Log inSign up

Det er pausen, der hjælper hende med at slappe af om dagen.

Det er pausen, der hjælper hende med at slappe af om dagen.
It is the break that helps her relax during the day.

Breakdown of Det er pausen, der hjælper hende med at slappe af om dagen.

være
to be
dagen
the day
med
with
at
to
det
it
hjælpe
to help
hende
her
slappe af
to relax
om
during
der
that
pausen
the break
Elon.io is an online learning platform
We have an entire course teaching Danish grammar and vocabulary.

Start learning Danish now

Questions & Answers about Det er pausen, der hjælper hende med at slappe af om dagen.

In this sentence, what does Det mean? Is it referring to something specific?

Here Det is a dummy subject (also called an expletive). It does not refer to any concrete thing.

The construction Det er X, der ... is used to emphasize X. A natural English translation is:

  • It is the break that helps her relax during the day.

So:

  • Det = a grammatical subject needed to start the sentence and create the emphasis pattern
  • The real focus is pausen (the break)

You cannot simply remove Det here; Er pausen, der hjælper… is not grammatical.

Why is it pausen (the break) and not en pause or just pause?

Danish uses the definite ending -en on nouns to mean the, so:

  • pause = break (in general)
  • en pause = a break
  • pausen = the break

Here, pausen suggests a specific, known break, for example a lunch break or a scheduled rest break. The sentence is saying:

  • It is the (particular) break that helps her relax during the day.

If you said:

  • Det er en pause, der hjælper hende med at slappe af om dagen.

it would mean something like:

  • It is a break that helps her relax during the day.

That sounds more like any break, not a specific one you both know about.

What kind of construction is Det er pausen, der ..., and how is it different from just Pausen hjælper hende med at slappe af om dagen?

Det er pausen, der hjælper hende med at slappe af om dagen is a cleft sentence.

  • Simple version: Pausen hjælper hende med at slappe af om dagen.
    – The break helps her relax during the day.

  • Cleft version: Det er pausen, der hjælper hende med at slappe af om dagen.
    – It is the break that helps her relax during the day.

The cleft version does two things:

  1. Emphasis: It strongly highlights pausen as the crucial element.
  2. Contrast: It often implies a contrast, like
    It is the break (not something else) that helps her relax.

Both versions are grammatically correct; the cleft form is chosen when you want that extra emphasis or contrast.

Why do we use der here, and could we use som instead?

Here der is a relative pronoun that introduces a relative clause:

  • ... pausen, der hjælper hende med at slappe af om dagen.
    – the break that helps her relax during the day.

In this sentence:

  • der is the subject of the relative clause (it stands for pausen)

In Danish:

  • When the relative pronoun is the subject, you can usually use either der or som.
  • So you can also say: Det er pausen, som hjælper hende med at slappe af om dagen.

Both are correct and mean the same here. Some style guides say:

  • der often sounds a bit more neutral and common in speech.
  • som can sound slightly more formal or written, but is also very normal.

Important rule:
If the relative pronoun is an object, you must use som, not der.
For example:

  • Det er pausen, som hun elsker mest.
    (Here som is object of elsker, so der would be wrong.)
Why is it hende and not hun?

Because hende is the object form and hun is the subject form.

In the relative clause:

  • Subject: der (standing for pausen)
  • Verb: hjælper
  • Object: hende (her)

So the pattern is: Subject – Verb – Object
(der) – hjælper – hende

A small pronoun table to compare:

SubjectObject
jegmig
dudig
hanham
hunhende
vios
Ijer
dedem

You only use hun when it is the subject of the clause:

  • Hun slapper af. – She relaxes.
  • Pausen hjælper hende. – The break helps her.
How does the phrase hjælper hende med at slappe af work grammatically?

The pattern here is a very common Danish construction:

  • hjælpe nogen med at + infinitive

So:

  • hjælper = helps
  • hende = her (object)
  • med = with
  • at slappe af = to relax

Literally, you can think:

  • helps her with to relax

Some key points:

  1. After hjælpe, you normally use med at before a verb:

    • Det hjælper mig med at forstå. – It helps me (to) understand.
    • Han hjælper os med at flytte. – He helps us (to) move.

  2. at is the infinitive marker before slappe.

  3. You cannot just drop med in standard Danish in this pattern.
    ?Det hjælper hende at slappe af sounds wrong or at least very odd.

What exactly is slappe af – is af a separate word, and how do you use this verb?

Slappe af is a two‑word verb, similar to an English phrasal verb like calm down or relax.

  • slappe by itself is not used as a normal verb in modern Danish.
  • You almost always use the full expression slappe af to mean relax.

Conjugation:

  • Infinitive: at slappe af – to relax
  • Present: jeg slapper af – I relax / I am relaxing
  • Past: jeg slappede af – I relaxed
  • Past participle: jeg har slappet af – I have relaxed

Word order:

  • In main clauses: Jeg slapper af.
  • With another verb: Jeg vil gerne slappe af.
  • In our sentence: med at slappe af – the whole phrase slappe af stays together after at.
What does om dagen mean precisely, and how is it different from i dag or i løbet af dagen?

om dagen means during the day or in the daytime, usually in a general, habitual sense.

  • Hun arbejder om dagen og sover om natten.
    – She works in the day and sleeps at night.
  • Det er pausen, der hjælper hende med at slappe af om dagen.
    – It is the break that helps her relax during the day (in general).

Compare:

  • i dag = today (this specific day)

    • Hun har meget at lave i dag. – She has a lot to do today.

  • i løbet af dagen = during the course of the day, over the day

    • More like spread across the day, not just daytime vs night.

So:

  • om dagen: contrasts with om natten, refers to daytime in general.
  • i dag: one specific day: today.
  • i løbet af dagen: over the span of the day.
Can om dagen go somewhere else in the sentence, and does that change the meaning?

Yes, om dagen can move, and the basic meaning stays the same, though the focus can shift slightly.

Original:

  • Det er pausen, der hjælper hende med at slappe af om dagen.

Other natural variants:

  1. Det er pausen, der om dagen hjælper hende med at slappe af.
    – A bit more marked; extra focus on om dagen.

  2. Om dagen er det pausen, der hjælper hende med at slappe af.
    – Strong emphasis on Om dagen (during the day) as the context.

In general Danish word order rules for adverbials:

  • They can often go:
    • At the beginning of the clause (for emphasis)
    • After the verb and subject
    • At the end of the clause (very common)

Here, at the end of the whole sentence is the most neutral and natural place.

Why is the word order der hjælper hende ... in the relative clause and not hjælper der ...?

Because in Danish relative clauses (and most other subordinate clauses), the word order is Subject – Verb – Object, not the Verb‑second (V2) order you see in main clauses.

In the relative clause:

  • Subject: der (standing for pausen)
  • Verb: hjælper
  • Object: hende

So the correct order is:

  • der hjælper hende …

If this were an independent main clause, Danish would require V2:

  • Pausen hjælper hende. – Subject–Verb–Object (V2 still satisfied because the verb is in second position in the whole clause)

But once you introduce the relative pronoun der, you are inside a subordinate clause, and the pattern is:

  • [der] [hjælper] [hende] … (Subject–Verb–Object)

Putting hjælper der would break the normal subordinate‑clause word order and is ungrammatical.