På bordet ligger gafler og skeer klar til desserten.

On the table, forks and spoons are lying ready for the dessert.

Breakdown of På bordet ligger gafler og skeer klar til desserten.

• og: and
• på: on
• bordet: the table
• klar: ready
• til: for
• ligge: to lie
• desserten: the dessert
• gaflen: the fork
• skeen: the spoon

Questions & Answers about På bordet ligger gafler og skeer klar til desserten.

Why does the verb ligger come before gafler og skeer? I thought Danish word order was Subject–Verb–Object.

In main clauses Danish follows the V2 rule: the finite verb must be in second position, no matter what is first.

The structure here is:

• På bordet – an adverbial phrase (position 1)
• ligger – the finite verb (position 2)
• gafler og skeer – the subject
• klar til desserten – the rest of the predicate

So the basic order without fronting is:

• Gafler og skeer ligger på bordet. – “Forks and spoons lie on the table.”

When you move På bordet to the front to emphasise the place, the verb must still be second, so you get inversion:

• På bordet ligger gafler og skeer …

So is gafler og skeer still the subject, even though it comes after the verb?

Yes. Gafler og skeer is still the grammatical subject:

• It is the thing that “lies” on the table.
• It agrees in meaning with the verb (they are the ones lying there).

Danish allows the subject to come after the verb in main clauses when something else is put first (like På bordet). This is completely normal and very common due to the V2 rule. The subject is identified by its function, not by always being first.

Why do we use ligger and not er (like “er på bordet”)?

Danish often uses positional verbs instead of a simple er for location:

• ligger – is lying (horizontally)
• står – is standing (upright)
• sidder – is sitting

Cutlery on a table is understood as lying flat, so:

• Gafler og skeer ligger på bordet.
  literally: “Forks and spoons lie on the table.”

You could say Der er gafler og skeer på bordet, but that’s more neutral (“There are forks and spoons on the table”) and doesn’t give the same visual sense of them being placed/lying there ready.

Could I also say Der ligger gafler og skeer på bordet? What’s the difference from På bordet ligger…?

Yes, both are possible:

• Der ligger gafler og skeer på bordet.
  → Neutral “there are forks and spoons lying on the table.”
• På bordet ligger gafler og skeer…
  → Puts På bordet in focus: “On the table lie forks and spoons…”

So:

• Der-construction: introduces new information, neutral starting point.
• Fronted place phrase (På bordet …): emphasises the location, or contrasts it with some other place.

Why is it på bordet and not something else like i bordet?

Danish uses på for being on a surface:

• på bordet – on the table (on its surface)
• på stolen – on the chair
• på gulvet – on the floor

i is used for inside something:

• i skuffen – in the drawer
• i skabet – in the cupboard

Since the forks and spoons are on top of the table, på bordet is the correct choice.

Why is it bordet (with -et) and desserten (with -en)? What do those endings mean?

The endings -et and -en are definite endings; they correspond to English “the”.

Base forms:

• et bord – a table (neuter noun) → bordet – the table
• en dessert – a dessert (common gender) → desserten – the dessert

So:

• på bordet = “on the table”
• til desserten = “for the dessert”

In Danish, “the” is usually attached to the end of the noun rather than written as a separate word.

Why is there no article before gafler og skeer? Why not something like nogle gafler og skeer?

In Danish, indefinite plural nouns normally have no article:

• gafler – forks
• skeer – spoons
• bøger – books
• børn – children

So gafler og skeer naturally means “forks and spoons” in general.

You can add nogle (“some”) if you want to stress the quantity is limited or unspecified:

• På bordet ligger nogle gafler og skeer …
  → “On the table there are some forks and spoons…”

But it’s not necessary; the sentence works fine and sounds natural without it.

Why is the plural gafler and skeer? How are these forms built?

Both are regular, just with different typical plural endings:

1. gaffel → gafler

   • Singular indefinite: en gaffel – a fork
   • Plural indefinite: gafler – forks
     Many common-gender nouns ending in a consonant form the plural with -er.

2. ske → skeer

   • Singular indefinite: en ske – a spoon
   • Plural indefinite: skeer – spoons
     Many common-gender nouns ending in -e form the plural with -r or -er.
     Here you add -er, giving skeer (the double e is just spelling, not two syllables).

Definite plurals would be:

• gaflerne – the forks
• skeerne – the spoons

Why is it klar and not klare, even though gafler og skeer is plural?

Here klar is part of the fixed expression ligge klar (til noget) – literally “lie ready (for something)”. In this construction, klar often behaves almost like an adverb and is usually left uninflected:

• Alt ligger klar. – Everything is ready.
• Bestikket ligger klar. – The cutlery is ready.
• Gafler og skeer ligger klar.

You can sometimes hear klare with plural subjects in other structures (e.g. Børnene er klare), but with ligge/stå/sidde klar the uninflected klar is very common and idiomatic:

Why is it til desserten and not for desserten or something else?

The preposition til is the normal choice in Danish to express “ready for / intended for”:

• klar til desserten – ready for the dessert
• klar til jul – ready for Christmas
• klar til eksamen – ready for the exam

Using for here would sound wrong or at least very non‑standard in Danish. Klar til is the standard collocation.

Could you also say klar til dessert instead of klar til desserten? Is there a difference?

Yes, both are possible, but they have slightly different nuances:

• klar til dessert
  → more general: “ready for dessert (as a course)”
• klar til desserten
  → more specific: “ready for the dessert” (the particular dessert that is planned/known in this situation)

In the sentence you gave, til desserten suggests we are talking about a specific dessert that everyone at the table already knows about.