Puden i sofaens hjørne er blød, og katten elsker at sove der.

The pillow in the corner of the sofa is soft, and the cat loves to sleep there.

Breakdown of Puden i sofaens hjørne er blød, og katten elsker at sove der.

• og: and
• katten: the cat
• i: in
• være: to be
• at: to
• der: there
• sove: to sleep
• blød: soft
• elske: to love
• puden: the pillow
• sofaens: sofa's
• hjørnet: the corner

Questions & Answers about Puden i sofaens hjørne er blød, og katten elsker at sove der.

Why is it puden and not pude or pudeen?

Danish usually marks definiteness by adding an ending to the noun, instead of putting a separate word like English the in front.

• en pude = a pillow
• puden = the pillow

The pattern for common-gender nouns (the ones that use en) is normally:

• en + noun (indefinite) → noun + -en (definite)

So:

• en kat → katten
• en sofa → sofaen
• en pude → puden

There is no form pudeen in Danish; the definite ending is just -en, attached directly to the noun.

Why do we say puden i sofaens hjørne and not something like den pude i sofaens hjørne?

In Danish you normally don’t combine:

• the en/et-type definite suffix (puden)
  with
• the separate definite word den/det/de

So:

• ✅ puden = the pillow
• ✅ den pude = that pillow / this pillow (demonstrative)
• ❌ den puden (ungrammatical in standard Danish)

In your sentence, you just need the pillow, not that pillow, so you use the suffix form puden.

What exactly does sofaens mean, and how is this genitive formed?

sofaens is a genitive form, like English the sofa’s or of the sofa.

The basic noun is:

• en sofa (a sofa)
• sofa (sofa)
• sofaens (the sofa’s / of the sofa)

To form the genitive in Danish you normally:

• just add -s to the noun, without an apostrophe:
  • Peter → Peters bog (Peter’s book)
  • hunden → hundens legetøj (the dog’s toy)
  • sofa → sofaens hjørne (the sofa’s corner)

So sofaens hjørne literally means the corner of the sofa.

Why is it i sofaens hjørne and not i sofaens hjørnet?

This is about when the noun hjørne (corner) needs its own definite ending.

• et hjørne = a corner
• hjørnet = the corner

When we say sofaens hjørne, the possessor (sofaen) is already definite (the sofa), so hjørne is understood as the corner of that specific sofa. Danish doesn’t add the definite ending -t to hjørne in that structure.

Compare:

• i hjørnet af sofaen = in the corner of the sofa
  
  • here hjørnet has the definite ending -t, and sofaen is also definite
• i sofaens hjørne = in the sofa’s corner
  
  • here hjørne stays without the definite ending, because the “definiteness” is carried by the possessor sofaens

Both are correct Danish, but i sofaens hjørne is a bit more compact.

Why is the preposition i used here, and could I use på instead?

In Danish:

• i usually means in / inside (within the limits of something).
• på usually means on / on top of / on the surface of.

i sofaens hjørne = in the corner of the sofa → the idea is of a little enclosed/defined space within the sofa’s corner (often where the armrest and back meet).

If you say:

• på sofaen = on the sofa (on its surface)

So:

• katten sover i sofaens hjørne → the cat sleeps in the corner of the sofa (tucked into that corner)
• katten sover på sofaen → the cat sleeps on the sofa (on it in general)

You would not use på sofaens hjørne in this context; i is the natural choice for a corner.

Why is blød not bløde in Puden … er blød?

This is about adjectives used as a predicate (after er, “is”).

In Danish:

• When an adjective comes after a form of at være (to be) and describes the subject, it usually stays in the basic form (the “common singular” form), regardless of gender or definiteness of the noun.

Examples:

• Puden er blød. (The pillow is soft.)
• Sofaen er blød. (The sofa is soft.)
• Hjørnet er blødt. (The corner is soft.) – here the noun is neuter, but the predicate adjective is still blød in spoken standard Danish (writing can vary with blødt here, but blød as predicate is extremely common and accepted).

By contrast, when the adjective is placed in front of a definite noun, it usually takes the -e ending and is combined with den/det/de:

• den bløde pude = the soft pillow
• den bløde sofa = the soft sofa
• det bløde hjørne = the soft corner

So:

• puden er blød (predicate → base form)
  but
• den bløde pude (attributive before a definite noun → bløde).

