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Han taler med sin ven om sporten.

Han taler med sin ven om sporten.
He talks with his friend about the sport.
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Questions & Answers about Han taler med sin ven om sporten.

Why is it “taler” and not something like “is talking”? Does Danish have a different tense here?

Danish doesn’t have a separate -ing / progressive form like English.

  • Han taler can mean both:
    • He talks (habitual/general)
    • He is talking (right now)

Context usually tells you which meaning is intended. You don’t change the verb form for the progressive like in English. So:

  • Han taler med sin ven om sporten.
    = He talks with his friend about the sport
    or
    = He is talking with his friend about the sport.
What’s the difference between “taler” and “snakker”?

Both mean roughly “to talk” / “to speak”, but there’s a nuance:

  • tale (taler)

    • Slightly more formal or neutral.
    • Common in more formal speech, presentations, or writing.
    • Also used in set phrases like tale dansk (speak Danish).

  • snakke (snakker)

    • More colloquial, everyday “chat, talk”.
    • Very common in spoken Danish.

In this sentence, you could also say:

  • Han snakker med sin ven om sporten.

That would sound very natural in everyday conversation.

Why is it “med” (with) and not “til” (to) after “taler”?

In Danish:

  • tale med nogen = talk WITH someone
  • tale til nogen = speak TO someone (often more one‑way, like addressing an audience or a child).

So:

  • Han taler med sin ven
    → They’re having a conversation, both are talking.

If you said:

  • Han taler til sin ven
    → Feels more like he is speaking to his friend (maybe lecturing, scolding, or addressing him), not necessarily a mutual chat.

For normal two-way conversation, med is the standard preposition.

Why is it “sin ven” and not “hans ven”? What’s the difference?

Danish has two different words for “his/her”:

  • sin / sit / sine = reflexive possessive, refers back to the subject of the same clause.
  • hans / hendes = non‑reflexive, refers to some other male/female, not the subject.

In this sentence:

  • Han taler med sin ven
    → His own friend (the friend of han).

If you used hans:

  • Han taler med hans ven
    Native speakers will understand it as:
    → He is talking with *his (another man’s) friend.*

So sin makes it clear the friend belongs to the subject “Han”.

How does “sin” change with different nouns?

Sin agrees with the grammatical gender and number of the possessed noun, not with the person:

  • sin – for common gender singular nouns

    • sin ven (friend – common gender)
    • sin bil (car)

  • sit – for neuter singular nouns

    • sit hus (house)
    • sit barn (child)

  • sine – for plural nouns (any gender)

    • sine venner (friends)
    • sine biler (cars)

Subject can be he/she/they, but the form (sin/sit/sine) depends only on the noun being possessed.

What does “ven” look like in singular and plural? And what gender is it?

Ven (friend) is common gender.

Forms:

  • Indefinite singular: en ven – a friend
  • Definite singular: vennen – the friend
  • Indefinite plural: venner – friends
  • Definite plural: vennerne – the friends

In the sentence:

  • sin ven = his friend (indefinite, singular).
Why is it “sporten” and not just “sport”? What does the -en ending do?

Danish usually marks definiteness with a suffix on the noun.

For sport:

  • sport = sport, indefinite
  • sporten = the sport, definite singular (sport is common gender)

So:

  • om sport = about sport (in general)
  • om sporten = about the sport (a specific sport that is known from context, e.g. football/the match they just watched).

The -en is the definite article “the” attached to the noun.

What is the difference between “om sport” and “om sporten”?

Nuance of general vs specific:

  • om sport

    • About sport in general (as a topic or concept).
    • More generic: They’re talking about sport (in general).

  • om sporten

    • About a particular sport or a specific instance of sport that both speakers know.
    • Example: They just watched a football match, so “om sporten” could be about the sport / the game they just saw.

Both are grammatically correct; you choose based on what you mean.

Is the word order “Han taler med sin ven om sporten” fixed, or can parts be moved?

Danish has relatively flexible word order within the clause, but the basic main-clause pattern is:

Subject – Verb – (other elements)

Here:

  • Han (subject)
  • taler (verb)
  • med sin ven om sporten (rest of the information)

You can move the prepositional phrases around:

  • Han taler med sin ven om sporten. (neutral, very natural)
  • Han taler om sporten med sin ven. (also correct, slightly different focus: now “about the sport” is given a bit more weight.)

But the finite verb (taler) must remain in second position in main clauses (V2 rule). So you can’t start with a phrase and keep “taler” later than second place, e.g.:

  • ❌ Med sin ven han taler om sporten. (wrong)
  • ✅ Med sin ven taler han om sporten. (correct, but marked / special emphasis).
Could you say “Han taler om sporten med sin ven” instead? Does it change the meaning?

Yes, it’s correct:

  • Han taler med sin ven om sporten.
  • Han taler om sporten med sin ven.

Meaning is essentially the same: He talks with his friend about the sport.

The difference is subtle:

  • First version: slightly more neutral focus on who he talks with.
  • Second version: slightly more focus on what he talks about (the sport).

In everyday speech, both are fine and very natural.

How would I say this sentence in the past or future?

Base sentence (present):

  • Han taler med sin ven om sporten.
    = He talks / is talking with his friend about the sport.

Past tense (preterite):

  • Han talte med sin ven om sporten.
    = He talked / spoke with his friend about the sport.

Common future-like options:

  1. Using “vil” (will)

    • Han vil tale med sin ven om sporten.
      = He will talk with his friend about the sport.

  2. Using “skal” (is going to / is supposed to)

    • Han skal tale med sin ven om sporten.
      = He is going to / is supposed to talk with his friend about the sport.

  3. Using context + present (very common in Danish):

    • I morgen taler han med sin ven om sporten.
      = Tomorrow he’s talking to his friend about the sport.
Is there any gender distinction in the word for “friend”, like male/female friend?

Yes, Danish can distinguish:

  • ven

    • Literally “friend”, usually male friend (but can be generic in some contexts).

  • veninde

    • Specifically a female friend.

So:

  • Han taler med sin ven om sporten.
    → He is talking with his (male) friend.

If the friend is female:

  • Han taler med sin veninde om sporten.
    → He is talking with his (female) friend.

Grammatically, ven and veninde behave the same way (both are common gender nouns).

How is the sentence pronounced roughly, and are there any tricky parts for English speakers?

Approximate pronunciation (very simplified for English speakers):

  • Han → like “hun” but with a short a, often sounding close to /han/ or a bit like “hon” with a nasal-ish n.
  • taler → /TAH-ler/, but the -er is often a weak -uh sound: TAH-luh.
  • med → often closer to /me/ or /mæ/ in fast speech, not a clear “d” sound.
  • sin → like English “seen” but shorter.
  • ven → like “ven” in “vent” without the t, often with a little glottal catch (stød).
  • om → like “om” (short “o” as in British “cot”).
  • sporten → SPOR-ten, but in natural speech the final -en can be very reduced, almost SPOR-tn / SPOR-dn.

Danish tends to reduce endings and has a lot of swallowed consonants, which can make it sound very different from how it’s written.