Learn Hardcore Danish: Min ven er meget kreativ, når han maler et maleri. - My friend is very creative when he paints a painting.

Traditional Danish comma rules require a comma here.
Modern “optional start comma” rules allow you to leave out some commas, but a comma before subordinating conjunctions like når is still very common and perfectly correct:

With comma (very common):
Min ven er meget kreativ, når han maler et maleri.
Without comma (also seen, depending on style):
Min ven er meget kreativ når han maler et maleri.

For learners, it’s safest to keep the comma.

Is maler et maleri natural Danish, or is it repetitive like “paints a painting” in English?

Literally, maler et maleri does mean “paints a painting”, so it has the same kind of repetition as in English.

Danish speakers would more often say:

Min ven er meget kreativ, når han maler.
= My friend is very creative when he paints.

… når han maler billeder.
= … when he paints pictures.

… maler et maleri is not wrong, but it can sound a bit stiff or textbook‑like. It’s more natural in contexts where you stress a specific artwork, e.g.:

Han er i gang med at male et maleri.
= He is in the process of painting a (specific) painting.

Why do we say et maleri and not en maleri?

Every Danish noun is either:

common gender (en‑word) → uses en
neuter gender (et‑word) → uses et

The word maleri is a neuter noun:

et maleri = a painting
maleriet = the painting

So:

Han maler et maleri. = He is painting a painting.
Han ser på maleriet. = He is looking at the painting.

You have to memorize the gender of each noun. There is no reliable rule; maleri just happens to be an et‑word.

Could I say maleriet instead of et maleri here?

You could, but it changes the meaning:

et maleri = a painting (indefinite, not a specific one)
maleriet = the painting (a specific painting that you and the listener know about)

So:

Min ven er meget kreativ, når han maler et maleri.
= when he paints a painting (in general)
Min ven er meget kreativ, når han maler maleriet.
= when he paints the painting (a particular one you both know)

In your general, habitual sentence, et maleri (or simply når han maler) is the natural choice.

Why is the word order når han maler et maleri and not something like når maler han et maleri?

In Danish:

Main clauses have verb‑second word order (V2).
Subordinate clauses (after når, fordi, at, som, hvis, etc.) use subject before verb (S–V).

Here, når han maler et maleri is a subordinate clause, so the word order is:

Conjunction: når
Subject: han
Verb: maler
Object: et maleri

So:

Correct subordinate clause: når han maler et maleri
når maler han et maleri would sound like a question and is wrong in this context.

What is the difference between når and da? Could I say … da han maler et maleri?

No, you cannot use da here.

Basic distinction:

når = when / whenever about:
- present
- future
- repeated events in the past
da = when about:
- one specific event in the past

Examples:

Min ven er meget kreativ, når han maler.
= My friend is very creative when(ever) he paints. (general, repeated)
Han blev meget kreativ, da han malede sit første maleri.
= He became very creative when he painted his first painting. (one specific past event)

Your sentence is about a general habit, not one specific past time, so når is correct and da would be wrong.

Why is it han and not hun or something gender‑neutral?

Han means he; hun means she.

The sentence assumes that min ven (my friend) is male, so it uses han.

If the friend is female, there are two common options:

Min veninde er meget kreativ, når hun maler.
= My (female) friend is very creative when she paints.
Or simply: Min ven er meget kreativ, når hun maler.
Some speakers use ven for both genders in modern Danish, especially in casual speech.

For a gender‑neutral singular pronoun, spoken Danish sometimes uses de, but this is still developing and not as settled as in English. In everyday learner Danish, you typically stick to han / hun.

Can I move meget? Is Min ven er kreativ meget possible?

No. The adverb meget (very) has to come before the adjective it modifies:

Min ven er meget kreativ. ✅
Min ven er kreativ meget. ❌ (ungrammatical)

Other correct variants:

Han er meget kreativ, når han maler.
Han bliver meget kreativ, når han maler.

But meget cannot follow kreativ in this structure.

What is the nuance of er meget kreativ vs bliver meget kreativ here?

er meget kreativ = is very creative
- Describes a state, a general characteristic that holds in that situation.
bliver meget kreativ = becomes very creative / gets very creative
- Emphasizes a change: he wasn’t that creative before, but when he paints, his creativity increases.

So:

Min ven er meget kreativ, når han maler.
= When he paints, he is (in general) very creative.
Min ven bliver meget kreativ, når han maler.
= When he paints, he turns very creative (more dynamic, focus on the change that happens at that time).

How does the Danish tense/aspect here compare to English “is creative when he is painting / paints”?

Danish doesn’t have a separate continuous/progressive tense like English is painting.

The present tense maler can cover both:

He paints (simple present, habitual)
He is painting (present continuous, right now)

In your sentence:

Min ven er meget kreativ, når han maler.

can correspond to:

My friend is very creative when he paints. (habitual)
or depending on context:
My friend is very creative when he is painting.

The Danish form maler itself does not change; context tells you whether it’s “paints” or “is painting.”