Learn Hardcore Danish: Sneen falder hurtigt i bjergene. - The snow falls quickly in the mountains.

Here sneen is the subject and is definite, so it’s the snow (the snow that we can see / that we’re talking about), not just snow in general.

If you said:

Sne falder hurtigt i bjergene.

it would sound more like a general statement: Snow falls quickly in the mountains (as a general fact), rather than describing a specific situation you’re observing right now.

Is sne countable in Danish like snow in English?

Danish sne behaves much like English snow:

It is normally uncountable:
- meget sne = a lot of snow
- lidt sne = a little (not much) snow
- You do not say mange sne (many snows).

There is a plural form sneer, but it is rare and mostly used in special or poetic contexts (like snows in English: the snows of winter). In everyday language you mostly only see:

sne (indefinite, mass)
sneen (definite: the snow)

Why is the verb just falder and not something like er ved at falde to match is falling?

Danish usually uses the simple present tense to cover both English simple present and present continuous.

So:

Sneen falder hurtigt i bjergene.
can mean both:
The snow falls quickly in the mountains. (general)
The snow is falling quickly in the mountains. (right now)

Constructions like:

er ved at falde
står og falder

exist, but they are used when you want to emphasize that something is in the process of happening in a more marked way. For normal descriptions of what is happening now, plain falder is the default.

What tense and form is falder, and how does at falde conjugate?

Falder is the present tense of the verb at falde (to fall).

Basic forms:

Infinitive: at falde = to fall
Present: falder = fall(s) / is falling
Past: faldt = fell
Past participle: faldet (used with have/har or er)
- Sneen er faldet. = The snow has fallen.
- Æblet er faldet ned. = The apple has fallen down.

In the present tense, falder is the same for all persons:

jeg falder = I fall / am falling
du falder = you fall / are falling
han/hun/den/det falder
vi falder
I falder
de falder

Why is the word order sneen falder hurtigt and not sneen hurtigt falder?

In a normal main clause, Danish follows this basic pattern:

Subject – Verb – (adverbs etc.) – Rest

So:

Sneen (subject)
falder (verb)
hurtigt (adverb: how?)
i bjergene (place)

→ Sneen falder hurtigt i bjergene.

If you want to focus on hurtigt, you can put it first, but the verb must still be in second position (the V2 rule):

Hurtigt falder sneen i bjergene.
(Quickly, the snow falls in the mountains. – a bit poetic/emphatic)

But the neutral, everyday version is the one you were given: Sneen falder hurtigt i bjergene.

Why is it hurtigt and not hurtig?

Hurtig is an adjective, hurtigt is the adverb (and neuter) form.

As an adjective before a noun:
- en hurtig bil = a fast car
- et hurtigt tog = a fast train
- hurtige biler = fast cars
As an adverb (modifying a verb), you use hurtigt:
- Han løber hurtigt. = He runs quickly.
- Sneen falder hurtigt. = The snow falls quickly.

So here hurtigt describes how the snow falls (it modifies the verb), so it must be the adverb form.

What exactly does i bjergene mean grammatically?

i bjergene breaks down as:

i = in
bjerg = mountain
bjerge = mountains (indefinite plural)
bjergene = the mountains (definite plural)

So i bjergene literally means in the mountains, referring to the mountainous region (not just on top of one single mountain).

What is the difference between bjerg, bjerge, and bjergene?

They are different number/definiteness forms of the same noun:

bjerg = a mountain (indefinite singular)
- et bjerg = a mountain
- bjerget = the mountain
bjerge = mountains (indefinite plural)
- bjerge = mountains
- bjergene = the mountains (definite plural)

In your sentence, bjergene is used, so it is talking about some specific mountains (or the mountains in a certain region) rather than mountains in totally general terms.

Why do we say i bjergene (in the mountains) and not på bjergene (on the mountains)?

In Danish, for geographical areas like:

bjergene (the mountains)
skoven (the forest)
landet (the countryside)

you often use i when you mean inside / within the region:

i bjergene = in the mountains (as a mountain region)
i skoven = in the forest
i landet = in the country / in the countryside

på bjergene would sound more like on the surfaces of the mountains (on the slopes, on the peaks) and is less idiomatic for a general weather description. For climate or weather in mountainous areas, Danish typically uses i bjergene.

Could I also say Det sner hurtigt i bjergene? Would that mean the same thing?

You can say Det sner hurtigt i bjergene, and it is grammatical, but there is a nuance difference:

Sneen falder hurtigt i bjergene.
Focus on the snow itself, the snowflakes falling quickly.
Det sner hurtigt i bjergene.
Uses the impersonal verb at sne = to snow (it’s snowing).
Focus on the weather event: it is snowing (and the snow is coming quickly).

Often, Danes would simply say:

Det sner i bjergene. = It is snowing in the mountains.

Adding hurtigt is unusual but possible in a context where you’re talking about how fast the snowfall starts or increases.

Is there any rule about the order of hurtigt and i bjergene in the sentence?

In practice, Danish tends to put:

Shorter, “how”-type adverbs (manner) before longer place phrases.

So:

falder hurtigt i bjergene
(verb – manner – place)

is more natural than falder i bjergene hurtigt.

If you add a time expression, you often place it at the end:

Sneen falder hurtigt i bjergene om vinteren.
= The snow falls quickly in the mountains in winter.

The order is somewhat flexible, but verb – hurtigt – i bjergene is the default, neutral pattern.

How do you pronounce falder and bjergene?

Approximate standard pronunciations:

falder ≈ [ˈfalɐ]
- The d is not a clear [d]; in this position it’s very soft and often practically inaudible to foreign ears.
- The last -er reduces to a weak sound, a kind of short “uh” [ɐ].
- Very roughly like "FAL-uh", but shorter and more “swallowed”.
bjergene ≈ [ˈbjɛɐ̯wənə] (pronunciation varies a bit)
- bjer-: starts with a b plus a palatal glide (like by), then a Danish e/æ sound and a sort of r/w glide.
- -gene: reduced, like a weak -uh-neh.
- A rough English-friendly approximation is something like "BYAIR-uh-neh", said quickly.

Danish pronunciation reduces and “swallows” a lot of consonants compared to the spelling, so it’s normal if these forms feel quite different from how they look.