Hun lægger sin mobil i lommen.

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Breakdown of Hun lægger sin mobil i lommen.

• hun: she
• lægge: to put
• lommen: the pocket

Questions & Answers about Hun lægger sin mobil i lommen.

Why is it lægger and not ligger in this sentence?

Danish distinguishes between two different verbs that both correspond to English “lay/put” vs “lie/be lying”:

• lægge (here: lægger) = to lay/put something somewhere (takes an object)
  • Hun lægger sin mobil i lommen. – She puts her phone in the pocket.
• ligge (here: ligger) = to lie / be lying (no object)
  • Mobilen ligger i lommen. – The phone is (lying) in the pocket.

So you use lægger when you actively place something somewhere, and ligger when something is already in a lying position somewhere.

Why is it sin mobil and not hendes mobil?

Danish has a reflexive possessive pronoun: sin/sit/sine.

• sin/sit/sine refers back to the subject of the same clause.
• hans/hendes/deres refer to someone else (not the subject).

In Hun lægger sin mobil i lommen:

• Subject: Hun (she)
• Possessive: sin mobil

sin refers back to hun, so it means her own phone.

If you say Hun lægger hendes mobil i lommen, it usually means:

• She puts another woman’s phone in the pocket (not her own).