Min bror tager bussen til skolen.

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Breakdown of Min bror tager bussen til skolen.

• skolen: the school
• til: to
• tage: to take

Questions & Answers about Min bror tager bussen til skolen.

What does tager mean here? Is it “takes” or “is taking”?

Danish has just one present tense, so tager can mean both:

• Habitual: My brother takes the bus (generally).
• Right now: My brother is taking the bus (right now).

If you need to stress an ongoing action, you can say:

• Min bror er ved at tage bussen. (He is in the process of taking the bus.)
• Min bror sidder i bussen. (He is sitting on the bus.)

Why is it min bror and not mit or mine?

• min is used with common-gender (en-words) singular nouns: min bror (my brother), min skole (my school).
• mit is for neuter-gender (et-words) singular nouns: mit hus (my house).
• mine is for all plurals: mine brødre (my brothers), mine skoler (my schools).

Why are bussen and skolen in the definite form (-en)?

• Public transport is typically used with the definite form in Danish: tage bussen/toget/metroen is idiomatic.
• til skolen is definite because it refers to a specific, known school (usually the brother’s school).
• You can use the indefinite when you mean “some bus/some school” in a non-specific way: tager en bus, but that’s less common when talking about a routine.