Learn Hardcore Danish: Hans kuffert er tung, fordi den er fyldt med tøj og bøger. - His suitcase is heavy because it is filled with clothes and books.

Possessive pronoun – “his”
- hans kuffert = his suitcase
- Example: Han har glemt hans kuffert. = He has forgotten his (someone else’s) suitcase.
Male first name – Hans
- Hans’ kuffert (genitive of the name Hans) also means Hans’s suitcase.

In writing, this particular sentence is ambiguous because:

At the start of a sentence, both the pronoun hans and the name Hans are written with a capital H.
Danish genitive of names ending in -s is written without an extra -s or apostrophe in normal usage, so Hans kuffert (name) and hans kuffert (pronoun) look the same at the beginning of a sentence.

You normally tell from context whether it means “his suitcase” (some male person already mentioned) or “Hans’s suitcase” (the man whose name is Hans).

Why is it “den er fyldt” and not “det er fyldt”?

In Danish, the 3rd‑person singular pronouns den and det depend on the grammatical gender of the noun:

en kuffert (suitcase) is common gender (en‑word)
→ So you refer to it with den:
- Kufferten er tung. Den er fyldt med tøj og bøger.
det is used for neuter (et‑words):
- et bord → bordet → det
- Bordet er tungt. Det er lavet af metal.

So:
kuffert → en kuffert → den → den er fyldt.

What exactly is “fyldt” here? Why not just say “er fuld”?

“fyldt” is the past participle of the verb at fylde (to fill):

at fylde → fyldt = filled
er fyldt med… = is filled with…

In this sentence:

den er fyldt med tøj og bøger = it is filled with clothes and books.

You could also say:

Den er fuld af tøj og bøger.

Differences:

er fyldt med
- Slightly more literal, focuses on the action/result of filling.
- Very common with containers: Glasset er fyldt med vand; tasken er fyldt med papirer.
er fuld af
- Slightly more adjectival and idiomatic.
- Also widely used for contents: Kufferten er fuld af tøj.
- Used figuratively too: Han er fuld af idéer (full of ideas), fuld can also mean drunk.

In everyday speech, “er fyldt med …” and “er fuld af …” are both very common with only a small nuance difference.

Why is there a comma before “fordi”? Is it always required?

In the sentence:

Hans kuffert er tung, fordi den er fyldt med tøj og bøger.

the clause “fordi den er fyldt med tøj og bøger” is a subordinate clause (it gives the reason).

According to modern Danish spelling rules:

In the traditional comma system, you must put a comma before most subordinate clauses, including fordi‑clauses.
In the “new comma” system, you are allowed to omit that comma in some cases.

So you will see both:

Hans kuffert er tung, fordi den er fyldt med tøj og bøger.
Hans kuffert er tung fordi den er fyldt med tøj og bøger.

Both are considered correct, depending on the comma system you choose. Textbooks often use the version with the comma, because it clearly marks the start of the reason clause.

What is the word order rule with “fordi” here? Could I say “Fordi den er fyldt med tøj og bøger, er Hans kuffert tung”?

Yes, both of these are correct:

Hans kuffert er tung, fordi den er fyldt med tøj og bøger.
Fordi den er fyldt med tøj og bøger, er Hans kuffert tung.

The rules behind this:

In a main clause, Danish is verb-second (V2):
- Hans kuffert (1st slot) + er (2nd slot) + tung (rest).
In a subordinate clause introduced by fordi, the order is:
- fordi + subject + verb + …
- fordi den er fyldt med tøj og bøger

When you move the fordi‑clause to the front, the main clause still has to keep verb‑second order:

Fordi den er fyldt med tøj og bøger, er Hans kuffert tung.
(Here, the entire fordi… clause counts as the first element; er must still be second in the main clause.)

Why is there no article before “kuffert”? Why not “hans en kuffert” or “hans kufferten”?

With possessive pronouns (hans, hendes, min, din, vores, jeres, deres), Danish normally uses the indefinite form of the noun without any article:

hans kuffert = his suitcase
min bil = my car
vores hus = our house

You cannot say:

*hans en kuffert (wrong)
*hans kufferten is usually wrong or at least unusual.