Why is it katten and not kat in og katten elsker at sove der?

Again, this is the definite suffix:

• en kat = a cat
• katten = the cat

Here, the sentence is talking about a specific, known cat, not just any cat, so Danish uses the definite form katten. It corresponds to English the cat.

How does elsker at sove work? Why do we need at before sove?

elske is a verb that, like many Danish verbs, can be followed by another verb in the infinitive with at:

• elsker at sove = loves to sleep
• elsker at læse = loves to read
• elsker at spise = loves to eat

The at is the infinitive marker, similar to English to in to sleep, to read, etc.

Structure in your sentence:

• katten (subject)
• elsker (finite verb, present tense of elske)
• at sove (infinitive phrase: to sleep)

So katten elsker at sove = the cat loves to sleep.

What does der mean exactly here, and why is it at the end?

In this sentence der is an adverb of place, meaning there.

• Puden … er blød, og katten elsker at sove der.
  → “… and the cat loves to sleep there.”

der refers back to the place just mentioned: i sofaens hjørne.

Word order:

• Danish main clauses are normally Subject–Verb–(other stuff).
• Place adverbs like der often come after the verb phrase and any direct objects.

So:

• Katten elsker at sove der.
  
  • katten = subject
  • elsker = verb
  • at sove = infinitive complement
  • der = place adverb (there)

You cannot move der in front of elsker here without making it sound wrong or changing the structure.

Could I say katten elsker at sove i den instead of der?

You technically can, but the meaning changes slightly and the naturalness depends on what den refers to.

• der = there (a general place just mentioned)
• i den = in it (referring very specifically to a singular common-gender noun)

If den refers to puden (the pillow), then:

• katten elsker at sove på den = the cat loves to sleep on it (more idiomatic)
• katten elsker at sove i den = the cat loves to sleep in it (only natural if the cat is somehow inside it, like a bag/box or a very deep cushion)

But your original sentence’s focus is on the corner of the sofa as a place, not “inside the pillow” or “on the pillow” specifically. So der is more natural because it refers to the location just described (i sofaens hjørne) in a general way.

What are the genders of pude, sofa, and hjørne, and how do I tell?

The genders:

• en pude (common gender) → puden
• en sofa (common gender) → sofaen
• et hjørne (neuter) → hjørnet

Unfortunately, Danish noun gender is mostly arbitrary and must be learned word by word. There are some patterns, but they’re not fully reliable. A common learning strategy:

• Always learn the noun with its article:
  • en pude
  • en sofa
  • et hjørne

Then you automatically know:

• which article to use in the indefinite (en / et)
• which ending to use in the definite (-en / -et).

How would the sentence change if we talked about several pillows instead of one?

Let’s make it plural:

Original:

• Puden i sofaens hjørne er blød, og katten elsker at sove der.

With plural puder (pillows), something like:

• Puderne i sofaens hjørne er bløde, og katten elsker at sove der.

Changes:

1. Noun:
   • en pude → puder (pillows) → puderne (the pillows)
2. Adjective in predicate:
   • er blød → er bløde when the subject is plural:
     • puderne er bløde (the pillows are soft)

der stays the same, still referring to in the corner of the sofa.

How is this sentence pronounced, and are there any tricky parts for English speakers?

Approximate pronunciation (very simplified for English speakers):

• Puden → POO-den (short, relaxed u, d soft)
• i → ee
• sofaens → SOH-fans (the e is weak, almost like so-fans)
• hjørne → YER-neh (the hj is like an English y, rounded ø sound: between air and ur)
• er → air but shorter (often very reduced in real speech)
• blød → roughly bluth with a soft d (like English th but not exactly)
• og → often just o (short oh)
• katten → KAT-en
• elsker → EL-sker (the r is uvular and often weak)
• at → very reduced, like a quick at/ut
• sove → SOH-ve (long o)
• der → like dair but shorter

Tricky points:

• The soft d in blød is not like an English d.
• hj in hjørne is pronounced as y.
• Many vowels are shorter and more centralized than in English.
• Function words like er, og, at are often reduced and almost swallowed in fluent speech.