Det er svært at lave lektier, hvis filmen i fjernsynet er meget spændende.

It is hard to do homework if the film on the television is very exciting.

Breakdown of Det er svært at lave lektier, hvis filmen i fjernsynet er meget spændende.

• i: in
• være: to be
• at: to
• det: it
• meget: very
• hvis: if
• fjernsynet: the television
• svært: difficult
• filmen: the film
• spændende: exciting
• lektien: the homework
• lave: to do

Questions & Answers about Det er svært at lave lektier, hvis filmen i fjernsynet er meget spændende.

Why does the sentence start with Det er svært at… instead of just At lave lektier er svært?

Danish very often uses det as a dummy subject, just like English does in It is hard to do homework.

Both are grammatically correct:

• Det er svært at lave lektier … – very natural, neutral style.
• At lave lektier er svært … – also correct, but sounds a bit more formal or “bookish”.

In everyday speech and writing, Danes strongly prefer the Det er … at … pattern when talking about how easy/difficult/important/etc. it is to do something:

• Det er vigtigt at læse. – It is important to read.
• Det er svært at forstå. – It is hard to understand.

Why is it svært and not svær or svære?

Svær is an adjective that changes form depending on gender/number:

• Common gender: svær (en svær opgave)
• Neuter: svært (et svært fag)
• Plural: svære (svære opgaver)

In Det er svært, the adjective agrees with det, which is grammatically neuter, so the form must be svært.

Whenever you use this “dummy det + adjective” structure, the adjective normally appears in its neuter form:

• Det er godt. – It is good.
• Det er vigtigt. – It is important.
• Det er svært. – It is difficult.

Why is there at before lave, and can it ever be left out?

Here, at marks the infinitive, like to in English:

• at lave – to do/make
• at læse – to read
• at skrive – to write

In the structure det er [adjective] at [verb], at is required:

• Det er svært at lave lektier. – It is hard to do homework.
• Det er nemt at læse denne bog. – It is easy to read this book.

Danish can sometimes drop at after certain modal-like verbs (e.g. vil, kan, skal), but det er svært at … is not one of those cases. You cannot say:

✗ Det er svært lave lektier.

Why is it lave lektier and not something like gøre lektier?

In Danish, lave lektier is the fixed, idiomatic way to say do homework.

• lave lektier – do homework (standard expression)
• gøre lektier – sounds wrong/foreign to Danes in this meaning

The verb lave is very flexible and covers both make and do in English, depending on context:

• lave mad – cook (literally: make food)
• lave fejl – make mistakes
• lave lektier – do homework

So whenever you want to say you’re doing homework, use lave lektier.

Why is lektier plural and why is there no article like nogle or mine?

Lektier is most often used in the plural to mean homework in general, not individual assignments.

• lektier – homework (as a general activity)
• lektien – the homework (one specific piece of homework)
• lektierne – the homework (specific pieces, known from context)

In this sentence, we are talking about the activity in general, so the bare plural lektier is natural.

You could add a determiner for a more specific meaning:

• Det er svært at lave sine lektier … – It is hard to do one’s homework …
• Det er svært at lave lektierne … – It is hard to do the homework (these specific assignments) …

But when you simply mean doing homework in a general sense, lave lektier without any article is the normal choice.

Why is there a comma before hvis?

Danish generally puts a comma before a subordinate clause, and hvis introduces a subordinate (conditional) clause.

So we have:

• Main clause: Det er svært at lave lektier,
• Subordinate clause: hvis filmen i fjernsynet er meget spændende.

Traditional Danish punctuation almost always uses a comma before subordinate clauses. Modern rules allow a bit more flexibility, but in practice:

• A comma before hvis in this kind of sentence is very standard and recommended.
• Writing it without the comma looks odd to many Danes, even if it can be technically allowed under some simplified systems.

