Livet er godt, når vi lytter til musikken.

to be

Breakdown of Livet er godt, når vi lytter til musikken.

• når: when
• til: to
• vi: we
• musikken: the music
• lytte: to listen
• god: good
• livet: the life

Questions & Answers about Livet er godt, når vi lytter til musikken.

Why does the noun appear as livet instead of just liv in this sentence?

In Danish, nouns take on a suffix to form the definite form. The base word liv (meaning “life”) becomes livet with the addition of the suffix –et—a marker used for neuter nouns. Even though English simply says “life,” Danish incorporates definiteness directly into the noun.

What role does når play in the sentence?

Når is a subordinating conjunction meaning “when.” It introduces the subordinate clause når vi lytter til musikken, establishing a temporal condition under which “life is good.”

How is the verb lytter formed and what does it tell us about the subject?

Lytter is the present tense form of the verb lytte (to listen). Since the subject is vi (we), the verb is appropriately conjugated in the plural form, meaning “we listen.”

What does the phrase til musikken mean, and how is it structured?

The phrase til musikken translates to “to the music.” Here, til is the preposition corresponding to “to,” and musikken is the definite form of musik (music), formed by adding the suffix –en. Together, they form the prepositional phrase that completes the meaning of “listening to the music.”

How is the word order structured in the subordinate clause compared to the main clause?

In the main clause Livet er godt, the word order is subject–verb–predicate. In the subordinate clause når vi lytter til musikken, the structure remains similar (subject vi, verb lytter, etc.), as Danish subordinate clauses introduced by a conjunction like når maintain the natural subject–verb order without the inversion sometimes seen in questions or other sentence types in English.