Learn Hardcore Danish: Selvom hun er fattig, hjælper hun stadig sine venner. - Although she is poor, she still helps her friends.

When the sentence starts with the subject, you say: Hun hjælper stadig sine venner. (subject = first element, verb = second).
When you move something else to the front (here the whole selvom-clause), that counts as the first element, so the verb has to move in front of the subject:

Selvom hun er fattig, (1st element) hjælper (2nd element) hun stadig sine venner.

So after an initial subordinate clause, Danish inverts the word order in the following main clause: hjælper hun, går jeg, kommer de, etc.

Why is it sine venner and not hendes venner?

Danish makes a distinction between sine (reflexive possessive) and hendes (non‑reflexive).

sine refers back to the subject of the same clause.
hendes refers to some other female, not the subject.

In … hjælper hun stadig sine venner, sine refers back to hun in that clause: she helps her (own) friends.

If you said … hjælper hun stadig hendes venner, it would normally mean:
she helps *her (another woman’s) friends* – i.e. the friends of some other woman already known in the context.

So here sine is correct because the friends belong to the subject hun.

Why is it hun er fattig and not hun er fattige?

Adjectives in Danish behave differently when they are:

attributive (before a noun): then they take endings, e.g. en fattig kvinde, et fattigt barn, fattige venner.
predicative (after verbs like er, bliver): then they are normally in the base form, with no ending.

Here fattig comes after er and describes the subject, so it is predicative:

Hun er fattig.
De er fattige. (plural subject → adjective gets plural -e)
Han er rig.

Because hun is singular, the adjective stays in the base singular form fattig.

Why is there a comma after fattig?

Danish normally puts a comma between a subordinate clause and the main clause that follows it.

Selvom hun er fattig = subordinate clause (introduced by selvom).
hjælper hun stadig sine venner = main clause.

So you write:

Selvom hun er fattig, hjælper hun stadig sine venner.

You would write it the same way if you reversed the order, but then the comma is not needed:

Hun hjælper stadig sine venner, selvom hun er fattig.
(Here the comma before selvom is optional in modern Danish; many people omit it.)

What exactly does selvom do in this sentence? Is it like “although” in English?

Yes. selvom is a subordinating conjunction that introduces a contrast or concession, just like although / even though in English.

It introduces a clause that states something true but contrasted with what follows:
- Selvom hun er fattig, (conceded fact)
- hjælper hun stadig sine venner. (contrasting action)

So selvom always begins a subordinate clause with normal subject–verb order: selvom hun er fattig, selvom han arbejder, selvom vi er trætte, etc.

Can you also write selv om as two words instead of selvom?

Yes. Both selvom and selv om are accepted in modern Danish and mean the same thing.

Selvom hun er fattig, hjælper hun stadig sine venner.
Selv om hun er fattig, hjælper hun stadig sine venner.

In practice:

selvom (one word) is more common today, especially in informal writing.
selv om (two words) is more traditional and may be preferred by some style guides, but it is not wrong.

You can safely use selvom as your default.

Can I say Selvom at hun er fattig or is that wrong?

You will hear many Danes say selvom at, but in standard written Danish it is usually considered unnecessary or non‑standard.

Recommended: Selvom hun er fattig, …
Colloquial / often discouraged in writing: Selvom at hun er fattig, …

For clear, correct Danish (especially in anything formal or written), avoid at after selvom and similar conjunctions like fordi, når, hvis.

Why is stadig placed between hun and sine venner? Could it go somewhere else?

stadig is an adverb (still), and adverbs in Danish usually go in the midfield of the clause, after the verb and subject:

Hun hjælper stadig sine venner.
After inversion: … hjælper hun stadig sine venner.

You do have some flexibility:

Hun hjælper stadig sine venner. (neutral, most common)
Hun hjælper sine venner stadig. (possible, but sounds marked; could stress “it’s the friends she still helps”)

Putting stadig before the verb is not normal in a simple statement:

*Hun stadig hjælper sine venner. (wrong as a neutral statement)

So the position in the sentence you gave is the standard neutral word order.

Why is hun repeated? Could you just say Selvom er fattig, hjælper stadig sine venner?

No, you must repeat hun. Danish is not a “pro‑drop” language – subjects are normally required in each finite clause.

Your sentence has two clauses:

Selvom hun er fattig (subordinate clause)
hjælper hun stadig sine venner (main clause)

Each clause needs its own subject (hun), even though both subjects refer to the same person. You cannot omit hun in either clause.

Is the word order hun er fattig special because it’s after selvom?

The clause introduced by selvom is a subordinate clause, and in subordinate clauses the normal pattern is:

[conjunction] + subject + verb + …

So we get:

Selvom hun er fattig …
Selvom han arbejder hårdt …
Selvom vi er trætte …

This is different from main clauses, where:

If something other than the subject comes first, the finite verb must be second → hjælper hun, arbejder han, er vi, etc.

So:

Subordinate clause: selvom hun er fattig (subject before verb)
Following main clause: hjælper hun stadig sine venner (verb before subject because of V2)

Are the verbs er and hjælper changing form for person, like in English am / is / are?

No. Danish verbs do not change for person or number in the present tense.

jeg er, du er, han/hun er, vi er, I er, de er – always er.
jeg hjælper, du hjælper, han/hun hjælper, etc. – always hjælper.

So in this sentence, er and hjælper are just the regular present tense forms, used with any subject.

How are the tricky sounds in hjælper and stadig pronounced?

Very briefly:

hjælper:
- The h in hj is silent.
- The j is like English y in yes.
- Roughly “yel-per” (with a Danish r at the end).
stadig:
- The d before i is a soft d, made with the tongue lightly against the teeth; it sounds a bit like a soft th in this, but weaker.
- Final -ig is often pronounced like -i (a short, relaxed i) in many accents.
- A rough approximation in English: “sta-thi” (with the Danish soft d and short i).

Precise pronunciation will vary by dialect, but these guidelines will make you understandable.