Learn Hardcore Danish: Jeg kan tage min kaffe med i haven. - I can take my coffee with me into the garden.

tage (med) = take (along), bring (with you) in a very natural, colloquial way
- Jeg kan tage min kaffe med i haven.
  = I can take/bring my coffee into the garden (with me).
bringe sounds more formal or written and is used less often in daily conversation. In many situations where English uses bring, Danish will use tage med or have med instead of bringe.

So tage … med is the normal, idiomatic way to say take/bring (something) along.

What does med mean here, and why is it at the end of the verb phrase?

med literally means with. Together with tage, it forms a kind of “phrasal verb”: tage … med = take (something) along / bring (something) with you.

Word order rule:

Verb: tage
Object: min kaffe
Particle: med

So the pattern is: tage + [object] + med

Jeg kan tage min kaffe med.
Not: ✗ Jeg kan tage med min kaffe.

This is similar to English phrasal verbs like pick something up, where the particle goes after the object.

Why is it i haven and not til haven or something else?

In Danish:

i = in / into (used a lot for both location and movement)
- i haven can mean in the garden or into the garden, depending on context.
til = to (towards a place, not necessarily inside it)

In Jeg kan tage min kaffe med i haven, you are going into the garden and ending up in it with your coffee. That’s why i haven is used.

You could sometimes hear ud i haven (out into the garden) to emphasize the direction out, but the basic, neutral version is i haven.

Why is it haven and not just have?

Danish usually puts the definite article on the end of the noun instead of using a separate word like English the.

en have = a garden
haven = the garden

So i haven = in the garden.

You do not say i den have in normal Danish; the definiteness is already inside haven. (You only use den have in special descriptive cases, e.g. den have, vi talte om = that garden we talked about.)

Why is there no extra word for “my the coffee”? Why only min kaffe?

In Danish, when you use a possessive (like min, din, etc.), you normally do not add a definite ending or a separate the.

kaffe = coffee
kaffen = the coffee
min kaffe = my coffee (not the my coffee)

So you say:

min kaffe = my coffee
Not:
✗ min kaffen
✗ den min kaffe

Possessive + noun is enough on its own: min kaffe.

Why is it min kaffe and not mit kaffe?

Danish has two grammatical genders:

common gender (n-words) → use en and min/din/sin
neuter gender (t-words) → use et and mit/dit/sit

kaffe is a common-gender noun:

en kaffe (a coffee)
therefore the possessive must be min

So:

min kaffe = my coffee
If it were a neuter noun, we would say mit:
et glas → mit glas (a glass → my glass)

Can I leave out kan and just say Jeg tager min kaffe med i haven? What is the difference?

Yes, you can say both, but the meaning changes slightly:

Jeg kan tage min kaffe med i haven.
= I can take my coffee into the garden.
Focus on possibility / ability / permission.
Jeg tager min kaffe med i haven.
= I (will) take my coffee into the garden / I’m taking my coffee into the garden.
Stated as a simple fact or decision, no emphasis on ability/permission.

So kan is a modal verb that adds the idea of can / be able to / be allowed to.

Where exactly can med go in the sentence? Are other positions possible?

In this kind of verb + particle construction, the natural word order is:

Subject: Jeg
Modal verb: kan
Main verb: tage
Object: min kaffe
Particle: med
Place adverbial: i haven

So you get:

Jeg kan tage min kaffe med i haven.

Other variants like:

✗ Jeg kan tage med min kaffe i haven.
✗ Jeg kan tage min kaffe i haven med.

are wrong or at best very unnatural in standard Danish. Keep med right after the object for this pattern.

How would this work in the present continuous sense, like “I am taking my coffee into the garden”?

Danish does not have a special continuous tense like English am taking.

Jeg tager min kaffe med i haven.
can mean both:
I take my coffee into the garden (as a habit)
I am taking my coffee into the garden (right now)

The context usually tells you whether it’s a habitual action or something happening now. The same simple present form covers both meanings.

How do you pronounce Jeg kan tage min kaffe med i haven?

Approximate pronunciation (standard Danish):

Jeg ≈ /jɑj/ (often sounds like yie)
kan ≈ /kʰan/ (short a, like can but shorter)
tage ≈ /ˈtæːə/ or /ˈtɛː/ (two-syllable or almost like a long tæ)
min ≈ /miːn/
kaffe ≈ /ˈkʰɑfə/
med ≈ /mɛð/ (final d is soft, almost like an English th in this)
i ≈ /i/ (like English ee in see)
haven ≈ /ˈhæːʋn̩/ (the v is soft, almost like a w; the last e not clearly pronounced)

Spoken quickly, it can sound roughly like:
“Yai kan tæː min kʰɑfə mɛð i hæːwn.”

Is there a more literal way to say “bring my coffee into the garden,” like with bringe?

You can say:

Jeg kan bringe min kaffe ud i haven.

This is grammatical, but it sounds more formal or written and less natural in casual conversation. Daily spoken Danish strongly prefers:

tage min kaffe med (i haven)
or have min kaffe med (i haven) in some contexts

So if you want to sound natural, stick with Jeg kan tage min kaffe med i haven.