Learn Hardcore Danish: Hans nye jakke er meget dyr, men han bruger ikke mange penge på andet tøj. - His new jacket is very expensive, but he does not spend much money on other clothes.

Indefinite, no determiner: en ny jakke – a new jacket
With a possessive or definite article: hans nye jakke, min nye jakke, den nye jakke

So when you have a possessive like hans, min, vores, etc., the adjective usually takes -e:

min nye jakke
hans gamle bil
vores store hus

That’s why it is nye jakke here, not ny jakke.

Why is dyr without -e, when nye has -e?

Because nye and dyr play different grammatical roles:

nye is in front of the noun (hans nye jakke), so it’s an attributive adjective. Those get -e in definite / possessive forms.
dyr comes after the verb (jakken er meget dyr), so it’s a predicative adjective. Predicative adjectives usually take the base form in the common-gender singular.

Patterns for predicative adjectives:

En jakke er dyr. – common gender, singular → dyr
Et hus er dyrt. – neuter, singular → dyrt
Jakkerne er dyre. – plural → dyre

So jakke(n) er dyr, but den dyre jakke in front of the noun.

How do I know if Hans is a name or the pronoun hans meaning his?

From this single sentence, you technically can’t tell for sure, because:

A name: Hans nye jakke = Hans’s new jacket
The possessive pronoun: hans nye jakke = his new jacket

Sentence-initial words are always capitalized, so Hans at the start could be either.

You would normally rely on context:

If the text is about a man called Hans, then Hans nye jakke is probably Hans’s new jacket.
If the previous sentence mentioned some male person (e.g. Peter), then hans nye jakke would likely mean his new jacket (Peter’s).

So: you need surrounding context to decide whether it’s a name or the pronoun here.

Why is the word order han bruger ikke mange penge and not han bruger mange penge ikke?

Danish main clauses typically follow this pattern:

Subject – finite verb – (small adverbs like ikke) – objects / other elements

So you get:

Han bruger ikke mange penge …

Putting ikke at the end, like han bruger mange penge ikke, is ungrammatical in standard Danish.

More examples:

Jeg spiser ikke kød. – not Jeg spiser kød ikke.
Vi har ikke tid. – not Vi har tid ikke.

So ikke comes directly after the conjugated verb (unless there is another short adverb there too), and before the objects.

What does bruger mean here? I thought bruge meant to use, not to spend.

Brug(e) does basically mean to use, but in some fixed combinations it is translated as to spend in English.

With penge (money) and tid (time), bruge is usually understood as spend:

at bruge penge på noget – to spend money on something
at bruge tid på noget – to spend time on something

So:

han bruger ikke mange penge på andet tøj
literally: he uses not many money on other clothes
idiomatically: he doesn’t spend much money on other clothes

Why do we say ikke mange penge and not meget penge?

Two separate points:

mange vs meget
- mange is used with countable plural nouns:
  mange venner, mange bøger, mange penge
- meget is used with uncountable / mass nouns:
  meget vand, meget tid, meget sukker
Even though money feels mass-like in English, penge is grammatically plural in Danish, so you say mange penge, not meget penge.
ikke mange
- ikke mange penge = not many money → not much money
  It means there is some, but not a lot.

So ikke mange penge is the correct way to say not much money, and you need mange (not meget) because penge is a plural noun.

Why is it meget dyr and not meget dyre or something else?

Here meget is an adverb meaning very, modifying the adjective dyr:

meget dyr = very expensive

As explained earlier, dyr here is predicative (after er) and refers to a singular common-gender noun (jakke). So the correct form is:

jakken er dyr
jakken er meget dyr

You only get dyre in plural or in definite attributive form:

de dyre jakker – the expensive jackets
dyre jakker – expensive jackets (plural)
jakkerne er dyre – the jackets are expensive

What does andet tøj literally mean, and why is it andet and not andre?

The adjective anden means other / another and has these forms:

anden – common gender singular
andet – neuter singular
andre – plural (both genders)

The noun tøj (clothes) is neuter in Danish, so the matching form is andet:

andet tøj = other clothes / other clothing

Some contrasts:

en anden jakke – another / a different jacket (common gender)
et andet hus – another / a different house (neuter)
andre jakker – other jackets (plural)
andet tøj – other clothes (neuter, mass noun)

Why is there no article before andet tøj? Could I say andet tøjet or noget andet tøj?

Tøj is usually treated as an uncountable / mass noun in Danish when you mean clothing in general. In that use:

You normally don’t use an indefinite article:
- andet tøj – other clothes
- varmt tøj – warm clothes
- pænt tøj – nice clothes

Andet tøjet is not correct in this general meaning. With the definite form tøjet, you would need something like:

det andet af tøjet – the other of the clothes / the other part of the clothes

But that’s a different, more specific meaning.

You can say:

noget andet tøj – some other clothes

This emphasizes some amount of other clothing, rather than clothes in general. Both andet tøj and noget andet tøj are possible; the sentence here just keeps it general.

Why is there a comma before men?

In Danish, you normally put a comma before coordinating conjunctions like men, og, for, så, etc. when they link two main clauses (each with its own subject and finite verb).

Here we have:

Hans nye jakke er meget dyr – main clause
han bruger ikke mange penge på andet tøj – main clause

They are joined by men, so you write:

Hans nye jakke er meget dyr, men han bruger ikke mange penge på andet tøj.

That comma marks the boundary between the two clauses.

Could I say bruger ikke mange penge til andet tøj or leave out på?

The usual construction in Danish is:

bruge penge på noget – to spend money on something

So the natural phrasing is:

han bruger ikke mange penge på andet tøj

Using til instead of på here sounds odd or non‑idiomatic in standard Danish. And you cannot just drop the preposition; bruge penge noget is incorrect.

Other common patterns with bruge:

bruge penge på mad – spend money on food
bruge mange penge på at rejse – spend a lot of money on travelling

So in this sentence, på is required.