Vi vil marinere bøffen med marinaden.

In Danish, the definite article is usually added to the end of the noun.

• bøf = steak
• bøffen = the steak

So Vi vil marinere bøffen means We want to marinate the steak or We will marinate the steak, depending on context.

This is different from English, where the is a separate word.

For the same reason: marinaden is the definite form, meaning the marinade.

• en marinade = a marinade
• marinaden = the marinade

So:

• med en marinade = with a marinade
• med marinaden = with the marinade

If the sentence uses marinaden, it refers to a specific marinade already known from the context.

vil is the present tense of ville. It can often mean:

• want to
• will

So Vi vil marinere bøffen can mean:

• We want to marinate the steak
• We will marinate the steak

The exact meaning depends on context. In everyday Danish, vil often expresses willingness, intention, or desire, not just future time.

Because it comes after the modal verb vil.

In Danish, after modal verbs such as:

• vil = want/will
• kan = can
• skal = shall/must
• må = may/must

the next verb normally stays in the infinitive form.

So:

• Vi vil marinere = We want to marinate / We will marinate

You do not conjugate marinere here.

This is standard Danish main-clause word order:

• Vi = subject
• vil = finite verb
• marinere = infinitive
• bøffen = direct object
• med marinaden = prepositional phrase

A simple pattern is:

Subject + finite verb + infinitive/main verb + object + other information

So the sentence is built very normally.

med usually means with.

In this sentence, med marinaden tells you what is being used to marinate the steak:

• marinere bøffen med marinaden = marinate the steak with the marinade

So bøffen is the thing receiving the action, and marinaden is the substance used.

Yes, you might hear i marinaden too, depending on what exactly you want to emphasize.

• med marinaden = with the marinade
• i marinaden = in the marinade

The difference is subtle:

• med focuses on what you use
• i focuses more on the steak being placed into the marinade

Both can make sense in cooking contexts, but med marinaden is perfectly natural if you are talking generally about using the marinade.

A learner might especially notice the Danish ø in bøffen.

Roughly:

• bøffen sounds something like BUF-en or BURF-en, but with a rounded vowel that English does not really have
• marinaden is roughly ma-ri-NA-thən or ma-ri-NA-dən, depending on speech style

A few notes:

• ø is not the same as English o
• the d in words like marinaden is often softer than English d
• unstressed endings like -en are often reduced in natural speech

If you are learning pronunciation, ø is one of the key sounds to practice early.

Usually Danish attaches the definite article to the end of the noun instead of putting it in front.

Compare:

• en bøf = a steak

• bøffen = the steak

• en marinade = a marinade
• marinaden = the marinade

This is one of the biggest structural differences from English. Danish does sometimes use a separate definite word like den or det, but that usually happens when there is also an adjective:

• bøffen = the steak
• den store bøf = the big steak

Grammatically, vil is present tense, but the whole sentence often refers to a future action.

So Vi vil marinere bøffen med marinaden can be understood as:

• We want to marinate the steak with the marinade
• We will marinate the steak with the marinade

Danish often uses present-tense forms or modal verbs to talk about the future, rather than having a separate future tense like English sometimes seems to.

Yes, but the meaning changes.

• Vi vil marinere bøffen med marinaden = We want to / will marinate the steak with the marinade
• Vi skal marinere bøffen med marinaden = We have to / are going to marinate the steak with the marinade

skal often suggests obligation, plan, or instruction. vil often suggests desire, intention, or willingness.

So they are similar, but not interchangeable in every situation.

Because Danish does not use to after modal verbs.

In English:

• We want to marinate
• We will marinate

In Danish:

• Vi vil marinere

There is no separate word equivalent to English to in this structure. That is completely normal in Danish.