Breakdown of Drengene fik vabler af at reparere deres cykler og sadler.
og
and
drengen
the boy
cyklen
the bicycle
deres
their / theirs
Questions & Answers about Drengene fik vabler af at reparere deres cykler og sadler.
How do the singular forms of vabler, cykler, and sadler relate to these plurals?
They all come from nouns ending in -el: vabel (blister), cykel (bicycle), and sadel (saddle). When adding the plural ending -er, the unstressed e before the l is dropped. This is why you get vabler instead of "vabeler". This dropping of the vowel is called syncopation.
Why does the sentence use deres (their) instead of sine (their own)?
The reflexive possessive pronouns sin, sit, and sine are only used when the subject of the sentence is singular (he, she, it). Because the subject here is plural (drengene), you must use deres, even though they are repairing their own bikes and saddles.
Why is 'from repairing' translated as af at reparere?
English often uses an "-ing" word (a gerund) after prepositions, but Danish does not. Instead, Danish uses the preposition followed by the infinitive marker at and the infinitive verb. So, "from repairing" becomes af at reparere (literally "from to repair").
Why is the preposition af used here for 'from'?
In Danish, af is the standard preposition to show the physical cause or reason for a bodily reaction. Whether you get blisters, get sick, or get tired "from" an activity, you use af to link the result to the cause.