Breakdown of Lyden af vinden er rolig i haven.
Questions & Answers about Lyden af vinden er rolig i haven.
In Danish, the definite article (“the”) is usually attached to the end of the noun:
- lyd = sound → lyden = the sound
- vind = wind → vinden = the wind
- have = garden → haven = the garden
All three are common gender nouns (en-words):
- en lyd, en vind, en have
So when you want the sound / the wind / the garden, you add -en (or -n after an e as in have → haven).
Both are grammatically correct:
- Lyden af vinden = literally “the sound of the wind”
- Vindens lyd = literally “the wind’s sound”
Differences:
- Lyden af vinden is more everyday, neutral, and very common in spoken Danish.
- Vindens lyd can sound a bit more poetic, compact, or written/literary.
In normal conversation, Danes would usually prefer lyden af vinden here. The meaning is effectively the same.
Here af corresponds to English “of” in a possessive or descriptive sense:
- lyden af vinden ≈ the sound of the wind
af in this structure links a noun to another noun: X af Y = “X of Y”.
fra usually means “from” in the sense of origin or direction:
- en lyd fra haven = a sound from the garden (it comes from there)
- brevet fra min ven = the letter from my friend
So:
- lyden af vinden = the wind’s sound (what sound it has)
- lyden fra vinden would be unusual; if you said lyden fra haven, it would mean “the sound coming from the garden,” focusing on source, not ownership/character.
You can, but it changes the sentence:
- Lyden af vinden er rolig i haven: It’s specifically the sound of the wind that is calm in the garden.
- Lyden er rolig i haven: “The sound is calm in the garden.” We no longer know which sound; context would have to tell us.
Grammatically both are fine. af vinden just makes the subject more specific.
- er = “is” (the verb to be)
- lyder = “sounds” (from at lyde, to sound)
Your sentence:
- Lyden af vinden er rolig i haven.
→ “The sound of the wind is calm in the garden.”
This treats calm as a state or quality of the sound.
You could also say:
- Vinden lyder rolig i haven.
→ “The wind sounds calm in the garden.”
Both are correct but slightly different:
- er rolig = describing what the sound is like as a quality.
- lyder rolig = focusing more on how it sounds to you (your perception).
In Danish:
- i is used for being inside or within something:
- i haven = in the garden
- i huset = in the house
- på is used for on surfaces or certain fixed expressions:
- på bordet = on the table
- på øen = on the island
- på arbejde = at work
A garden is a space you are in, not on, so it must be:
- i haven = in the garden
på haven would be wrong in standard Danish in this sense.
Yes, that is correct Danish:
- Lyden af vinden er rolig i haven. (neutral word order)
- I haven er lyden af vinden rolig. (place is emphasized)
Fronting i haven makes the location the starting point of the sentence, giving it extra emphasis, a bit like:
- “In the garden, the sound of the wind is calm.”
Both versions are grammatical. The first is more neutral, the second sounds slightly more stylistic or contrastive (maybe you’re contrasting the garden with somewhere else).
Yes, you can also say:
- Lyden af vinden i haven er rolig.
Now i haven is directly attached to vinden, so the most natural reading is:
- “The sound of the wind in the garden is calm.”
So:
- Lyden af vinden er rolig i haven.
→ Focus: The sound is calm in the garden (calmness located there). - Lyden af vinden i haven er rolig.
→ Focus: It’s the wind in the garden (as opposed to the wind somewhere else) whose sound is calm.
In many contexts, though, both will be understood almost the same; the difference is subtle.
In Danish, the normal way to say “the X” is:
- attach -en / -et to the noun: lyden, huset
not den lyd, det hus.
You only add den / det / de in special cases, for example:
- when the noun has an adjective in front:
- den rolige lyd = the calm sound
- det store hus = the big house
- or for emphasis / demonstratives:
- den lyd, jeg kan lide = the sound that I like / that sound I like
Here, lyden af vinden has no adjective directly in front of lyden, so just lyden is correct. Den lyden af vinden would be wrong.
rolig usually means:
- calm, peaceful, not agitated
- sometimes “quiet” in the sense of “not wild / not busy”
stille means:
- quiet, silent, with little or no sound
So in your sentence:
- Lyden af vinden er rolig i haven.
→ The wind’s sound is calm/soothing/peaceful in the garden.
If you say:
- Lyden af vinden er stille i haven.
it sounds a bit odd, because “the sound” itself being “silent” is a contradiction. You could say:
- Der er stille i haven. = It is quiet in the garden.
- Vinden er svag/let i haven. = The wind is weak/light in the garden.
So rolig works better when you want a gentle, calm character rather than “almost no sound.”
You’d make both the noun and the adjective plural:
- Lydene af vinden er rolige i haven.
Breakdown:
- lyde = sounds
- lydene = the sounds
- rolige = calm (plural/predicate with a plural subject)
So:
- singular: Lyden af vinden er rolig i haven.
- plural: Lydene af vinden er rolige i haven.
Unfortunately, there is no reliable rule; you mostly have to learn the gender with each noun:
- en lyd (common) → lyden
- en vind (common) → vinden
- en have (common) → haven
Danish has two genders:
- common gender: en-words (most nouns)
- neuter: et-words
Dictionaries will mark this, e.g.:
- lyd, en
- vind, en
- have, en
When learning vocabulary, always memorize the article too: en lyd, not just lyd.
Approximate pronunciations (in simple English-friendly terms):
lyden: [LYU-thn]
- ly like French u or German ü (lip-rounded “ee”)
- d is very soft, almost like a soft “th” or barely there
- the final -en is weak, like “-n”
vinden: [VIN-den]
- vin like English “win” but with a shorter vowel
- d again soft, between “d” and “th”
- -en weak
haven: [HA-ven]
- ha like “ha” in “happen” but a bit more open
- v like English “v”
- -en weak
In all three, the d in the middle is not a clear English “d”; it is softer and often barely audible to English ears.