Learn Hardcore Danish: Maden, som min mor laver, smager godt. - The food that my mother makes tastes good.

Mad means food. Danish usually shows “the” by adding a definite ending to the noun instead of using a separate word like English the.

mad = food
maden = the food

So Maden at the beginning means “The food …”.

Why do we use som here, and what does it do?

Som is a relative pronoun, like English that / which / who in a relative clause.

In Maden, som min mor laver, smager godt:

som min mor laver = that my mother makes
som refers back to maden (the food)

So som links the noun maden to the extra information min mor laver (my mother makes).

Could we use der instead of som here?

In this sentence, som is the normal and best choice.

Very roughly:

som can be used for both subject and object in a relative clause.
der is mostly used when it is the subject of the relative clause, and even then som is usually fine too.

Here, som is the object of laver (it’s “what she makes”), so der would usually sound wrong or at least very odd to Danes. You should say:

Maden, som min mor laver, smager godt. ✅

Is som the subject or the object in som min mor laver?

In som min mor laver:

min mor = subject (my mother)
laver = verb (makes)
som = object (what she makes)

So som is the object of laver, referring back to maden (the food).

Can som be left out, like English sometimes leaves out that?

Yes, when som is not the subject of the relative clause, it can often be dropped, especially in speech and informal writing.

So you can say:

Maden, som min mor laver, smager godt.
Maden, min mor laver, smager godt. (more informal / spoken)

Both are understandable. The version with som is safer and more clearly correct, especially in writing.

Why are there commas around som min mor laver?

The commas mark off the relative clause som min mor laver (“that my mother makes”) from the rest of the sentence.

Danish has two accepted comma systems. Depending on which you follow, you may see:

Maden, som min mor laver, smager godt.
Maden som min mor laver smager godt.

Both are considered correct today. The version you have (with commas) visually separates the extra information som min mor laver from the main clause Maden … smager godt.

Why is it smager godt and not er god?

Both are possible, but they mean slightly different things:

Maden smager godt.
= The food tastes good. (focus on the taste/sensation)
Maden er god.
= The food is good. (more general judgement; could be about quality overall)

In the given sentence, we are specifically talking about how the food tastes, so smager godt is very natural.

Why is it godt and not god after smager?

In Danish, god changes form depending on how it’s used:

god – common gender singular adjective (e.g. en god bog = a good book)
godt – neuter singular and adverb form

After many sense verbs like smage (taste), lugte (smell), lyde (sound), se ud (look), you typically use the adverb form:

Maden smager godt. = The food tastes good.
Det lyder godt. = That sounds good.

So godt here functions like an adverb describing how it tastes.

Why does the verb smager come right after maden?

Danish main clauses follow the V2 rule (“verb-second” rule):

The finite verb (here smager) must be the second element of the clause.

In Maden, som min mor laver, smager godt:

First element: Maden, som min mor laver (the whole subject phrase)
Second element: smager (the verb)
Rest: godt (adverb)

So even though the subject is long, the finite verb still comes second in the main clause.

Why do we say min mor laver and not something like min mor er ved at lave (is making)?

Danish usually uses the simple present tense where English might use the present continuous (-ing form).

So:

min mor laver can mean:
- my mother makes (in general), or
- my mother is making (right now), depending on context.

You only need er ved at lave (literally “is at making”) when you really want to stress that something is happening right now:

Maden, som min mor er ved at lave, smager altid godt.
= The food my mother is (currently) in the process of making always tastes good.

Could we say som min mor laver den to repeat maden?

No. In the relative clause, som already stands for maden, so you must not add den again.

Maden, som min mor laver, smager godt. ✅
Maden, som min mor laver den, smager godt. ❌ (incorrect; den is redundant)

Think of som as filling the “object slot” in the clause. You can’t fill that slot twice.

Can maden be replaced with a pronoun like den here?

Yes, you can use den when the noun is already known from context:

Den, som min mor laver, smager godt.
= The one that my mother makes tastes good.

Here den stands for some previously mentioned food or dish.
Maden is more explicit; den is more like “that one / it”.

Is this sentence talking about a specific meal or food in general?

Because maden is definite (“the food”) and we have a specific relative clause som min mor laver, it naturally refers to specific food: the food that my mother makes.

If you wanted a more general statement about food she makes, you might see something like:

Mad, som min mor laver, smager godt.
(more general: “Food that my mother makes tastes good.”)

But Danes will often still use the definite form for more habitual situations too, so context is important.