Jeg bor i min vens hus.

I live in my friend's house.

Breakdown of Jeg bor i min vens hus.

• jeg: I
• bo: to live
• i: in
• huset: the house
• min: my
• vens: friend's

Questions & Answers about Jeg bor i min vens hus.

Why is bor used for live here, and not lever?

Danish has two common verbs that both translate as live:

• at bo → bor in the present = to live somewhere, to reside (address, city, building).

  • Jeg bor i min vens hus. = I reside / live (have my home) in my friend’s house.
  • Jeg bor i København. = I live in Copenhagen.

• at leve → lever in the present = to live in the sense of being alive or the way you live your life.

  • Jeg lever. = I am alive.
  • Han lever et sundt liv. = He lives a healthy life.

Because the sentence is about where you live (your residence), Danish must use bor, not lever.

Why is the preposition i used? Could it be på or hos instead?

In this sentence, i means in / inside and is the normal preposition for living in a house or apartment:

• Jeg bor i et hus. = I live in a house.
• Jeg bor i en lejlighed. = I live in an apartment.

Comparisons:

• på is used with some places like islands, squares, some institutions etc.:

  • på Fyn (on Funen), på universitetet (at the university), på arbejde (at work).

• hos means at somebody’s place / with someone (in their home or with their family):

  • Jeg bor hos min ven. = I live at my friend’s place / I’m staying with my friend.
    (Focus on staying with the person, not on the building itself.)

So:

• i min vens hus → focus on the physical house as a location.
• hos min ven → focus on being accommodated at that person’s place / in their household.

What exactly does min vens hus mean, and how is that structure built?

Min vens hus literally corresponds to my friend’s house.

Breakdown:

• min ven = my friend

  • min = my (1st person singular, for common gender nouns)
  • ven = friend (common gender noun)

• To say my friend’s, you form a genitive by adding -s to ven:

  • min ven → min vens (my friend’s)

• Then you put the possessed noun after it:

  • min vens hus = the house of my friend / my friend’s house

Word order is always:

[possessor in genitive] + [thing possessed]

So:

• min vens hus = my friend’s house
• min søsters bil = my sister’s car
• vores lærers bog = our teacher’s book

Why is it vens and not ven’s with an apostrophe?

Danish normally does not use an apostrophe in the regular genitive (possessive) -s:

• min vens hus = my friend’s house
• Peters bil = Peter’s car
• regeringens beslutning = the government’s decision

So you simply add -s to the end of the noun (or the whole noun phrase) with no apostrophe.

An apostrophe is only used in special cases (e.g. with some abbreviations: EU’s, UNESCO’s, etc.), not with normal words like ven.

Could I say Jeg bor i min ven hus or Jeg bor i huset min ven instead?

No, both of those are ungrammatical in standard Danish.

You must mark the possessor with -s and put it before the thing possessed:

• ✅ Jeg bor i min vens hus.
• ❌ Jeg bor i min ven hus. (missing possessive -s)
• ❌ Jeg bor i huset min ven. (wrong word order and no possessive -s)

Correct pattern:

[subject] + [verb] + [preposition] + [possessor + -s] + [noun]
Jeg bor i min vens hus.

Why is it min and not mit or mine?

Danish possessive pronouns agree with the noun they directly modify in gender and number.

Basic rules:

• min – with common gender, singular nouns:

  • min ven (my friend), min bog (my book)

• mit – with neuter, singular nouns:

  • mit hus (my house), mit bord (my table)

• mine – with plural nouns of either gender:

  • mine venner (my friends), mine huse (my houses)

In min vens hus:

• min modifies ven (friend), which is a common gender noun.
• Therefore it must be min ven, and then min vens hus.

Even though hus is neuter, min is not talking directly to hus, but to ven. You’re literally saying my friend’s house, not my house of friend.

Could I say Jeg bor hos min ven instead of Jeg bor i min vens hus? What is the difference?

Both are correct, but they have slightly different focuses:

• Jeg bor i min vens hus.

  • Focus: the house as a building and location.
  • Implies the house belongs to your friend (or at least is their house).

• Jeg bor hos min ven.

  • Focus: staying with the person, being part of their household.
  • Could be temporary (a guest, staying with them) or longer-term.

In English both can often be translated I live at my friend’s (place), but i min vens hus is more concrete about the building and ownership, while hos min ven emphasizes the social/household aspect.

Why is it hus and not huset? In English we would say the house.

In Danish, when a noun is possessed (by a genitive like min vens or by a possessive pronoun like min, din, etc.), it is usually in the indefinite form:

• min ven (my friend), ikke min vennen
• min bil (my car), ikke min bilen
• min vens hus (my friend’s house), ikke min vens huset

So with min vens, the noun hus appears as indefinite hus, not huset.

If you want to highlight a specific, known house, you might use another construction, e.g.:

• Jeg bor i huset hos min ven. = I live in the house at my friend’s place.
• Jeg bor i huset til min ven. (possible in speech, but min vens hus is usually more natural.)

In neutral, standard phrasing, min vens hus is the normal way to say my friend’s house, and hus is kept indefinite.

Why don’t we use sin here, like Jeg bor i sin vens hus?

Sin / sit / sine is a reflexive possessive that refers back to a 3rd person subject (han, hun, de, etc.), not to jeg or du.

• Han bor i sin vens hus. = He lives in his (own) friend’s house.
  
  • sin refers back to han.

But with jeg, you must always use min/mit/mine, not sin/sit/sine:

• Jeg bor i min vens hus. = I live in my friend’s house.
• ❌ Jeg bor i sin vens hus. (ungrammatical)

So:

• 1st person: min / mit / mine
• 2nd person: din / dit / dine
• 3rd person reflexive: sin / sit / sine (when referring back to the subject)

Is vens some kind of special case ending? How does genitive work more generally?

Yes, vens is the genitive form of ven (friend), used to show possession:

• ven → vens (friend → friend’s)

General rules for genitive in Danish:

1. Add -s to the end of the noun (or noun phrase):

   • dreng → drengs (boy → boy’s)
   • min ven → min vens (my friend → my friend’s)
   • min bedste ven → min bedste vens (my best friend → my best friend’s)

2. The genitive phrase stands directly before the thing possessed:

   • min vens hus (my friend’s house)
   • Peters hund (Peter’s dog)
   • Danmarks hovedstad (Denmark’s capital)

3. No apostrophe in normal words: vens, Peters, Danmarks, etc.

How do you pronounce Jeg bor i min vens hus?

Approximate pronunciation using English-like hints (Danish has its own sounds, but this is close):

• Jeg ≈ yai (like English eye with a y at the beginning)
• bor ≈ bohr (long o, soft/very light r at the end)
• i ≈ ee (like English see)
• min ≈ meen (shorter ee than in English mean)
• vens ≈ vens (like English vens with a clear s)
• hus ≈ hoos (like English hoos with a long oo)

Spoken together, a natural Danish flow would sound roughly like:

Yai bohr ee meen vens hoos

with the main stress on bor, vens, and hus.