
Questions & Answers about Borgmesteren overrækker pokalen til vinderen.
How would I rewrite this sentence without using the word til?
You would swap the order of the objects to put the recipient first: Borgmesteren overrækker vinderen pokalen. This is called dative shift, and it works just like in English when you change "presents the trophy to the winner" to "presents the winner the trophy".
What is the difference between rækker and overrækker?
at række is the everyday verb for "to pass" or "to hand" (like passing someone the salt). Adding the prefix over- makes it at overrække, which is a formal verb meaning "to present" or "to hand over" (used for awards, gifts, or official documents).
If I replace the trophy with the pronoun den (it), does the sentence structure change?
If you keep the til phrase, it stays exactly the same: Borgmesteren overrækker den til vinderen. But if you want to drop til, Danish strongly prefers not to put a pronoun at the very end of a double object sentence. You should avoid saying Borgmesteren overrækker vinderen den and stick to using til when the thing being given is a short pronoun.
Is pokal an en-word or an et-word?
It is an en-word (en pokal). That is why the definite form used in this sentence is pokalen (the trophy) instead of ending in -et.
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