Breakdown of Min søster drikker hverken kaffe eller te.
drikke
to drink
min
my
kaffen
the coffee
teen
the tea
søsteren
the sister
hverken
neither
eller
nor
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Questions & Answers about Min søster drikker hverken kaffe eller te.
Do I need ikke in this sentence?
No. The pair hverken ... eller already carries the negation, so Min søster drikker hverken kaffe eller te. is complete. You can also say Min søster drikker ikke kaffe eller te. (common in speech). Avoid mixing them as Min søster drikker ikke hverken kaffe eller te, which sounds redundant/nonstandard.
Where does hverken go?
Put hverken right before the first excluded element: drikker hverken kaffe eller te. You can also front the whole pair for emphasis: Hverken kaffe eller te drikker min søster. If you’re excluding verbs, put it before the first verb: Min søster hverken drikker kaffe eller spiser kage.
Can I use hverken ... eller with things other than nouns?
Yes.
- Adjectives: Jeg er hverken træt eller sulten.
- Verbs: Han hverken kan eller vil hjælpe.
- Prepositional phrases/time: Vi mødes hverken i dag eller i morgen.
Why is there no article before kaffe and te?
Because they’re mass nouns when you mean the drinks in general. After activity verbs like drikke, Danish typically drops the article: drikker kaffe/te. Use the definite if you mean specific drinks (drikker kaffen/teen) or say en kop kaffe/te for “a cup of …”.
Can I say en kaffe to mean “a coffee”?
Yes, colloquially when ordering: Jeg vil gerne have en kaffe. More explicit is en kop kaffe. For tea, en kop te; en te is also heard in cafés.
Why is it min søster and not mit søster?
Søster is common gender (an en-word), so the possessive is min. Use mit with neuter (et-words), e.g., mit barn. Plural is mine: mine søstre.
How would the sentence look in the plural?
Mine søstre drikker hverken kaffe eller te.
Is drikker used for both “drinks” and “is drinking”?
Yes. Danish present tense covers both simple and progressive:
- Habit: Hun drikker kaffe hver dag.
- Right now: Hun drikker kaffe nu.
What’s the difference between hverken ... eller and enten ... eller?
- Hverken ... eller = “neither … nor” (negative): Hun drikker hverken kaffe eller te.
- Enten ... eller = “either … or” (choice): Hun drikker enten kaffe eller te. Don’t use og with hverken.
How else can I express the same idea?
- Two clauses with heller: Hun drikker ikke kaffe, og hun drikker heller ikke te.
- Single clause with ikke ... eller: Hun drikker ikke kaffe eller te.
- Using a pronoun: Hun drikker ingen af delene.
Any word-order rules I should note?
Main clauses are V2 (the finite verb is in second position). In Min søster drikker hverken kaffe eller te, the subject is first and drikker is second. If you front the excluded items, the verb stays second: Hverken kaffe eller te drikker min søster.
How do I pronounce the tricky parts?
- hverken: the h in hv is silent; start with a v sound. æ like the vowel in English “bed” (slightly more open). Final -er is a weak, schwa-like syllable.
- søster: ø like French eu (as in “peur”). Final -er is weak; the r isn’t fully pronounced.
- drikker: short first vowel; Danish guttural r; weak final -er.
- te: like English “tay,” usually quite short.
Do I need a comma before eller here?
No. It’s a simple coordination inside the object phrase (hverken kaffe eller te), so no comma.
Can I negate the subject instead, like “Neither my sister nor my brother drinks coffee”?
Yes: Hverken min søster eller min bror drikker kaffe. (Verb still in second position.)
What are common mistakes to avoid?
- Doubling negation in this structure: avoid ikke hverken ... eller.
- Using og instead of eller after hverken.
- Inserting articles by default: don’t say drikker en kaffe/te when you mean coffee/tea in general.