Breakdown of Er hun tosproget, taler hun dels dansk, dels engelsk.
være
to be
hun
she
tale
to speak
dansk
Danish
Questions & Answers about Er hun tosproget, taler hun dels dansk, dels engelsk.
Why does the sentence start with the verb Er when there's no question being asked?
In Danish, you can create a conditional 'if' clause simply by starting with the verb and dropping the word hvis (if). So, Er hun tosproget acts as the condition 'If she is bilingual', even though it looks like a question.
Why is the main clause inverted to taler hun instead of hun taler?
This is a classic application of the V2 (verb-second) rule. The entire first clause (Er hun tosproget) acts as the first position in the overall sentence. To keep the main verb in the second position, taler must come next, forcing the subject (hun) to follow it.
How does the correlative structure dels ..., dels ... function in this sentence?
It works just like 'partly ..., partly ...' in English to weigh two things equally. Here, it coordinates two nouns (dansk and engelsk) to show that her spoken languages are divided into these two parts.
Could I just replace dels ..., dels ... with både ..., og ... here?
Yes, grammatically you could say både dansk og engelsk (both Danish and English). However, dels ..., dels ... emphasizes the division or proportion of what she speaks, whereas både ..., og ... simply lists the two languages together as a package.
How is the adjective constructed?