Learn Hardcore Danish: I dag lærer vi om det refleksive ejestedord “sin, sit, sine”. - Today we learn about the reflexive possessive pronoun “sin, sit, sine”.

I dag lærer vi om … = Today we’re learning about … (focus on today).
Vi lærer i dag om … = We’re learning today about … (focus more on we / the action).

Danish main clauses follow the V2 rule: the verb must be in second position.
So:

I dag (1st position)
lærer (verb, 2nd position)
vi (subject, 3rd position)

You can move other elements (like I dag) to first position, but the conjugated verb stays second.

What tense is lærer here? Does it mean “learn” or “are learning” or “will learn”?

Lærer is the present tense of at lære (to learn).

Danish present tense often covers:

simple present: We learn about…
present continuous: We are learning about…
near future (especially with a time word like i dag): We’re learning (will learn) today about…

So I dag lærer vi om … can naturally be translated as:

Today we’re learning about … or
Today we’ll be learning about …

Why is there no word like are in lærer vi? In English I’d say we are learning.

Danish does not use a separate auxiliary like “are” to form the present continuous.

English: We are learning
Danish: Vi lærer

The single verb lærer already expresses “are learning” in context.
There is no vi er lærer or vi er lærende here – that would be wrong or at least very odd in modern Danish for this meaning.

Why do we use the preposition om in lærer vi om? Can I say lærer vi det refleksive ejestedord without om?

With at lære meaning to learn about (a topic), Danish normally uses om:

at lære om grammatik – to learn about grammar
I dag lærer vi om det refleksive ejestedord … – Today we learn about the reflexive possessive pronoun…

If you remove om:

lærer vi det refleksive ejestedord
sounds like we teach the reflexive possessive pronoun or we learn it by heart – it’s not the natural way to say “learn about” a topic.

So for “learn about X”, keep om.

What exactly does det refleksive ejestedord mean?

Break it down:

det – the (neuter singular article)
refleksive – reflexive
ejestedord – literally possessing-word → a possessive pronoun / determiner

So det refleksive ejestedord is:

“the reflexive possessive pronoun” (or reflexive possessive determiner).

It refers to the special possessive forms sin, sit, sine that refer back to the subject of the clause.

Why is it det refleksive ejestedord (singular) when we actually list three words: sin, sit, sine?

Because the sentence is talking about one grammatical category, not counting the individual forms.

Think:

the reflexive possessive pronoun “sin, sit, sine”

Danish treats ejestedord here as a type of word in general (neuter, singular), hence det.
The three forms sin, sit, sine are different forms of that one reflexive possessive pronoun.

What is the difference between sin / sit / sine and hans / hendes / deres?

Sin / sit / sine = reflexive possessive: the thing belongs to the subject of the same clause.
Hans / hendes / deres = non‑reflexive possessive: the thing belongs to someone else (not the subject), or you want to emphasize that.

Example:

Peter elsker sin hund.
= Peter loves his (own) dog.
Peter elsker hans hund.
Normally understood as: Peter loves some other man’s dog (not his own).

So sin/sit/sine always point back to the grammatical subject, while hans/hendes/deres do not.

How do I know when to use sin, sit, or sine?

They agree with the noun they modify, not with the owner.

sin: before a common gender (en‑word) singular noun
- sin bog – his/her own book (en bog)
sit: before a neuter (et‑word) singular noun
- sit hus – his/her own house (et hus)
sine: before plural nouns (any gender)
- sine bøger – his/her own books
- sine huse – his/her own houses

Subject doesn’t matter for choosing sin/sit/sine; the possessed noun does.

Why is ejestedord one long word? In English it would be “possessive pronoun” (two words).

Danish frequently forms compound nouns by writing them as one word:

eje – to own / possess
sted – place
ord – word

Historically: a word that “places” ownership → ejestedord.
So where English often has a noun + noun phrase (possessive pronoun), Danish typically combines them into one compound noun.

Why is I dag written as two words and is the I capitalized for a special reason?

I dag literally = in day → “today”.
It is normally written as two words in standard Danish (though you may see idag informally).
The I is capitalized here only because it is the first word of the sentence, not because I dag is a proper noun.

In the middle of a sentence, you’d write:

Vi mødes i dag. – We’re meeting today.

Could you also say I dag skal vi lære om det refleksive ejestedord …? What is the difference from I dag lærer vi …?

Yes, that’s also correct, but there’s a nuance:

I dag lærer vi om …
→ Present tense; sounds like a plan or description of what’s happening today, quite neutral.
I dag skal vi lære om …
→ Uses skal, suggests a scheduled/obligatory activity (like a lesson plan):
Today we are going to learn about … / Today we’re supposed to learn about …

Both are fine in a classroom context; skal adds more of a “that’s on today’s program” feeling.

Why are sin, sit, sine in quotation marks?

They are being mentioned as words rather than used in a normal sentence.

Quotation marks (or sometimes italics) are used to highlight linguistic items:

I dag lærer vi om det refleksive ejestedord “sin, sit, sine”.
= Today we’re learning about the reflexive possessive pronoun, namely the forms sin, sit, sine.

It tells you: These are the forms we will talk about, not part of the main clause’s grammar.