Hans største drøm er at have et arbejde, der passer godt til hans fremtid.

His greatest dream is to have a job that fits well with his future.

Breakdown of Hans største drøm er at have et arbejde, der passer godt til hans fremtid.

• et: a
• være: to be
• at: to
• have: to have
• til: for
• godt: well
• hans: his
• der: that
• passe: to fit
• fremtiden: the future
• stor: great
• drømmen: the dream
• arbejdet: the job

Questions & Answers about Hans største drøm er at have et arbejde, der passer godt til hans fremtid.

What is the difference between Hans and hans here?

In this sentence, Hans (capital H) is a name: it’s the Danish form of John / Hans.

hans (lowercase h) is a possessive pronoun meaning his (referring to a male person, not necessarily the subject).

So:

• Hans = Hans (a man called Hans)
• hans = his

Danish relies on capitalization to distinguish them in writing. In speech they sound the same, so context tells you which one it is.

Why is there no article in Hans største drøm (no en or et)?

In Danish, a possessive pronoun (like min, din, hans, hendes, vores, jeres, deres) normally replaces the article.

So you say:

• Hans største drøm = His biggest dream (literally: Hans biggest dream)
  not
• ✗ Hans den største drøm
• ✗ Hans en største drøm

This is similar to English: my dream, not the my dream. The possessive already tells you it’s definite.

What does største mean, and how is it formed?

Største is the superlative form of stor (big).

• stor = big
• større = bigger (comparative)
• størst = biggest (superlative base form)
• største = biggest (inflected form, used before a noun)

When the adjective comes before a noun, the superlative usually takes -e:

• den største bil = the biggest car
• hans største drøm = his biggest dream

Why is it et arbejde and not en arbejde?

Danish has two grammatical genders:

• en-words (common gender)
• et-words (neuter gender)

Arbejde (work / job) is an et-word, so the correct indefinite article is et:

• et arbejde = a job / a work
  Not: ✗ en arbejde

You just have to learn the gender with each noun: et arbejde, en drøm, etc.

What is the difference between arbejde and job?

Both can mean job, but there are nuances:

• arbejde

  • Means work in a general sense: activity you do, labor.
  • Also used for a job in more neutral or formal language.
  • Example: Jeg leder efter arbejde. = I’m looking for work.

• job

  • A loanword, very common in everyday language.
  • Often used for a specific job position.
  • Example: Han har et godt job. = He has a good job.

In your sentence, et arbejde could pretty much be replaced by et job without much change in meaning:
Hans største drøm er at have et job, der passer godt til hans fremtid.

Why is it er at have and not something like er at få?

Grammatically, er at have is simply:

• er = is
• at have = to have (infinitive)

So Hans største drøm er at have et arbejde = His biggest dream is to have a job.

Semantically:

• at have et arbejde = to have a job (to be in a situation where you have one, more stable/ongoing)
• at få et arbejde = to get a job (the moment of obtaining it)

You could say:

• Hans største drøm er at få et arbejde…
  = His biggest dream is to get a job…

That slightly shifts the focus from having a suitable job in his life to obtaining one. Both are possible; it just depends on the intended nuance.

Why is der used in et arbejde, der passer godt til hans fremtid? Could we also use som?

In Danish, der and som are both relative pronouns meaning roughly that / which / who.

In this sentence:

• et arbejde, der passer godt til hans fremtid
  = a job that suits his future well

Here, the relative pronoun is the subject of the relative clause (der is the thing that passer):

• der (the job) passer godt til hans fremtid.

When the relative pronoun is the subject, you can usually use either der or som:

• et arbejde, der passer godt til hans fremtid
• et arbejde, som passer godt til hans fremtid

Both are correct. Der is very common in spoken Danish; som is also fine and maybe a bit more neutral in writing.

Why is the word order der passer godt and not der godt passer?

In Danish, in a subordinate clause (like this relative clause), the normal word order is:

[subject] + [verb] + [adverb] + …

Here:

• Subject: der (the job)
• Verb: passer
• Adverb: godt

So you get:

• der passer godt = that fits/suits well

Putting the adverb before the verb:

• ✗ der godt passer

is not the standard order in a subordinate clause. (In main clauses you can move adverbs around more freely because of V2 word order, but here it’s a subordinate clause, so verb usually stays directly after the subject.)

What does passer mean in this context?

Passer is the present tense of at passe.

Here it means to fit / to suit / to be appropriate for:

• et arbejde, der passer godt til hans fremtid
  = a job that fits / suits his future well

Other uses of passe:

• Bukserne passer mig ikke. = The trousers don’t fit me.
• Arbejdstiden passer mig fint. = The working hours suit me well.

Why is it til hans fremtid and not for hans fremtid?

Both til and for can sometimes translate as for, but they’re used differently.

Here, til is used in the sense of in relation to / matching / corresponding to:

• noget, der passer (godt) til noget
  = something that matches / suits something

Examples:

• En kjole, der passer til dine sko. = A dress that matches your shoes.
• Et arbejde, der passer til hans fremtid. = A job that suits his future.

For would sound more like good for / beneficial for, which is a different nuance:

• Et arbejde, der er godt for hans fremtid.
  = A job that is good for his future.

So til here is about matching his future plans or situation, not just being good for him in a general way.

Why is it hans fremtid and not sin fremtid?

Danish has two types of third‑person possessives:

• hans / hendes / deres = his / her / their (non‑reflexive)
• sin / sit / sine = his/her/their own (reflexive, refers back to the subject of the same clause)

Look closely at the relative clause:

• et arbejde, der passer godt til hans fremtid

The subject of this clause is der (referring to et arbejde, the job).

So hans fremtid is his future (Hans’s future), not the job’s future. Since the subject of this clause is the job (der), we cannot use sin to refer back to Hans here.

If the subject of the clause were Hans, then you would use sin to mean his own:

• Hans drøm er, at hans arbejde passer til sin fremtid.
  (Here sin would refer to the subject of that clause, hans arbejde, so this is actually ambiguous/odd.)

The key rule: sin/sit/sine always refers to the subject of the clause it is in.
Here, the subject is the job (der), so to refer to Hans, you must use hans, not sin.

Could you also say i fremtiden instead of til hans fremtid?

You could, but the meaning changes slightly.

• til hans fremtid = fits his (personal) future plans / life path / goals.
• i fremtiden = in the future (more general time expression).

Examples:

• Han vil have et arbejde, der passer til hans fremtid.
  = He wants a job that matches his future (goals, education, plans, etc.).

• Han vil have et arbejde i fremtiden.
  = He wants to have a job in the future (sometime later, not necessarily about matching education or plans).

Your sentence emphasizes compatibility with his future, not just time.

How is arbejde pronounced, especially the -jde part?

Arbejde is usually pronounced something like [ˈɑːˌbɑjðə] in standard Danish:

• ar-: ar a bit like “are” in English, but shorter and more open.
• -bej-: pronounced like “bye” (baj).
• -de: the d is a soft d (a sound between English th in “this” and a soft d), and the e is a weak schwa ə.

So roughly: AR-bye-thə (with that soft Danish d).