For learners, it’s safest to keep the comma:
Det er svært at lave lektier, hvis …

Why is the word order in the hvis-clause filmen i fjernsynet er and not something like er filmen i fjernsynet?

Danish has different word order in:

• Main clauses (independent clauses)
• Subordinate clauses (clauses introduced by words like hvis, at, fordi, når)

In main clauses, Danish uses V2 word order (the verb in second position):

• Filmen er spændende.
• I fjernsynet er filmen spændende.

In subordinate clauses introduced by hvis, the typical order is:

[hvis] + subject + other stuff + verb (+ rest)

So:

• hvis filmen i fjernsynet er meget spændende – if the film on TV is very exciting

Putting the verb right after hvis (✗ hvis er filmen …) would be wrong here. That V2 order is mainly for main clauses, not for hvis-clauses.

What is the difference between hvis and når here? Could I say når filmen i fjernsynet er meget spændende instead?

Both hvis and når can sometimes be translated as when in English, but they are not the same in Danish.

• hvis = if (conditional, hypothetical)
• når = when/whenever (something that actually happens, often repeatedly or predictably)

In this sentence:

• hvis filmen i fjernsynet er meget spændende – if the film on TV happens to be very exciting (conditional situation)
• når filmen i fjernsynet er meget spændende – when/whenever the film on TV is very exciting (this happens regularly or is taken as a real, recurring situation)

Both can be grammatically possible, but they change the nuance:

• hvis: It is hard to do homework if (on those occasions that) the film is exciting. (more conditional)
• når: It is hard to do homework whenever the film is exciting. (more habitual/general truth)

In many contexts, hvis is the more neutral and expected choice here.

Why is it i fjernsynet and not på fjernsynet, even though English says on TV?

Prepositions don’t always match between English and Danish.

• English: on TV
• Danish: i fjernsynet (literally: in the television)

Danish thinks of content as being in certain media:

• i fjernsynet – on TV
• i radioen – on the radio
• i avisen – in the newspaper

Using på fjernsynet would sound wrong in this meaning; it might suggest physically on top of the TV set, not being broadcast.

Why is it fjernsynet and not just fjernsyn?

Fjernsyn is the base noun (television), and -et is the definite article suffix for neuter nouns:

• et fjernsyn – a television
• fjernsynet – the television / the TV

The fixed expression for on TV (as a medium) is usually:

• i fjernsynet
  or
• i tv / i tv’et

You’ll rarely see i fjernsyn for this meaning. The definite form fjernsynet is idiomatic in this construction:
filmen i fjernsynet – the movie on TV.

Can I replace fjernsynet with tv’et? Is there any difference?

Yes, you can. Both are natural:

• filmen i fjernsynet
• filmen i tv’et

fjernsyn is a bit more formal/old-fashioned; tv is very common in modern Danish.

Both would be understood the same way in this sentence, and both are correct. Choice is mostly a matter of style and habit.

Why is meget before spændende, and could it come after?

Meget is an adverb here, modifying the adjective spændende (exciting).

In Danish, adverbs that modify adjectives normally come before the adjective:

• meget spændende – very exciting
• rigtig god – really good
• utrolig vigtig – incredibly important

So meget spændende is the normal, correct order.

Putting meget after the adjective:

✗ spændende meget

would be ungrammatical in this meaning. It does not work like English very much after some adjectives.

Could I move meget to a different place, for example: Det er meget svært at lave lektier …? Does that change the meaning?

Yes, you can move meget, and it slightly changes what is being emphasized:

1. Det er svært at lave lektier, hvis filmen i fjernsynet er meget spændende.
   – The film is very exciting; that’s what is intensified.

2. Det er meget svært at lave lektier, hvis filmen i fjernsynet er spændende.
   – Doing homework is very hard under that condition; the difficulty is intensified.

Both are correct Danish; you just choose what you want to stress:

• meget spændende → the film’s excitement level is high.
• meget svært → the degree of difficulty is high.