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

and

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

• være: to be
• bogen: the book
• med: with

Questions & Answers about Hans kuffert er tung, fordi den er fyldt med tøj og bøger.

In “Hans kuffert er tung”, does “Hans” mean his or is it the male name Hans? How can I tell the difference?

It can actually be either:

1. Possessive pronoun – “his”

   • hans kuffert = his suitcase
   • Example: Han har glemt hans kuffert. = He has forgotten his (someone else’s) suitcase.

2. 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).

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