Jeg tilbereder aftensmad, mens jeg står.

Tilberede means to prepare food, so it is a fairly precise verb in this context. Lave is more general and often means make/do.

So:

• Jeg tilbereder aftensmad = I am preparing dinner
• Jeg laver aftensmad = also very natural, often I’m making dinner

In everyday speech, many Danes would probably say laver more often than tilbereder, but tilbereder is completely correct and slightly more specific or formal.

Literally, aftensmad is made up of:

• aften = evening
• mad = food

So the literal sense is evening food. In normal English, this is usually translated as dinner or evening meal.

Whether it matches dinner or supper depends on the speaker’s variety of English and eating habits, but dinner is usually the safest translation.

Because Danish, like German, commonly forms compound nouns by writing them as a single word.

So:

• aften
  • mad → aftensmad

This is very normal in Danish. English often separates similar ideas into two words, but Danish usually joins them.

Other examples:

• morgenmad = breakfast
• frokostpause = lunch break
• arbejdsdag = workday

Danish does not form the present continuous the way English does.

In English, you often say:

• I prepare dinner
• I am preparing dinner

In Danish, the simple present often covers both meanings:

• Jeg tilbereder aftensmad

This can mean either:

• I prepare dinner
• I am preparing dinner

The exact meaning depends on context. So Danish usually does not need a separate am + -ing structure here.

Mens means while.

It connects two actions happening at the same time:

• Jeg tilbereder aftensmad, mens jeg står.
• I prepare dinner while I am standing.

It introduces a subordinate clause, which is important for word order in Danish.

Other examples:

• Jeg hører musik, mens jeg arbejder. = I listen to music while I work.
• Han læser, mens hun laver kaffe. = He reads while she makes coffee.

Because mens introduces a subordinate clause, and in Danish subordinate clauses normally keep the subject before the verb.

So the normal order is:

• mens jeg står
• conjunction + subject + verb

This differs from main-clause word order in Danish, where the verb often comes in second position.

Compare:

• Jeg står. = main clause
• mens jeg står = subordinate clause

So mens står jeg is not correct here.

Because Danish normally uses commas to separate clauses, including a main clause and a subordinate clause.

So in:

• Jeg tilbereder aftensmad, mens jeg står.

the comma separates:

• Jeg tilbereder aftensmad = main clause
• mens jeg står = subordinate clause

Comma rules can vary slightly depending on the comma system being used, but this comma is standard and natural.

Yes. Står is the present tense of stå, which means to stand.

So:

• jeg står = I stand / I am standing

In this sentence, it means the speaker is physically in a standing position while preparing dinner.

It may sound slightly unusual in English unless there is a reason to mention posture, but grammatically it is perfectly normal in Danish.

Because aftensmad here is being used as an uncountable/general meal noun, not as a dinner in the sense of one specific event.

Danish often uses meal words without an article:

• Jeg spiser morgenmad. = I eat breakfast.
• Vi laver frokost. = We make lunch.
• Hun tilbereder aftensmad. = She prepares dinner.

You could use an article in some contexts, but not usually in this basic meal-name sense.

Yes, it needs to be repeated.

In Danish, each clause normally has its own explicit subject unless there is a special structure allowing omission. Here, mens jeg står is a full subordinate clause, so jeg must be there.

So this is correct:

• Jeg tilbereder aftensmad, mens jeg står.

But leaving out jeg after mens would not be standard Danish.

The original sentence is correct, but in everyday speech many speakers might choose slightly different wording depending on what they want to emphasize.

Possible alternatives:

• Jeg laver aftensmad, mens jeg står op.
  if the point is specifically that the person is upright rather than sitting or lying down

• Jeg står og laver aftensmad.
  a very natural Danish way to express I’m standing making dinner or simply I’m making dinner, with emphasis on the ongoing action

• Jeg laver aftensmad stående.
  a more compact way to say I make dinner standing up

So the given sentence is grammatical, but not necessarily the most idiomatic version for every context.