Learn Hardcore Danish: Han er tilfreds med sin beslutning, og han forklarer det roligt, når nogen spørger ham om den. - He is satisfied with his decision, and he explains it calmly when someone asks him about it.

sin/sit/sine = his/her/their own (reflexive; refers back to the subject of the clause)
hans/hendes/deres = his/her/their (someone else’s) (non‑reflexive)

In the sentence:

Han er tilfreds med sin beslutning
→ He is satisfied with *his own decision.*

The subject of the clause is han, and the decision belongs to that same han, so Danish uses the reflexive sin.

If you said:

Han er tilfreds med hans beslutning,
it would normally be understood as:
He is satisfied with *another man’s decision.*

So sin is mandatory here to show that the decision is his own.

What’s the difference between tilfreds, glad, and lykkelig?

All three can be translated as positive feelings but with different nuances:

tilfreds = content, satisfied
- Calm, balanced satisfaction; not very emotional.
- Fits well with something like a decision, a result, a situation.
- Han er tilfreds med sin beslutning = He is satisfied/content with his decision.
glad = happy, pleased
- More emotional, often about mood.
- Han er glad = He is (feeling) happy.
lykkelig = very happy, overjoyed
- Stronger and more intense than glad.
- Han er lykkelig = He is (extremely) happy / blissful.

In this sentence, tilfreds sounds natural because a decision is something you’re more content or satisfied with, rather than ecstatic about.

Why do we say tilfreds med and not tilfreds af?

In Danish, the adjective tilfreds normally takes the preposition med:

tilfreds med noget = satisfied with something

Examples:

Jeg er tilfreds med resultatet. = I am satisfied with the result.
Vi er ikke tilfredse med servicen. = We are not satisfied with the service.

Using af here (tilfreds af noget) would be incorrect. This is just a fixed pattern you have to memorize: tilfreds med.

Why is it forklarer det roligt and not forklarer den roligt, when it refers to beslutning?

There are two different pronouns here:

det often works as a neutral object pronoun or a kind of “dummy” object.
den specifically refers to a common-gender noun (en-word) like en beslutning.

In han forklarer det roligt, det can refer more broadly to:

the matter, the situation, what he has decided, etc.

It’s not strictly tied to the grammatical gender of beslutning; it’s more like English “he explains it calmly”, where it is vague.

Later in the sentence:

når nogen spørger ham om den

Here den clearly refers back to beslutning:

en beslutning → den
the decision → it (specifically that feminine/common-gender noun)

So:

det = a neutral “it” (the whole thing), very flexible.
den = “it” that matches the en‑word beslutning.

Why is it roligt and not rolig in han forklarer det roligt?

Rolig is the adjective meaning calm.

To make an adverb (describing how he explains it), Danish often adds -t to the adjective:

rolig (adjective) → roligt (adverb)
- en rolig mand = a calm man
- han forklarer det roligt = he explains it calmly

So roligt here modifies the verb forklarer (how he explains), not a noun, which is why it takes the -t and becomes an adverb form.

Why is når used here and not hvis or da?

The conjunctions have different uses:

når = when, whenever
- Used for repeated or general events (present/future) and also for some single events in the future.
- når nogen spørger ham = when(ever) someone asks him (general habit).
hvis = if
- Used for conditions.
- hvis nogen spørger ham = if someone asks him (maybe they will, maybe not).
da = when (past, single event)
- Used for a specific, completed time in the past.
- Da nogen spurgte ham, forklarede han det roligt.
  = When someone asked him (that time), he explained it calmly.

In your sentence, it’s about what usually/whenever happens, so når is the natural choice.

What is the word order rule in når nogen spørger ham om den?

In a Danish subordinate clause introduced by når, the basic order is:

Conjunction
Subject
Verb
Other elements

So:

når (conjunction)
nogen (subject)
spørger (verb)
ham (indirect object)
om den (prepositional object)

når nogen spørger ham om den literally follows:

[når] [nogen] [spørger] [ham] [om den]

You do not invert subject and verb after når. Inversion (verb before subject) is typical in main clauses after a fronted element, not in subordinate clauses.

Why is it spørger ham om den and not something like spørger ham den?

In Danish, at spørge nogen om noget is the standard pattern:

spørge nogen om noget = ask someone about something

So you need the preposition om before the thing you ask about:

spørger ham om den = ask him about it (the decision)
spørger hende om vejret = ask her about the weather
spørger læreren om lektierne = ask the teacher about the homework

If you say spørger ham den, it is ungrammatical. The preposition om is required here.

Why is it om den and not om det, even though earlier we had det?

The choice between den and det depends on the grammatical gender of the noun being referred to:

en beslutning (common gender) → den
et problem (neuter) → det

Since beslutning is an en‑word:

en beslutning → den
→ om den = about it (the decision)

Earlier in han forklarer det roligt, det is not directly tied to gender; it’s the neutral, general object “it” (the situation/thing). But when you explicitly refer back to the noun beslutning, you use den to match its gender.

Why is the pronoun ham used (object form) and not han in spørger ham om den?

Danish, like English, has different forms for subject and object pronouns:

Subject: jeg, du, han, hun, vi, I, de
Object: mig, dig, ham, hende, os, jer, dem

In the phrase når nogen spørger ham om den:

nogen is the subject (the one who asks).
ham is the object (the one who is being asked).

So the object form ham is required, just like English ask him, not “ask he”.