Han bruger en blyant til at skrive.

He uses a pencil to write.

Breakdown of Han bruger en blyant til at skrive.

• en: a
• bruge: to use
• blyanten: the pencil
• skrive: to write
• at: to
• han: he

Questions & Answers about Han bruger en blyant til at skrive.

Why does the sentence use til at skrive instead of just at skrive?

In Danish, when you want to specify what you use something for, you often insert til before at to emphasize the purpose. Til at skrive is directly translated as “for (the purpose of) writing,” whereas at skrive without til could sound less natural when describing the function of an object.

Is there a reason we use en blyant rather than blyanten?

Yes. In Danish, en blyant is indefinite (“a pencil”), and blyanten would be definite (“the pencil”). Because the sentence doesn’t specify a particular pencil, the indefinite article en is used.

Why is it Han instead of something like Ham?

Han is the subject pronoun meaning “he” in Danish, used for the subject of a sentence. Ham is the object form, so you would use ham only if “he” is receiving an action rather than performing it.

Is bruger always used to mean “use,” or could we say anvender?

Both bruger and anvender can translate to “use,” but bruger is more common in everyday Danish speech. Anvender is slightly more formal and is often found in written or technical contexts.