Hun åbner sit vindue i stuen.

She opens her window in the living room.

Breakdown of Hun åbner sit vindue i stuen.

• i: in
• åbne: to open
• vinduet: the window
• hun: she
• stuen: the living room
• sit: his/her own

Questions & Answers about Hun åbner sit vindue i stuen.

Why is it sit vindue and not hendes vindue?

Danish has two types of “her/his/its” for third person singular:

• sin / sit / sine – reflexive possessive (refers back to the subject of the same clause)
• hans / hendes / dens / dets – non‑reflexive possessive (refers to someone/something else)

In Hun åbner sit vindue i stuen, the subject is Hun (she), and the window belongs to that same hun. So Danish uses the reflexive form:

• Hun åbner sit vindue… = She opens her own window.

If you said:

• Hun åbner hendes vindue i stuen, it normally means:
  She opens *another woman’s window in the living room* (not her own).

So sit tells us the window belongs to hun herself.

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What is the difference between sin, sit and sine?

They are all reflexive possessive pronouns meaning his/her/its/their own, and they agree with the noun they describe:

• sin – with common gender (en‑words), singular
  
  • sin bog (en bog) – his/her own book
• sit – with neuter gender (et‑words), singular
  
  • sit vindue (et vindue) – his/her own window
• sine – with any plural noun
  
  • sine bøger (bøger = plural) – his/her own books

Here, vindue is a neuter noun (et vindue), so we use sit: sit vindue.

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Why is it i stuen and not something like på stuen?

The preposition i usually means in / inside and is used with rooms and enclosed spaces:

• i stuen – in the living room
• i køkkenet – in the kitchen
• i soveværelset – in the bedroom

The preposition på (on/at) is used with many other kinds of places (e.g. på arbejde, på skolen, på bordet), but not normally with stue when you mean inside the room.

So i stuen is the natural way to say in the living room.

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Why is it stuen and not just stue?

Danish usually marks definiteness on the noun with a suffix:

• stue = a living room
• stuen = the living room

In English, you would normally say in the living room here, not in a living room, because it refers to a specific, known living room (e.g. in her home). That is why Danish uses the definite form stuen.

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What are the genders of vindue and stue, and how do they affect the sentence?

Danish has two grammatical genders:

• Common gender (n‑words) – usually take en
• Neuter gender (t‑words) – usually take et

For these nouns:

• en stue – a living room → definite: stuen
• et vindue – a window → definite: vinduet

This matters for:

1. The possessive pronoun:

   • sin stue (common gender)
   • sit vindue (neuter gender)

2. The definite form:

   • stuen (‑en for common)
   • vinduet (‑et for neuter)

So we say sit vindue because vindue is neuter (et vindue).

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Could you also say Hun åbner vinduet i stuen without sit?

Yes, but the meaning changes slightly.

• Hun åbner sit vindue i stuen.
  Emphasizes that it is her own window.

• Hun åbner vinduet i stuen.
  Just says the window in the living room without explicitly stating whose it is. Context usually suggests it’s hers, but grammatically it’s just a specific, known window:

  • vinduet = the window (definite form of et vindue)

So sit vindue focuses on possession; vinduet focuses on “the particular window”.

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How is the verb åbner working here? It doesn’t change like English opens/open.

Danish verbs do not change with the subject in the present tense. The present is formed with ‑r (or sometimes ‑er) on the stem:

• jeg åbner – I open
• du åbner – you open
• han/hun åbner – he/she opens
• vi åbner – we open
• I åbner – you (plural) open
• de åbner – they open

So åbner is the same for all persons. In Hun åbner sit vindue i stuen, åbner is the present tense: opens / is opening.

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Is the word order fixed? Could I say I stuen åbner hun sit vindue?

Both are grammatical, but they have different emphasis.

Neutral, most typical order:

• Hun åbner sit vindue i stuen.
  Subject (Hun) first, then verb (åbner), then objects and adverbial (i stuen).

If you move i stuen to the front:

• I stuen åbner hun sit vindue.
  This puts extra focus on the place (the living room). It can sound more narrative, like setting the scene:
  In the living room, she opens her window.

So the basic word order is Subject–Verb–(Object)–(Adverbial), but you can front an adverbial like i stuen for emphasis, as long as the verb is still in the second position in the main clause (the V2 rule).

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Why is it Hun and not something like Hende for “she”?

Danish distinguishes between subject and object pronouns, similar to she vs her in English:

• Subject form: hun – she
• Object form: hende – her

In this sentence, the pronoun is the subject of the verb åbner, so the subject form is required:

• Hun åbner sit vindue i stuen. – She opens her window in the living room.

You would use hende after a preposition or as an object:

• Jeg ser hende. – I see her.
• Gaven er til hende. – The gift is for her.