Jeg lægger grillpølsen på grillristen med grilltangen.

This is one of the most important Danish verb pairs to learn.

• at lægge = to lay / to put something somewhere
• at ligge = to lie / to be lying somewhere

In your sentence, the subject is doing an action to the sausage, so Danish uses lægger:

• Jeg lægger grillpølsen på grillristen = I put / lay the sausage on the grill grate.

If the sausage was already there, Danish would use ligger:

• Grillpølsen ligger på grillristen = The sausage is lying on the grill grate.

So:

• lægger = movement or placement
• ligger = position or location

The ending -en shows that the noun is definite, meaning the rather than a.

• en grillpølse = a grilled sausage / a grill sausage
• grillpølsen = the grilled sausage / the grill sausage

In Danish, the definite article is usually added to the end of the noun instead of being a separate word like English the.

So:

• en pølse = a sausage
• pølsen = the sausage

Because grillpølse is one compound noun, the definite ending goes on the whole word:

• en grillpølse
• grillpølsen

For the same reason: they are definite nouns.

• en grillrist = a grill grate

• grillristen = the grill grate

• en grilltang = a pair of grill tongs / grill tongs
• grilltangen = the grill tongs

Danish often uses the definite form where English might or might not use the, depending on context. In a practical situation like cooking, it is very natural to refer to the specific grate and the specific tongs already being used.

Because Danish forms compound nouns by joining words together.

So:

• grill + pølse → grillpølse
• grill + rist → grillrist
• grill + tang → grilltang

This is very normal in Danish and much more common than writing separate words.

A good rule is:

• if English can say something like grill sausage, grill grate, or grill tongs, Danish will often write it as one compound noun.

Also, when a compound noun becomes definite, the ending is added to the whole compound:

• grillpølsen
• grillristen
• grilltangen

Here på means on.

• på grillristen = on the grill grate

It shows where the sausage is being placed.

Danish på is very common and often corresponds to English on, but like all prepositions, it does not match English perfectly in every expression. In this sentence, though, på is a very direct match.

med here means with, specifically using something as a tool.

So:

• med grilltangen = with the grill tongs / using the grill tongs

This is called an instrumental use of med. It tells you what tool is used to do the action.

Compare:

• Jeg spiser med en gaffel = I eat with a fork
• Jeg skriver med en blyant = I write with a pencil
• Jeg lægger grillpølsen på grillristen med grilltangen = I place the sausage on the grate with the tongs

In theory, you could imagine that meaning, but in normal usage it is understood as using the tongs.

That is because:

• med + tool often naturally means by means of / using
• the context strongly supports that reading

So most native speakers will understand:

• I am putting the sausage on the grate, using the tongs

If you really wanted to say the sausage is physically on the grate together with the tongs, you would usually make that clearer in some other way.

The sentence follows the normal Danish main-clause order:

• Jeg = subject
• lægger = finite verb
• grillpølsen = object
• på grillristen = place
• med grilltangen = means/instrument

So the pattern is roughly:

Subject + verb + object + other information

This is very similar to English here:

• I put the sausage on the grill grate with the tongs

But remember that Danish is a V2 language, which means the finite verb normally stays in the second position in main clauses.

For example, if you move another element to the front, the subject comes after the verb:

• På grillristen lægger jeg grillpølsen med grilltangen.
• Med grilltangen lægger jeg grillpølsen på grillristen.

Because Danish usually marks definiteness by adding it to the noun itself.

English:

• the sausage
• the grill grate
• the tongs

Danish:

• grillpølsen
• grillristen
• grilltangen

This is called the suffixed definite article.

The most common patterns are:

• en word → definite -en
• et word → definite -et

Examples:

• en stol → stolen
• et bord → bordet

In your sentence, all three nouns are en-words, so they take -en.

This is a vocabulary difference between English and Danish.

In English, tongs is grammatically plural:

• the tongs are...

In Danish, grilltang is usually treated as a singular noun:

• en grilltang
• grilltangen

So even though the object has two arms physically, Danish grammar treats it as one item.

This kind of mismatch happens often between languages. It is best to learn the Danish noun as its own pattern rather than trying to force the English grammar onto it.

Yes, in many everyday contexts putter can work.

• Jeg putter grillpølsen på grillristen med grilltangen is understandable.

But lægger is often the more natural verb when placing something down onto a surface. It has the sense of laying or placing.

Very roughly:

• lægger = place/lay
• putter = put, often with a slightly more general or colloquial sense, sometimes into something

So lægger is a very good choice here.

Unfortunately, this usually has to be learned with each noun.

In this sentence:

• en grillpølse
• en grillrist
• en grilltang

There are some patterns in Danish, but they are not fully reliable. The safest approach is to memorize nouns together with their article:

• en pølse
• en rist
• en tang

Then build compounds the same way:

• en grillpølse
• en grillrist
• en grilltang

Learning the article together with the noun is one of the best habits in Danish.

A few pronunciation points may help:

• æ in lægger is a front vowel that does not exist in exactly the same way in English.
• ø in pølse is also a special Danish vowel and can be difficult for English speakers.
• Danish g in lægger is often much softer than English learners expect.

A rough learner-friendly guide:

• lægger sounds somewhat like LEH-yer / LEH-er depending on accent and speed, but that is only approximate.
• pølse has an ø sound that you should learn separately rather than replacing with English o.
• grill is relatively straightforward.

The most important thing is to hear native audio and repeat it, because Danish pronunciation is often less transparent than the spelling suggests.

The verb would change from present tense lægger to past tense lagde.

• Jeg lagde grillpølsen på grillristen med grilltangen.
• I put / laid the sausage on the grill grate with the tongs.

So:

• at lægge = infinitive
• lægger = present
• lagde = past

This is another reason why lægge and ligge are worth learning carefully, because both the meaning and the forms are easy to mix up.