Biografens sal er fyldt med publikum, som griner højt.

The cinema’s hall is filled with audience members who are laughing loudly.

Breakdown of Biografens sal er fyldt med publikum, som griner højt.

• være: to be
• med: with
• fyldt: filled
• som: who
• biografens: cinema's
• salen: the hall
• publikummet: the audience
• grine: to laugh
• højt: loudly

Questions & Answers about Biografens sal er fyldt med publikum, som griner højt.

What does biografens sal literally mean, and how is it built grammatically?

Biografens sal literally means “the cinema’s hall” / “the cinema’s auditorium.”

Grammatically:

• biograf = a cinema
• biografen = the cinema (definite form)
• biografens = the cinema’s (genitive: possession)
• sal = hall / large room / auditorium

In Danish, the possessor takes the -s on the definite form:

• biografen → biografens (the cinema → the cinema’s)
• huset → husets (the house → the house’s)

The thing possessed (sal) stays in the indefinite form in such genitive phrases:

• biografens sal = the cinema’s hall
• husets tag = the house’s roof

You don’t say biografs sal; that would be wrong.

Why is sal used here instead of something like rum or værelse?

In Danish, sal is the normal word for a large room used for events or audiences, such as:

• biografsal / biografens sal – cinema auditorium
• koncertsal – concert hall
• festsal – party / assembly hall

rum just means room/space in a very general way, and værelse is usually a smaller, private room (a bedroom, children’s room, etc.).

So biografens sal is specifically the auditorium of the cinema, not just “a room in the cinema.”

Why is it biografens sal and not something like salens biograf?

Biografens sal = the cinema’s hall → the hall belongs to the cinema.
Salens biograf would mean the hall’s cinema → the cinema belongs to the hall, which is not what you want.

Danish usually puts the larger “owner” first in a genitive:

• byens centrum – the city’s center
• skolens gård – the school’s yard
• biografens sal – the cinema’s hall

Is publikum singular or plural, and why is there no article like et or det?

Publikum is a collective noun meaning “audience” (a group of people). Its basic form is et publikum (an audience).

In your sentence:

• Biografens sal er fyldt med publikum
  = literally “The cinema’s hall is filled with audience.”

There is no article because:

• After fyldt med, you often use a bare noun to describe what something is full of:
  • fyldt med vand – filled with water
  • fyldt med mennesker – filled with people
  • fyldt med publikum – filled with audience/with audiences (i.e. with people as an audience)

So publikum here works like an uncountable/collective mass: it’s understood as “audience-people” filling the hall.

Could you also say publikummet? When would that be used instead of publikum?

Yes, publikummet is the definite form: “the audience.”

• publikum = (an) audience / audience as a category
• publikummet = the specific audience (that particular group)

You might say:

• Biografens sal er fyldt med publikummet fra premieren.
  “The cinema’s hall is filled with the audience from the premiere.”

In your original sentence, publikum is more generic: it just describes that there is audience present, not a particular, already-known audience. That sounds natural in Danish with fyldt med.

Why do we use som in publikum, som griner højt and not der, and what about the comma?

Som is the most common relative pronoun in Danish for “who/that/which.”
In publikum, som griner højt:

• som refers back to publikum
• the whole part som griner højt is a relative clause: “who are laughing loudly.”

You could also say:

• Biografens sal er fyldt med publikum, der griner højt.

Here, der is also a relative pronoun. Both som and der work with subject relatives, and the difference is mostly stylistic; som is often slightly more neutral and very common.

About the comma:

• Traditional Danish comma rules require a comma before a relative clause introduced by som/der.
• So …, som griner højt takes a comma before som in standard writing.
• In modern “new comma” usage, you can technically omit it, but most texts still keep it.

What is the difference between er fyldt med and er fuld af?

Both can mean “is full of / is filled with”, but there are some tendencies:

er fyldt med

• Often a bit more literal/physical, like something has been filled up.
• Used very commonly with concrete things:
  • Glasset er fyldt med vand. – The glass is filled with water.
  • Biografens sal er fyldt med publikum.

er fuld af

• Can also be physical, but is very common with more abstract or emotional contents:
  • Hun er fuld af energi. – She is full of energy.
  • Bogen er fuld af fejl. – The book is full of mistakes.

In your sentence, both are possible:

• Biografens sal er fyldt med publikum.
• Biografens sal er fuld af publikum.

Fyldt med sounds almost like describing a container that has been filled; fuld af can feel very slightly more descriptive/qualitative. But in everyday speech, the difference here is small.

Is fyldt functioning as a verb or an adjective here, and why doesn’t it change form?

In er fyldt med publikum, fyldt is the past participle of at fylde (to fill), but it functions like an adjective meaning “full/filled.”

Danish past participles used as adjectives don’t agree in gender/number like in some other languages:

• salen er fyldt – the hall is full
• salene er fyldt – the halls are full
• rummet er fyldt – the room is full

The form fyldt stays the same; there is no extra -t or -e variation needed here. So you don’t say salen er fyldte in this meaning.

Why is it griner and not ler? Do both verbs mean “to laugh”?

Yes, both at grine and at le mean “to laugh.”

Differences:

• at grine

  • By far the most common in everyday spoken Danish.
  • Neutral or slightly informal.
  • Used in most contexts: De griner højt. – They laugh loudly.

• at le

  • Feels more formal, old-fashioned, or literary.
  • You see it more in writing than in speech, or in fixed expressions.

In a natural modern sentence about people in a cinema, griner is exactly what Danes would normally say:

• publikum, som griner højt – the audience, who are laughing loudly.

Why is it højt and not høj or høje? How does højt mean “loudly”?

Høj is an adjective meaning “high / tall / loud” (for sound).
To make an adverb (“highly / loudly”), Danish often uses the -t form of the adjective:

• høj (adj.) → højt (adv.)
  
  • De taler højt. – They speak loudly.
  • Som griner højt. – Who are laughing loudly.

So:

• høj / høje are adjective forms used with nouns:

  • en høj mand – a tall man
  • de høje huse – the tall houses

• højt is used as an adverb modifying a verb:

  • griner højt – laugh loudly
  • spiller højt – play (music) loudly

You could also meet højlydt (“loud(ly)”), but højt is very common and perfectly natural here.

Could we change the word order to som højt griner, or must it be som griner højt?

The natural word order is som griner højt.

In Danish, adverbs like højt usually come after the main verb in simple verb–adverb combinations:

• De griner højt.
• Han taler langsomt.
• Hun synger smukt.

Som højt griner sounds unnatural and marked. So:

• ✅ publikum, som griner højt
• ❌ publikum, som højt griner (very odd in modern Danish)

Is the word order Biografens sal er fyldt med publikum fixed, or can I move things around?

For a statement, this is the natural order:

1. Subject: Biografens sal
2. Verb: er
3. Predicative/complement: fyldt med publikum
4. Relative clause: , som griner højt.

You could change it to a yes/no question by moving the verb first:

• Er biografens sal fyldt med publikum, som griner højt?
  – “Is the cinema’s hall filled with an audience who are laughing loudly?”

But for a normal declarative sentence, you keep:

• Biografens sal er fyldt med publikum, som griner højt.