Breakdown of Det er en svær beslutning, men hun føler, at den er rigtig.
Questions & Answers about Det er en svær beslutning, men hun føler, at den er rigtig.
In Danish, det is often used as a formal/dummy subject when you introduce something for the first time, just like English “it is…”:
- Det er en bog. – It is a book.
- Det er en svær beslutning. – It is a difficult decision.
You normally use den (or det) as a referential pronoun only after the thing is already known in the context:
- Det er en bog. Bogen er spændende. – It’s a book. The book is exciting.
- Det er en svær beslutning. Den er svær, fordi … – It’s a difficult decision. It is difficult because …
So:
- Det er en svær beslutning = neutral introduction: “It is a difficult decision.”
- Den er en svær beslutning would sound odd, as if den must be already clear from context (like “that one is a difficult decision”), and even then you’d more likely say Den beslutning er svær.
Here, den is a pronoun that refers back to en svær beslutning.
- en beslutning is a common-gender noun (an en-word), so its pronoun is den.
- If the noun were neuter (an et-word), you’d use det.
Examples:
- Det er en bil. Den er rød. – It’s a car. It is red. (bil is en-word → den)
- Det er et hus. Det er rødt. – It’s a house. It is red. (hus is et-word → det)
In the sentence:
- Det er en svær beslutning, men hun føler, at den er rigtig.
– den clearly points back to beslutning, so you know the decision is what she feels is right.
Danish adjectives change form depending on gender, number, and definiteness.
Basic rules (simplified):
Indefinite singular, common gender (en-word): base form
- en svær beslutning – a difficult decision
- en gammel mand – an old man
Indefinite singular, neuter (et-word): usually add -t
- et svært valg – a difficult choice
- et gammelt hus – an old house
Plural: usually add -e
- svære beslutninger – difficult decisions
- gamle huse – old houses
Here:
- beslutning is an en-word, and the noun phrase is indefinite singular: en svær beslutning.
- So svær stays in the base form.
In den er rigtig, the adjective rigtig agrees with den, which stands for beslutningen (common gender, singular).
For predicative adjectives (after er, bliver, etc.):
Common gender singular or plural → no -t
- Beslutningen er rigtig. – The decision is right.
- De er glade. – They are happy.
Neuter singular → often -t
- Svar (et svar) → Svaret er rigtigt. – The answer is correct.
So:
- den er rigtig is correct because den = beslutningen (common gender).
- den er rigtigt would be ungrammatical in this context.
Yes, you can say:
- Hun føler, at det er rigtigt.
Differences in nuance:
den er rigtig
- den clearly refers back to beslutningen (the decision).
- Sounds more concrete: she feels that *the decision is right.*
det er rigtigt
- det is more vague or general: “that/it is right”.
- rigtigt with -t can be seen as either:
- agreeing with neuter det, or
- used adverbially, more like “is right / is correct” in a general sense.
So:
- … at den er rigtig = specifically: that this decision is right.
- … at det er rigtigt = more like: that this (situation / thing / what she’s doing) is right or “that’s the right thing.”
Both are natural; the original sentence just explicitly ties den back to beslutning.
Danish at has two common main uses:
Subordinating conjunction = “that”
- Introduces a clause (a full sentence) as an object:
- Jeg tror, at han kommer. – I think that he is coming.
- Hun føler, at den er rigtig. – She feels that it is right.
- Introduces a clause (a full sentence) as an object:
Infinitive marker = “to” (before verbs)
- at spise, at læse, at skrive
- Jeg elsker at læse. – I love to read.
How to tell which it is?
- If at is directly followed by a verb in the infinitive, it’s usually “to”:
- at spise, at gå, at købe
- If at is followed by a subject (like den, han, hun) and then a finite verb (er, kommer, siger), it’s “that”:
- at den er rigtig, at han kommer.
In hun føler, at den er rigtig, you have at + den + er, so this at = “that”.
Danish comma rules can be a bit complex, but for this sentence:
Det er en svær beslutning, men hun føler, at den er rigtig.
Comma before “men”
- men connects two main clauses:
- Det er en svær beslutning
- hun føler, at den er rigtig
- Danish normally puts a comma before coordinating conjunctions like men, og, for when they join full clauses.
- So …, men … is standard.
- men connects two main clauses:
Comma before “at”
- at den er rigtig is a subordinate clause (object of hun føler).
- Under the commonly used rules, a comma may be placed before such subordinate clauses. Many writers do so by habit:
- Hun føler, at den er rigtig.
- With the newest “new comma” rules, this comma is optional, but still very common and fully correct.
So the commas here are both standard and idiomatic Danish.
In a subordinate clause with at, the typical order is:
[at] + subject + (adverbs like ikke) + verb + rest
So:
- Hun føler, at den er rigtig.
- at (subordinator)
- den (subject)
- er (verb)
- rigtig (adjective)
If you make it negative:
- Hun føler, at den ikke er rigtig. – She feels that it is not right.
Notice:
- In main clauses, Danish has verb-second (V2) order and ikke usually comes after the verb:
- Den er ikke rigtig.
- In subordinate clauses with at, ikke comes before the verb:
- at den ikke er rigtig.
This shift in where ikke goes is one of the key word-order differences between main and subordinate clauses in Danish.
In colloquial spoken Danish, people sometimes drop at in clauses like this:
- Hun føler (at) den er rigtig.
- Jeg tror (at) han kommer.
However:
- In standard written Danish, it is more correct and clearer to keep at in this kind of sentence.
- If you drop at, you would normally also drop the comma in modern punctuation:
- Hun føler den er rigtig.
So:
- Hun føler, at den er rigtig. – safest, standard written form.
- Hun føler den er rigtig. – can occur, especially in informal writing or as a direct reflection of speech, but is less formal.
- Hun føler, den er rigtig. – with comma but without at is usually not recommended in modern standard writing.
They overlap, but they’re not always interchangeable.
beslutning
- Literally: decision, resolution.
- Focuses on the act of deciding or the outcome as a formal/clear decision.
- Used for:
- Personal decisions: en svær beslutning – a difficult decision
- Official decisions: regeringens beslutning – the government’s decision
valg
- Literally: choice or (political) election.
- More about choosing between options.
- Examples:
- et svært valg – a difficult choice
- at træffe et valg – to make a choice
- valg = an election: folketingsvalg – parliamentary election
In your sentence:
- Det er en svær beslutning emphasizes it as a “decision” someone has to make.
- You could also say Det er et svært valg, which would sound like “It’s a difficult choice (between options).” Slight nuance, but both are natural.
Both svær and vanskelig can mean “difficult”, and in many contexts they are interchangeable:
- Det er en svær beslutning.
- Det er en vanskelig beslutning.
Differences in feel:
svær
- Very common in everyday speech.
- Slightly more colloquial and broad in use:
- svært vejr, en svær opgave, det er svært at sige.
vanskelig
- Feels a bit more formal or written.
- Often used in more “official” or stylistically elevated language:
- en vanskelig situation, vanskelige forhold.
In this sentence, svær beslutning is completely natural and maybe a touch more conversational; vanskelig beslutning is also correct, just slightly more formal in tone.