Breakdown of Vi læser om Danmarks historie.
læse
to read
vi
we
om
about (concerning)
Danmark
Denmark
historien
the history (the past; the school subject)
Questions & Answers about Vi læser om Danmarks historie.
Why does the Danish sentence use læser instead of a literal translation for "are reading"?
Danish doesn't have a separate present continuous tense like English does. The simple present tense læser translates to both "read" and "are reading". You just rely on the context to know that the reading is happening right now.
Why is there no apostrophe in Danmarks?
In Danish, you make a noun possessive (showing ownership) by simply adding an -s to the end of the word, without an apostrophe. So, "Denmark's" becomes Danmarks.
Does historie just mean "history" or can it mean something else?
The word historie can mean both "history" (the study of past events) and "story" (a tale or narrative). In this sentence, because it's paired with Denmark, "history" is the natural translation, but reading a child a bedtime story would also use this word.
I've seen om used for time or meaning "if". Why is it translated as "about" here?
The preposition om has a few different meanings depending on how it's used. When placed after a verb of communication or thought, like læser (read), taler (speak), or tænker (think), it almost always translates to "about".
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