Learn Hardcore Danish: Min tante skriver korte emails, fordi hun ikke kan lide lange beskeder på internettet. - My aunt writes short emails because she does not like long messages on the internet.

min is used with common gender singular nouns (n-words), e.g. en tante, en bil, en ven → min tante, min bil, min ven
mit is used with neuter singular nouns (t-words), e.g. et hus, et barn → mit hus, mit barn
mine is used with all plural nouns, regardless of gender: mine tanter, mine huse, mine børn

Since tante is an n-word (en tante), you must say min tante, not mit tante.

What’s the difference between tante, moster, and faster?

All three can be translated as aunt, but Danish is more precise for blood relatives:

moster – your mother’s sister
faster – your father’s sister
tante – more general:
- can mean aunt (either side)
- can be used for non‑relatives treated like an aunt (a close family friend)
- sometimes sounds a bit more informal or less specific

In everyday speech, many Danes still use tante loosely, but if you want to be exact about family relations, use moster or faster.

Why is the verb skriver used for “writes” / “is writing”? There’s no separate “-ing” form?

Danish doesn’t have a special -ing tense like English (is writing).

The present tense (here: skriver) covers:

simple present: Hun skriver korte emails. – She writes short emails (in general).
present continuous: Hun skriver en email. – She is writing an email (right now).

Context tells you whether it’s habitual or happening right now.
In your sentence, it clearly describes a habit, so English uses the simple present: My aunt writes short emails…

Why is there a comma before fordi? Is it always like that?

In modern standard Danish:

It is correct and normal to put a comma before fordi when it introduces a subordinate clause:
- Min tante skriver korte emails, fordi hun ikke kan lide …

There is a lot of debate about commas in Danish, but for a learner it’s safe to remember:

Put a comma before most common conjunctions that introduce a reason clause, like fordi (because), when they come after the main clause.

In spoken Danish you don’t “hear” the comma, so it doesn’t affect pronunciation—just writing.

Why is the word order fordi hun ikke kan lide and not fordi hun kan ikke lide?

This is about the difference between main clauses and subordinate clauses.

In a main clause (independent sentence), word order is:
- Subject – Verb – (Adverbs like ikke) – Rest
- Hun kan ikke lide lange beskeder.
  – She does not like long messages.
In a subordinate clause with fordi, the basic pattern is:
- fordi – Subject – Adverb – Verb – Rest
- … fordi hun ikke kan lide lange beskeder.

So:

Main clause: hun kan ikke …
Subordinate clause: hun ikke kan …

That’s why fordi hun ikke kan lide is correct, and fordi hun kan ikke lide is wrong in standard written Danish.

Why is ikke before kan here, but usually I see kan ikke?

You’re noticing the same main‑clause vs subordinate‑clause difference:

Main clause:
- Hun kan ikke lide lange beskeder.
- Subject – kan – ikke – lide …
Subordinate clause (after fordi, at, etc.):
- … fordi hun ikke kan lide lange beskeder.
- fordi – hun – ikke – kan – lide …

So both patterns exist, but:

Subject – verb – ikke in main clauses
Subject – ikke – verb in subordinate clauses

Why do the adjectives end in -e: korte emails, lange beskeder?

In Danish, adjectives take -e in these cases:

Plural (indefinite or definite)
- korte emails – short emails (plural)
- lange beskeder – long messages (plural)
Definite singular or with a possessive (like min)
- den lange besked – the long message
- min lange besked – my long message

Only singular, indefinite, without a determiner can have the base form (no -e) for most adjectives:

en kort email – a short email
en lang besked – a long message

Because emails and beskeder are both plural, you must use korte and lange.

Why do you say kan lide to mean “like”? Can’t I just have one verb for “to like”?

Danish doesn’t have a single basic verb that works exactly like English to like. Instead, you usually use:

kan lide
- object
  - Hun kan lide korte emails. – She likes short emails.

It literally means something like “can like”, but it functions as one unit.

Other related expressions:

elske – to love (strong emotion):
- Hun elsker sin familie. – She loves her family.
synes om – also to like, but often sounds a bit more formal/bookish:
- Hun synes ikke om lange beskeder.

In everyday Danish, kan lide is the most neutral and common way to say like.

Is emails really a Danish word? Are there other ways to say it?

emails is a loanword from English, and it’s widely used in Danish.

You may see several spellings:

emails – very common and fully understood
e-mails – also common, a bit more traditional
mail – sometimes used as a collective noun: Jeg har fået en mail.

All of these are accepted in modern Danish. In your sentence, korte emails sounds completely natural.

What exactly does beskeder mean, and why is it plural?

besked (singular) means message (written or spoken).
beskeder is the plural: messages.

In your sentence:

lange beskeder – long messages

It’s plural because we’re talking about the general type of thing she doesn’t like (long messages in general), not one specific message. English does the same: She doesn’t like long messages on the internet.

Why is it på internettet and not i internettet? And why internettet with -et?

Two points: preposition and definite form.

Preposition: på
- For things happening on the internet / online, Danish uses på:
  - på internettet – on the internet
  - på nettet – on the net
- i internettet would sound like something is physically inside the internet, which is not idiomatic.
Definite form: internettet
- Base noun: et internet (neuter, singular)
- Definite singular: internettet – the internet
- Danish often uses the definite form for unique things:
  - solen (the sun), månen (the moon), internettet (the internet)

So på internettet corresponds directly to English on the internet.

Could I say på nettet instead of på internettet?

Yes.

på nettet is very common and slightly more colloquial than på internettet.
Both essentially mean online / on the internet.

So you could also say:

Min tante skriver korte emails, fordi hun ikke kan lide lange beskeder på nettet.

The meaning stays the same.