Learn Hardcore Danish: Det er hendes arbejdsplads, som ligger tæt på stationen. - It is her workplace that is located close to the station.

Det er hendes arbejdsplads, som ligger tæt på stationen is a cleft sentence. Danish, like English, uses this structure to emphasize a particular part of the sentence.

Neutral: Hendes arbejdsplads ligger tæt på stationen.
→ Her workplace is close to the station.
Cleft / focused: Det er hendes arbejdsplads, som ligger tæt på stationen.
→ It is her workplace that is close to the station (not something else).

So using Det er … som … highlights hendes arbejdsplads as the important, contrastive information.

What exactly is the function of det in Det er hendes arbejdsplads, som …?

Here det is a dummy/anticipatory subject, much like English “it” in “It is her workplace that …”.

It doesn’t refer to any concrete thing.
It’s there to make the cleft structure Det er X, som … possible.
The real focus is on hendes arbejdsplads, not on det.

So you can think of it as a grammatical tool for emphasis, not a meaningful pronoun.

Why is there a comma before som: arbejdsplads, som ligger …?

The comma marks the start of a relative clause: som ligger tæt på stationen (which is located close to the station).

hendes arbejdsplads = the noun being described (the antecedent)
som ligger tæt på stationen = the relative clause giving extra information about that noun

In more traditional Danish punctuation, you almost always put a comma before such a relative clause. Under newer “comma rules” it can sometimes be optional, but learners are usually taught to keep the comma before som/der when they introduce a relative clause.

Why is som used here? Could I say Det er hendes arbejdsplads, der ligger tæt på stationen instead?

Yes, you can also say:

Det er hendes arbejdsplads, der ligger tæt på stationen.

In this sentence, som and der are both possible relative pronouns because they are the subject of the relative clause (som/der ligger).

General pattern (simplified):

When the relative pronoun is subject, you can usually use som or der:
- Kvinden, som bor her, er læge.
- Kvinden, der bor her, er læge.
When there is a preposition in front, you use som, not der:
- Manden, som jeg talte med, … (not der)

In speech, der often sounds a bit more colloquial, som can feel a bit more neutral or stylistically slightly higher, but both are very common.

Can I drop som like in English, where we can say “the workplace (that) is near the station”?

Not in this sentence. In Danish you cannot omit the relative pronoun when it is the subject of the clause.

Correct: Det er hendes arbejdsplads, som ligger tæt på stationen.
Also correct: Det er hendes arbejdsplads, der ligger tæt på stationen.
Incorrect: ✗ Det er hendes arbejdsplads, ligger tæt på stationen.

You can only omit som when it is not the subject (typically when it is an object):

Den bog, (som) jeg læser, er spændende.
→ Here som is object, so it can be left out.

Why do we use ligger instead of er in som ligger tæt på stationen?

Danish often uses position verbs instead of plain er when talking about where something is located physically:

ligger – lies (for places, flat things, many buildings)
står – stands (for upright objects, some buildings)
sidder – sits (for people sitting, objects that are “sitting” on something)

So:

Arbejdspladsen ligger tæt på stationen.
→ The workplace is (lit. lies) close to the station.

You can say er tæt på stationen, and it’s grammatically correct, but ligger sounds more natural for a physical location like a workplace or building.

Why is it tæt på stationen and not tæt til stationen or something else?

The typical Danish expression for “close to / near (a place)” is:

tæt på + noun (in the appropriate form)

So you say:

tæt på stationen – close to the station
tæt på byen – close to the city
tæt på skolen – close to the school

Using på here is just a fixed prepositional pattern; tæt til is not used with this meaning.

Why is it stationen (the station) and not en station (a station)?

Using stationen (definite form) implies that both speaker and listener know which station is being talked about—probably the local / main station contextually understood.

tæt på stationen – close to the (specific, known) station
tæt på en station – close to a (some, unspecified) station

In everyday speech, Danes often use the definite form when there is an obvious or typical reference in context (the bus stop, the school, the station, etc.).

Why is it hendes arbejdsplads and not sin arbejdsplads?

Danish distinguishes between:

hendes – her (non‑reflexive; someone else’s or when the subject is not she)
sin/sit/sine – her/his/its/their own (reflexive; refers back to the subject)

In this sentence, the subject is det, not she:

Det er hendes arbejdsplads, som ligger tæt på stationen.

Because the subject is det, you cannot use sin to refer back to a female person. You must use hendes.

Compare:

Hun cykler til sin arbejdsplads, som ligger tæt på stationen.
→ She cycles to her (own) workplace, which is close to the station.
Here the subject is hun, so sin correctly refers back to hun.

What does arbejdsplads literally mean, and what gender does it have?

arbejdsplads is a compound noun:

arbejde – work
plads – place, space

So it literally means “work-place”, just like English workplace.

Its grammatical gender is common gender (en-word):

en arbejdsplads – a workplace
arbejdspladsen – the workplace
arbejdspladser – workplaces
arbejdspladserne – the workplaces

Is there anything special about the pronunciation of arbejdsplads?

Yes, a couple of things learners often notice:

The d in arbejds- is effectively silent in normal speech:
It’s pronounced roughly like /ˈɑːbɐsˌplæs/ (exact quality varies by dialect).
The r influences the preceding vowel (as in many Danish words), so arbej- doesn’t sound like a clear “arbej-” to English ears.
The compound has main stress on the first part: AR-bejds-plads (primary stress on arbejds, secondary on plads).

Listening to native audio for whole phrases like hendes arbejdsplads will help you get used to the reduced sounds.

Could I say Det er hendes arbejdsplads, som er tæt på stationen instead of using ligger?

Yes, that is grammatically correct:

Det er hendes arbejdsplads, som er tæt på stationen.

However:

som ligger tæt på stationen sounds more natural for a workplace as a physical location.
som er tæt på stationen is perfectly understandable and might sound a bit more neutral or “bookish,” but it’s not wrong.

In everyday Danish, you will very often hear ligger used for where places/buildings are.