Breakdown of Jeg har boet i Danmark i et års tid.
jeg
I
bo
to live
i
in
have
to have
Danmark
Denmark
i et års tid
for about a year
Questions & Answers about Jeg har boet i Danmark i et års tid.
Why is the preposition i used before the time period instead of for?
In Danish, when you express the duration of an action, you use the preposition i to mean "for". English speakers often want to use the Danish word for, but saying for et år would be incorrect here.
What does adding tid to et års change about the meaning?
Adding tid (time) to a time period makes the duration approximate. While i et år means exactly "for a year", i et års tid means "for about a year" or "for a year or so". This is a very common native pattern, and you will also hear phrases like en uges tid (about a week) or en måneds tid (about a month).
Why is there an s at the end of års in this phrase?
The s is the Danish genitive (possessive) ending, which works just like the apostrophe-s in English. The phrase literally translates to "a year's time".
Does Danish use the present perfect (har boet) exactly the same way English does in this context?
Yes, it matches perfectly. When describing an action that started in the past and continues into the present, Danish uses the present perfect (har boet) along with a duration. If you have studied other European languages, you might expect the present tense here, but Danish grammar mirrors the English "have lived".
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