Jeg føler mig lykkelig, når jeg sidder i haven.

In Danish, when you talk about how you feel as a person, you usually use “føle sig + adjective”:

• jeg føler mig lykkelig = I feel happy
• han føler sig træt = he feels tired

The reflexive pronoun changes with the subject:

• jeg føler mig
• du føler dig
• han/hun føler sig
• vi føler os
• I føler jer
• de føler sig

If you say “jeg føler lykkelig”, it sounds wrong, because “lykkelig” needs either “er” (to be) or “føler mig” (feel myself) before it:

• jeg er lykkelig
• jeg føler mig lykkelig

Both can be translated as “I am happy”, but there is a nuance:

• jeg er lykkelig

  • describes a state, who you are right now or in life in general
  • a bit more factual: “I am (in a state of being) happy.”

• jeg føler mig lykkelig

  • focuses more on the subjective feeling at that moment
  • a bit more emotional or introspective: “I feel happy.”

In everyday speech, they overlap a lot and both are completely natural here.

Both relate to happiness, but they’re not identical:

• glad

  • common, everyday word: happy, pleased, cheerful
  • jeg er glad = I’m happy / in a good mood
  • can be quite light: “I’m glad you came.”

• lykkelig

  • stronger, more deep or blissful happiness
  • often used for bigger or more lasting happiness:
    
    • jeg er lykkelig sammen med dig = I am happy with you (in life)
    • hun var lykkelig den dag, hun fik barnet = she was overjoyed the day she had the baby

In this sentence, “lykkelig” suggests a warm, deep kind of happiness when the person sits in the garden.

Danish has two common words for “when”:

• når

  • used for present, future, and repeated/habitual situations, and also repeated past actions:
  • jeg føler mig lykkelig, når jeg sidder i haven
    = Whenever I sit in the garden, I feel happy.
  • når jeg bliver gammel, vil jeg bo på landet = when I get old…

• da

  • used for one specific event in the past:
  • jeg var lykkelig, da jeg sad i haven i går
    = I was happy when I sat in the garden yesterday.

Here we are talking about a general, repeated situation, so “når” is correct.

Because “når jeg sidder i haven” is a subordinate clause (a dependent clause introduced by “når”).

• In traditional Danish punctuation, you must put a comma before most subordinate clauses.
• In newer, more relaxed rules, the comma is sometimes optional, but many people and textbooks still use it.

So both are seen:

• Jeg føler mig lykkelig, når jeg sidder i haven.
• Jeg føler mig lykkelig når jeg sidder i haven.

The version with a comma is very standard and safe to copy.

Yes, that’s very natural, but the word order in the main clause changes because of the verb-second (V2) rule:

• Original:
  Jeg (subject) føler (verb) mig lykkelig, når jeg sidder i haven.

• With the subordinate clause first:
  Når jeg sidder i haven, føler jeg mig lykkelig.

  • “Når jeg sidder i haven” = comes first (counts as position 1)
  • Then the finite verb of the main clause, “føler”, must come next (position 2)
  • Then the subject “jeg”

So:
Når jeg sidder i haven, føler jeg mig lykkelig. ✔️
Når jeg sidder i haven, jeg føler mig lykkelig. ✖️ (wrong in standard Danish)

Three different points:

1. Definite form

   • en have = a garden
   • haven = the garden
     Danish usually adds the definite ending -en (or -et) to the noun itself, instead of using a separate “the”.
     So “i haven” = in the garden (that specific one).

2. Preposition “i”

   • i is used for being in/inside many places:
     
     • i haven (in the garden)
     • i huset (in the house)
     • i stuen (in the living room)
   • på is used for on surfaces and for certain fixed expressions:
     
     • på bordet (on the table), på arbejde (at work), på stranden (at the beach)

   A garden is treated like a space you’re in, so: i haven, not på haven.

3. Indefinite version
   If you wanted to say “in a garden” (not a specific one), you would say “i en have”, not “i have”.

• “sidder” is the present tense of the verb “at sidde” (to sit).
  
  • infinitive: at sidde
  • present: jeg sidder, du sidder, han sidder …

You cannot say “jeg sidde” in a finite clause; you must conjugate:

• jeg sidder i haven = I sit / I am sitting in the garden

About “sidder” vs “sidder ned”:

• sidder already means “am sitting (down)” in most contexts.
• sidder ned is possible but is more about the action of sitting down rather than the state.

Here the focus is on simply being seated in the garden, so “sidder i haven” is natural and enough.

Danish uses the simple present where English often uses present continuous:

• jeg sidder i haven
  can mean:
  • I am sitting in the garden (right now)
  • I sit in the garden (habitually, in general)

In this sentence with “når”, the meaning is habitual:
Whenever I sit in the garden, I feel happy.

Danish usually doesn’t need an extra “-ing” form to express this.

In Danish, the pronoun “jeg” is written:

• lowercase in the middle of a sentence:
  
  • jeg føler mig lykkelig
• uppercase only at the start of a sentence, just like other words:
  
  • Jeg føler mig lykkelig…

Danish does not have a special capitalization rule for the first-person pronoun like English does with “I”.

Approximate pronunciations (very rough, using English sounds):

• jeg ≈ “yai” (like “yigh”), not like English “jeg” or German “jeg”
• mig ≈ “mai” (like “my”)
• lykkelig
  
  • ly ≈ kind of like “lu” in “lure” but with the tongue further forward (Danish “y” sound)
  • kke ≈ soft “k” sound, almost like a short “g”/“k” mix
  • lig often sounds like “lee”
  • overall something like “LY-kkeh-lee”, with stress on the first syllable
• haven
  
  • ha ≈ “ha” in “hard” (but shorter)
  • ven ≈ “ven” with a soft “v”
  • roughly “HA-ven”, with a light, soft final “n”

These are only approximations; hearing native audio will help a lot.