You only use the definite form (kufferten) if the definiteness is already very clear and you’re emphasizing that particular, known item; even then, with hans/hendes it tends to sound unnatural, and Danish prefers the indefinite form after a possessive:

Neutral: Hans kuffert er tung.
Using the definite might sound odd: Hans kufferten er tung. (normally avoided).

So the natural pattern is simply:

[possessive] + [indefinite noun] → hans kuffert.

What form of the adjective is “tung”, and would it change in other situations?

“tung” is the base form of the adjective tung (heavy). Adjectives in Danish change form depending on:

Gender and number of the noun
Indefinite vs definite noun phrase

For tung:

Indefinite, singular, common gender (en‑word)
- en tung kuffert (a heavy suitcase)
Indefinite, singular, neuter (et‑word)
- et tungt bord (a heavy table)
Indefinite plural
- tunge kufferter (heavy suitcases)
Definite (or with a possessive)
- den tunge kuffert (the heavy suitcase)
- det tunge bord (the heavy table)
- de tunge kufferter (the heavy suitcases)
- hans tunge kuffert (his heavy suitcase)

In “Hans kuffert er tung”, tung is used as a predicative adjective after er, and in that use it normally appears in its base form (tung), agreeing only in a very limited way:

Kufferten er tung.
Bordet er tungt.
Kufferterne er tunge.

Why is it “med tøj og bøger” and not “af tøj og bøger”?

With “fyldt”, the most common pattern for physical contents is:

fyldt med + [content]

Examples:

Tasken er fyldt med papirer.
Glasset er fyldt med vand.
Hylden er fyldt med bøger.

You can also see “fuld af …”:

Kufferten er fuld af tøj og bøger.

General tendencies:

fyldt med → neutral/default for something that has been filled up with a substance or objects.
fuld af → very common too, and also used in figurative expressions:
fuld af glæde, fuld af idéer.

“fyldt af” does exist but is much less common for literal contents; you’ll more often find it in more abstract/figurative uses or certain fixed expressions.

So in this sentence, “fyldt med tøj og bøger” is simply the standard collocation.

Why does “tøj” have no article or plural here, but “bøger” is clearly plural?

Two different things are happening:

“tøj” (clothes) is an uncountable mass noun in Danish
- It has no normal plural form (*tøjer is not used in standard Danish).
- You normally don’t use an indefinite article with it.
- Typical patterns:
  - meget tøj (a lot of clothes)
  - noget tøj (some clothes)
  - intet tøj (no clothes)
“bøger” is the indefinite plural of “bog” (book)
- en bog → flere bøger
- bøgerne = the books

In “…fyldt med tøj og bøger”, the idea is simply:

tøj = clothes in general (mass noun)
bøger = (some) books (plural, but indefinite; we don’t specify which ones)

You could make it more explicit by adding quantifiers, but it’s not necessary:

fyldt med *en masse tøj og bøger* (filled with a lot of clothes and books)
fyldt med *meget tøj og mange bøger*.

How do you pronounce the tricky words “kuffert”, “tung”, “fyldt”, “tøj”, and “bøger”?

Very roughly (without exact IPA):

kuffert
- First part like English “COO-f” but shorter, then a very soft final -ert.
- The final t is often weak or almost inaudible in fast speech.
tung
- Similar to English “tongue”, but with a Scandinavian‑sounding vowel, a bit like “toong” with a short vowel.
fyldt
- fy- like German ü or French u (fronted “u” sound).
- The d is very soft and the final t may be glottal/weak; often sounds a bit like “fyl’” in casual speech.
tøj
- øj is pronounced roughly like English “oy” in boy, but with a more Danish quality.
- The word is a bit like “toy”, but with a flatter, more fronted vowel.
bøger
- ø is like French “eu” in peur or German ö in schön (but short/long depending on dialect).
- The -er ending often sounds like a weak “uh” or “ah”.
- Overall something like “BØH-uh”.

Regional and individual accents differ quite a bit, but these guidelines give you a starting point for listening and mimicking native speakers.