På det store græs foran bygningen sidder en ugle om natten.

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Breakdown of På det store græs foran bygningen sidder en ugle om natten.

• på: on
• sidde: to sit
• natten: the night
• stor: large
• om: at
• bygningen: the building
• græsset: the grass
• foran: in front of
• uglen: the owl

Questions & Answers about På det store græs foran bygningen sidder en ugle om natten.

Why does the sentence start with På det store græs instead of having the subject first?

In Danish, you can place an adverbial phrase (such as På det store græs foran bygningen) at the beginning of the sentence for emphasis or stylistic reasons. This causes an inversion, so the verb (sidder) comes before the subject (en ugle). It’s a common feature of Danish word order.

Why is it det store græs with store instead of stort?

When an adjective describes a definite neuter noun, Danish adds the article det and uses the form store (not stort). For indefinite neuter nouns, you would say et stort græs (if that were natural usage). But because the grass is specified (the big grass in front of the building), it must be det store græs.

How does foran work, and why do we use it here?

Foran means in front of and describes a position relative to the building. If you used something like ved (by/at) instead, it wouldn’t convey that the owl is specifically positioned in front of the building.

Why do we say en ugle instead of uglen?

This is because the owl hasn’t been introduced before, so we use the indefinite article en. If you wanted to refer to a previously mentioned owl, you could say uglen (the owl), using the definite form.

What does om natten mean exactly, and can I just say om nat?

Om natten means at night in a general sense, implying it happens during nights regularly or habitually. You can’t say om nat in Danish—it wouldn’t be grammatically correct. If you wanted to say something more immediate, like tonight, you’d use i nat instead.