Word
Pigen sendte donationen til dyreværnet for tre dage siden.
Meaning
The girl sent the donation to the animal protection three days ago.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Pigen sendte donationen til dyreværnet for tre dage siden.
pigen
the girl
tre
three
til
to (preposition) / for (purpose) / at (an event or occasion) / at (good at something)
sende
to send
Questions & Answers about Pigen sendte donationen til dyreværnet for tre dage siden.
The lesson is about the circumposition for ... skyld, but this sentence uses for ... siden. Are they related?
Yes, they are structurally identical. Both are circumpositions, meaning they consist of two parts that wrap around a phrase. While for [noun] skyld means "for the sake of [noun]", for [time] siden means "[time] ago". It is a great reminder of how this grammatical wrapping frame works in Danish.
How is the word dyreværnet constructed and why does it end in -et?
It is a compound noun made of dyr (animal), an -e- linking vowel, and værnet (the defense or protection). In Danish compound words, the final noun determines the gender. Because et værn is a neuter word, the definite compound takes the neuter suffix -et.
Could I just say tre dage siden without the word for, just like we say "three days ago" in English?
No, in Danish you must always use the full circumposition for ... siden to express "ago". Leaving out for is a common mistake for native English speakers, but the phrase cannot function without it in Danish.
If I move for tre dage siden to the start of the sentence to emphasize the time, how does the word order change?
Danish strictly follows the V2 rule, meaning the conjugated verb must be the second structural element in a main clause. If you start with the time phrase, the subject and verb must invert, giving you: For tre dage siden sendte pigen donationen til dyreværnet.